Also, the "maybe next year" response made me stop in my tracks. Certainly, one interpretation is "maybe we can do Memorial Day Weekend with you next year." But what flashed through my head first was "sorry we're busy this year/decade, maybe in another lifetime?" Which, if that's an unwarranted response is certainly something to take umbrage at. But a response like that usually has some history behind it, and I'd be very curious as to what that history is.
Why wouldn't the response be "I'm sorry, Memorial Day Weekend is spoken for, but if you'd like to get together for a longer period of time, maybe we could try the Fourth of July or Labor Day? Are you around for Thanksgiving? Or we might be able to work some vacation and time off schedules to do a three day weekend with more notice." That's the sort of response that indicates an unstrained (if not necessarily frequent) communication. But this? screams "ISSUES" in big red letters, and I'd bet they're not all on one side or the other.
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Also, the "maybe next year" response made me stop in my tracks. Certainly, one interpretation is "maybe we can do Memorial Day Weekend with you next year." But what flashed through my head first was "sorry we're busy this year/decade, maybe in another lifetime?" Which, if that's an unwarranted response is certainly something to take umbrage at. But a response like that usually has some history behind it, and I'd be very curious as to what that history is.
Why wouldn't the response be "I'm sorry, Memorial Day Weekend is spoken for, but if you'd like to get together for a longer period of time, maybe we could try the Fourth of July or Labor Day? Are you around for Thanksgiving? Or we might be able to work some vacation and time off schedules to do a three day weekend with more notice." That's the sort of response that indicates an unstrained (if not necessarily frequent) communication. But this? screams "ISSUES" in big red letters, and I'd bet they're not all on one side or the other.