People Who Say A Lot of Goodbye and People Who Don't

In my experience of the world, people divide fairly neatly into two categories of people: those who need to say a lot of goodbye and those who don't. And they don't understand each other in the slightest.

Take me for example, a person who belongs to the former category. If I am planning on going somewhere, then I will say, "I think I'm going to head to the library in a few minutes", and whatver member of my family is around will say "Okay; can you return some stuff for me, all those books on the living room bookshelf?" and I'll fetch the books, and put them in my bookbag, and then I will say "All right, I'm heading out", and my family member will say, "Have a good time!" and then when I am actually walking out of the door I will say "Bye!" and they will say "Bye!" back to me.

That's three goodbyes for an hour-long trip to the library. And if my family member failed to respond to any one of them, I would assume they hadn't heard me and reiterate my farewells until they did respond.

It's much worse when someone's leaving after a visit, or going on a trip. Then there is the goodbye to be said the night before, and the goodbye to be said when they are packing their bags, and the goodbye to be said as a family, and the individual goodbye-and-hug procedure, and then the going out onto the porch to shout goodbye as the person gets into their car, and then the frantic waving until the car is out of sight.

This is how we roll.

My uncle Jim is a person who absolutely does not comprehend this. If we say goodbye to him the night before he leaves because we anticipate we won't be awake/around for his actual departure, he considers the whole thing to be Done. If it turns out we wake up to say goodbye to him again on the day of the departure, you can see him thinking in his brain, I already said goodbye to you. Why are we doing this again?

I seriously don't know why we are doing this again. Just that it has to be done.

People who don't say goodbye a lot have a really hard time with people who do. They think that one goodbye is adequate and there should be no need to say it a dozen more times. If you have said goodbye already, why would you even bother adding "See you tomorrow!" or "Have a good evening"? The GOODBYE has been SAID. WE ARE DONE.

Whereas in my head, the many things there are to say in a farewell situation should ALL be said if possible, and I don't understand when people don't answer EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

Me: I'm leaving!
Them: Bye!
Me: Have a good evening!
Them: Okay!
Me: See you tomorrow!
Them: Okay!
Me: Have fun with your new toy/dress/meal/project!
Them: FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST WOULD YOU JUST FUCKING LEAVE SO I CAN GET ON WITH MY LIFE?

Oh well. Another instance of the impossibility of human relations. And with that philosophical aside, back to my regularly scheduled reading/sleeping/watching of trashy shows.