Hello,

I spent last evening with my sister as usual (we get together every Saturday) and it was less frustrating than usual--meaning I did not get to the point I had to resist the desire to slap her. I don't know if this is because she was listening more, or if this was because I was just more patient.

We have come a long way, though, communication-wise. We have been doing this Saturday get together for two years now. The first year, every evening went by with her doing pretty much all the talking and me getting a few words in here and there, if I pushed hard enough. (And she talks so loud, she practically shouts.) Now she actually lets me carry half the conversation, though she doesn't listen to a lot of what I say and I have to repeat myself a lot because of this. And often, if she doesn't like something I say, she'll pretend I said something she does like, and will shape her response according to that.

What usually holds the evenings together is we always watch something we both really like a lot. Right now, we have been going through the first two seasons of Silicon Valley on DVD. We love the show so much we have to pause it every few minutes and talk about what just happened, or who-said-what, etc. The show is a dead-on satire of the tech industry, with many characters based on real people. Both she and I used to be IT professionals, so we relate to the show a lot.

Luckily, we do have some common interests and tastes that connects us. Otherwise, I think we would barely ever speak to each other.

--Ceara1010