Patience - A Lack Of

Some days I've got it and some days I run short. Yesterday I ran short of patience for listening. My problem started in the morning. A coworker, who usually has nothing original to say, offered an insight that others had made before but forgotten. Someone (not me) said she made a good point. That was all the encouragement she needed to make that same point four times in succession, each worded in a slightly different way. Lordy, how she tries my patience. The amount of self control it took for me not to roll my eyes drained some of my patience. All the credit she got for remembering that insight were immediately spent when she repeated herself. My tolerance for listening varies day to day. I had a lot of meetings yesterday therefore I had to do a lot of listening so I think that schedule, combined with an unusually short amount of patience, is what created my problem. Do you, like me, sometimes wonder what makes people think we're interested in all their anecdotes? Who cares about the time you had your picture taken with Jay Leno, Tim Pawlenty, and Bozo the Clown? I mean seriously, Bozo the Clown? Do you not know Bozo isn't a real person? By the time 4 o'clock rolled around, I had to thoughtfully restrain myself from putting my hands over my ears and humming to myself. I was SO happy to put that helmet on my head and roll on home. Lucky for me,both offspring were gone when I got home. I had an hour of silence except for canary singing and chicken clucking. By the time they got home, I was ready to listen again; patience was restored.