...We need to talk...

Sometimes, Tigers can be incredibly stupid cats. Sometimes, they can get caught up in assumptions of a situation or situations that make them incredibly neurotic and paranoid.

I'm trying to work on that. It's one of my weaknesses that was brought to the surface during the whole Lira/OfficeMax debacle and never got fully worked out. For my brain, the cycle usually runs something like this: Say/do something --> Realize what I said/did may have been offensive --> Wait for subject to approach me about issue --> Silence --> Worry that I've been offensive to the point that it's easier to ignore me

What usually happens is I give the person their space for a day or two, then will poke at them in case I have done something wrong (I like correcting my issues so they aren't issues). Most times, I've just been a baka tora and have assumed the worst about a situation when the person was really just busy with something or Life happened in tandem.

The title phrase, "We need to talk", is similarly triggering for me. Manager Brian at OfficeMax would send me e-mails using that phrase a lot, and a lot of times, he would only be seen when something had gone wrong at my building. It became a conditioned response (arf! arf!) that makes me start worrying and makes me want to hide in a corner. It also elicits a "What did I do wrong now?" response from me. C's been good about not using that phrase when he wants to give me constructive criticism, though, after I told him the response I usually have. Kitten's also learning not to use it.

Just throwing that out there since it was floating around in my head and needed to be explained at some point.