Photo by Susanna Marsiglia on Unsplash
“I am so bored.” I hear myself saying. Nalan and I have evolved from talking on phone to talking on Zoom.
“I am more bored than you are.” Nalan says. That’s just typical of Nalan. Whenever I say something, she will say she is more than me. If I complain about my mother, Nalan will say her mother is worse than mine; if I complain about my health, she is going to say her health is worse than mine; If I talk about hating house chores, she is surely to point out her Herculean effort in cleaning and picking up after her husband and her daughter. If I say I got a traffic ticket in New York City–I know she dislikes going to NYC–she will come up with this person owing NYC $1000 parking fine and that person going to court to negotiate with the traffic prosecutor.
“Do you know Wani and her husband finalized their divorce and she is marrying somebody else soon.” Nalan says.
I don’t know Wani very well, but Nalan is a regular friend with her.
“I like Wani’s husband a lot, and he’s a great guy. They also have two kids. But Wani just says enough is enough and they part their ways. I have to tell you Wani really has energy. She’s the most energetic woman I’ve ever met. She works as a project manager, takes care of two kids, and still finds time to go out to dance at night. Unbelievable.” Nalan says.
“Unbelievable. I don’t have so much energy as Wani.” I say.
“Nobody does. She’s an unusual woman. You know that’s why we are bored. Either you live like the over energized Wani, or you get bored. There’s nothing in between.” Nalan says.
Haoyan Do 
It’s so annoying when you say something and someone has to be like no my life is way worse lol.
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LOL. Some people really do that. They can’t bear when they hear you say, “I am quite low recently.” They take that as an affront to themselves. Some people are so conservative and so impervious towards learning. They can’t tolerate one little word that they are not accustomed to. They can’t say they are unhappy to hear other people expressing their feelings and they invent this “I am lower than you” as a retort to shut people up. If one lives in a conservative community, one is doomed to deal with such kind of non-communicatve people every day.
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Unfortunately I have an aunt like that who always has to exaggerate her stories to make her stories sound worse/funnier/sadder/happier than ours. No matter what we are talking about she always has to make hers more exaggerated and it can be super annoying lol. I think some people also just have a victim mentality where like you said they always have to act like they are lower than you or worse of than you even when they pretty obviously are not.
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I know exactly what you are talking about. My mother and her sister (the #2 especially) were in a life long competition of certain sorts, and I tried my best to be out of the way of their display of vanities, but often I found myself unwittingly getting caught in the whirlwind of games of who’s better. It is exhausting. I often had to hide myself in books so that I didn’t have to listen to the frivolity. Still I got an earful of things I absolutely didn’t want to hear.
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I was talking about my mum’s sister too lol. I guess it’s a sister thing maybe. I try to ignore it as much as possible but it can get annoying.
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LOL. Aunties belong to a special species. The natural bond between sisters often yields to economic and social considerations which favors other bonds. I do think this is one of the reasons why women have more mental problems than men–in my non-expert opinion. LOL.
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Lol that could definitely be one of the reasons for women’s mental health issues.
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Yes, that’s true.
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🥰Wise
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😜😃😊😍
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It must take a whole lot of energy to do all that and have energy left for a second husband🤣🤣
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It’s unbelievable. And her husband (ex-husband) is not much of a help. She does everything alone and such a super woman. Once in a while, I will meet one of them. LOL. When I was young, I tried to emulate this kind of person, only to make myself exhausted. I’ve learned not to follow their examples. LOL.
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Well that’s true 😅😅 nothing in between
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Yes. life can be extreme in some way.
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Gotta love those one-uppers (sarcasm).
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Yes, I guess you have the same experience too. LOL.
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Hmmm…
I do know someone like that, if you have a cold, they have pneumonia. I have left them speechless a couple of times by saying, “I have never felt better in a long time. I’m as happy as can be.”
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Wow, you have one friend like that too. LOL. We all do. He or she can make the conversation like an escalating drama.
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I see your Friend tuning back as more than you on whatever you say 😅. In other case, may be her overtime activities are clashing reasons for parting off. That’s sad but she’s strong enough.
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Yes, sometimes one gets friends like that, especially in places when one doesn’t have so many friends around. Everyone is precious.
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