Taking things literally care to share a few examples ?

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katedidit
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25 Feb 2014, 9:22 pm

I am not sure if this counts but:

A few weeks ago, my boss asked me if I had the papers she asked me to bring for the clients we were meeting. I looked through my bag to make sure I had them, found them, and then told her yes. A couple minutes later, she was like "Well, can you give me the papers."

I had thought she was checking to see if I brought them but she meant that she wanted me to give them to her then. I had no idea until later and I thought she was being rude. Stuff like this happens to me all the time.

I also miss sarcasm a lot but can't think of any specific, easy to explain examples.



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25 Feb 2014, 9:24 pm

IdleHands wrote:
ASAP. I hate when someone types for me to do something ASAP. I always read ASAP as "NOW" and I get incredible anxiety until whatever is needed of me ASAP is handled. I suppose this could be rooted in literal thinking due to my thinking "well, technically As Soon As Possible could be right now."


It doesn't mean NOW and it is not meant to get you anxious? (not sarcasm)

When I was kid somebody was talking about rifles. I asked if if left handed people used lefles.
When my niece was younger she asked me if the world was in black and white when I grew up because all the old stuff she saw was in black and white. She is very NT by the way.


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 26 Feb 2014, 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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26 Feb 2014, 5:27 am

BirdInFlight wrote:
DevilKisses wrote:
I've kind of outgrown this.

I wish I could but I find that I still do it at my late age. I'm always getting caught off guard. It's part of that issue with me; I'm a bright person but I'm slow to react appropriately, including "getting" dry humor and sarcasm.

.

I've also "outgrown" my math skills and high IQ.


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26 Feb 2014, 5:44 am

OK, let's start with a quick dictionary definition:

Dixie
A small can with a handle on it used for heating water over a camp fire.

So, young Eccles is at scout camp for the first time and we're gathered around the camp fire after the evening meal. One of the troop leaders says "put a can of water on the fire Eccles and we'll wash up".

What should have happened
A can of water suspended over the camp fire by young Eccles merrily bubbling away

What actually happened
I filled a dixie full of water and then emptied it over the camp fire. There was a massive cloud of steam and lots of puzzled faces.The washing up was done later that night after new wood had been collected and a second camp fire started.


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26 Feb 2014, 6:06 am

dianthus wrote:
Does anyone else notice that although you KNOW something is not meant to be taken literally, you still don't feel sure and you keep questioning it?


All the time. I feel as if I can never be too sure. >.>


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GivePeaceAChance
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26 Feb 2014, 6:46 am

Norny wrote:
dianthus wrote:
Does anyone else notice that although you KNOW something is not meant to be taken literally, you still don't feel sure and you keep questioning it?


All the time. I feel as if I can never be too sure. >.>


afraid nopt, I am in my fifties and I still have trouble, people keep telling me "it is sarcasm" or they tell me they were joking and I have to tell them yet again about myself and that - if on the internet etc and I am involved TAG! in person if you want me involved be more obvious, laugh at your jokes NOT at me!


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inachildsmind
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26 Feb 2014, 8:19 am

dianthus wrote:
Does anyone else notice that although you KNOW something is not meant to be taken literally, you still don't feel sure and you keep questioning it?


Yes, then if I go along with my thought anyway, I then usually end up saying "oh i know you ment (insert sarcasim here), haha, funny" I am so blank about it though and then I just feel like I was a robot and I totally ruined their joke.



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26 Feb 2014, 8:23 am

I remember watching a teenage talk show and someone was talking about not being able to function or even sleep without taking a drink. All I could think was "why is that such an issue? I've had to get water before I could sleep too!"

A customer asked me where the nails were exactly in a past job. I replied "Aisle 9, section AD, shelf 4, space 2." My coworkers and the customer started laughing and I could not understand why since he added the word 'exactly' to his question.

My mother would ask "can you bring down the laundry?" I would reply "yes" and go back to my room. Never caught on that she didn't mean that literally!



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26 Feb 2014, 8:27 am

GiantHockeyFan wrote:
A customer asked me where the nails were exactly in a past job. I replied "Aisle 9, section AD, shelf 4, space 2." My coworkers and the customer started laughing and I could not understand why since he added the word 'exactly' to his question.


I love this!

it took me 45 years to figure out that when someone asks for "superglue" it was OK to hand them generic cyanoacrylate


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inachildsmind
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26 Feb 2014, 8:36 am

When I was younger we ate watermelon. My dad was talking on and on about how we need to be careful about swallowing the seeds because he said that we would grow a watermelon in our belly. So of course I ended up swallowing a seed ( I was like 8) and all day I silently worried about the watermelon that was "growing" in my belly. It must have been only a few hours later but I remember riding home and crying out loud, my dad and mom were surprised and started asking me what was wrong. I yelled "I DONT WANNA WATERMELON IN MY BELLY!" I was hysterical. I remember as a kid that my cousins laughed as my dad talked of this happening and I did not understand what was so funny about it. Then in the car my mom was like "oh stop it, you wont really grow one in your belly. Your dad was just being a jerk and telling stories"... thats actually when I realized how different I was to them. I was the only one who did not laugh. I took it seriously.

My dad did a lot of things like that to me as a kid. Eventually I started following my older sisters cues and when she laughed I laughed, when she worried I worried. Now as an adult I ruin jokes sometimes because I find the "true meaning" of what they are saying or I finish the joke for them because I am "proud" that I understand that its a joke but other times I just sit and wait to see what other people do. I do not take things so literal anymore though, at least not the "obvious" ones. My dad prepared me for crazy things like that and now if I am unsure I look things up on the internet to ease my mind.

There was a very unclear moment the other day with my boyfriend. We were going to sit down and watch a movie, he put it on pause and I said "great, I am going to get some ice cream", he pulled me to the bed and said lets cuddle for a moment, so I sat and waited till I felt it was a good time to get up. He cuddled me and I said "ok, are we going to watch the movie?" He said "yeah but I was hoping we could do something first". I told him I was going to get ice cream (he wanted to "mess around"). So he said "Really? I never do things like this and so now you want to get ice cream instead? I was trying to mix things up a bit" and I said "oh, I am sorry did I just ruin a moment?" He was like, "no, but you can go get your ice cream" So I got up and got my ice cream only to come back and have him a bit upset with me. I guess he really did not mean that he wanted me to go get ice cream, he was "pouting" in hopes I would see he was sad and only being sarcastic. Totally flew over my head. I apologized but he then said "I sometimes forget how literal you take things, its okay I should have been more clear." SOOO I guess literal can be seen in many different ways. Not just in double meaning words and such but in actions verses words, body language verses words, if I understood social cues, I would have noticed his "pretend sad look" along with his "sigh" and I would have been able to see that he was joking. Of course, I could not see that till I came back happily with my ice cream lol.



IdleHands
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26 Feb 2014, 12:31 pm

Does not every person take things literally before it's explained the first time?



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26 Feb 2014, 1:39 pm

katedidit wrote:
I am not sure if this counts but:

A few weeks ago, my boss asked me if I had the papers she asked me to bring for the clients we were meeting. I looked through my bag to make sure I had them, found them, and then told her yes. A couple minutes later, she was like "Well, can you give me the papers."

I had thought she was checking to see if I brought them but she meant that she wanted me to give them to her then. I had no idea until later and I thought she was being rude. Stuff like this happens to me all the time.


I've done this: my mom once asked me, "are my keys in my purse?" I went and looked for them, and said, "Yeah, they're in there." After several moments she sort of laughed and said, "I meant can you get them out for me?"


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26 Feb 2014, 2:09 pm

I have probably done that too so that would explain why my mother would then ask me to hand them to her after asking me where something is.

I was watching TV in the basement one time and my husband was on his computer. He tells me, "I am going to bed soon" and I say okay. Then he says again "I want to go to bed" and I say "So go to be." He laughs and says "That is a social cue you missed, I mean I want to go to bed but you're keeping me up because you're in her watching TV." I tell him why didn't he say so and he said he did, he said he was going to bed soon. I told him "So when you told me you were going to bed soon, you meant "turn off the TV and get out of this room now, I am going to bed now" and he laughed. I guess I do have my sense of humor of how I interpret things when people don't say what they mean and then I find out what they actually meant and then I translate what they said to what they actually meant. So the next time my husband told me he was going to bed soon I asked him if that is his way of saying get out of here so he can go to bed and turn the TV off and he said yes. I learn from experience. Going to bed soon=they are going to bed now so leave the room.


I took plenty of my mom's stories literal growing up but don't all kids? One of them was believing our clothes will shrink into the size of Barbie clothes if we leave them in the dryer for too long. I did get anxiety about it in school when my teacher was drying my sock that got wet on the playground and the dryer buzzed in the kitchen and they kept it in there. I was so scared my sock was turning into a Barbie sock and I wouldn't believe my teachers when they told me that wouldn't happen. I thought I was going to go with one sock on my foot and lose the other because it would fit my Barbie dolls now. Then I calmed down when I saw it was still the same size and Mom was wrong.


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inachildsmind
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26 Feb 2014, 2:11 pm

DevilKisses wrote:
BirdInFlight wrote:
DevilKisses wrote:
I've kind of outgrown this.

I wish I could but I find that I still do it at my late age. I'm always getting caught off guard. It's part of that issue with me; I'm a bright person but I'm slow to react appropriately, including "getting" dry humor and sarcasm.

.

I've also "outgrown" my math skills and high IQ.


I can catch a lot of funny humorous jokes and sarcasm but I tend to not find it as funny as others or I pick on a bit late and say "Oh, I get it HA HA, very funny" type stuff. I believe my younger sister has AS as well because she is very literal. I will tell her to grab a broom for me. She will walk over and grab the broom and stand their... then I am like... well you can sweep with it? and she is always like "Oh,well I didnt know what you wanted me too do with it"... I find her literal thinking way more out their than mine. I also have told her "Can you go get Lilah she is crying" ( who is my daughter and a baby) so my sister will go get lilah and then not come out or anything, then like 5 minutes or so she will still be in there holding her and then asking "do you wanna take her now?" and I told her she is silly and that I wanted her to just take her out of the crib and come out not just stand in there. I never really finish my thoughts though cause they are so rushed, I get that she did not know what to do but if that was someone else in the family they would have gone and got her and played with her or have just started sweeping. BUT that is me being on that side, if that was me, I probably would have done the same thing as she is 8 years younger than me. Now, I think I would have asked myself a hundred questions as to what would make sense besides what they told me, then I would end up figuring out what to do next like a puzzle. I have a lot more life experience than my sister does and my environment growing up was a lot more strict. I think I was forced to figure things like that out as she never had too cause she is the baby.

I ended up rambling I apologize lol.



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26 Feb 2014, 4:50 pm

I think "Feast @5" means exactly 5:00 not 5:01 or 4:59

One time I was pushing a cart around the school hallways and a staff member asked me what I was doing, I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be doing that, and I thought he was just curious.


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inachildsmind
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26 Feb 2014, 4:53 pm

Sedentarian wrote:
I think "Feast @5" means exactly 5:00 not 5:01 or 4:59

One time I was pushing a cart around the school hallways and a staff member asked me what I was doing, I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be doing that, and I thought he was just curious.


I always ask my boyfriend to come help me. He says "In a minute" so i come back in a minute and he yells at me "I didnt really mean, in a MINUTE"