04/17/16 - 11:33 a.m.

So, I'm letting off steam about my girlfriend again...

We're on vacation, and there's a thunderstorm forecast for this afternoon - and for the next three days. I suggest we could pack up and get out of town before it hits. And here's where the troubles begin...

My girlfriend doesn't want to pack. She wants to spend the whole day resting up. But she knows that's going to sound bad, so she doesn't say it out loud. So then I continue brainstorming on more things we could do -- take a plane, change our itinerary... Looking back, it's like she secretly "seceded" from the conversation.

So now what am I supposed to do? Even when I stop and ask her how she's feeling, she says everything but "I just want to rest up." So, see, here's the thing. We'll never actually get to a point where we agree on what to do. Because the one thing she wants to do is the one thing that she won't say out loud.

I'm frustrated that she'd put me in that position - put us in that position. Where all communication has been rendered ineffective. (But where I'm supposed to continue talking...until she lets me know later that it was all a waste of time.)

I guess we were always going to get to this point. She doesn't exercise. We're spending hours and hours just sitting in the car. But what makes me hit the roof is when she says "I thought I was going to get to rest for two weeks, but then that didn't happen." No, instead I paid nearly $1,000 dollars so she could rest for eight days. But apparently that wasn't enough. If only it had been 14...

So, anyways, I'm working around this mysterious lack-of-energy. Which I think comes from not exercising. And which would probably then also be a vicious cycle -- low energy makes it harder to exercise.

Anyways, today's the day it came to a head. Not because she's got no energy, per se. But because she couldn't even accurately inform me that that's what was going on -- thus wasting a bunch of my time. It created a foregone rejection of any wonderful possibility I'd dream up. Thanks for that...

And here's the thing: being mad about it is apparently also not the right response. Because now we're going to be trapped together for the next 48 hours (while there's thunderstorms outside). I tried to talk about it a couple times -- gently. But, really, what can she do? "I'm low on energy. I don't know why. I can't take care of myself. I don't know anything that will make this better."

We worked around it for a while, but are we getting to the point where making her happy is pretty much just going to involve stopping?

I think my point is a valid one. If I'm not going to be able to do what I want because you're too tired, then you need to be able to at least warn me up front. Of course, the problem is she cares about me, and doesn't want to disappoint me with her inability to do things.

It's like "The Gift of the Magi" -- except with exercise.