Do you have any friends that try to second guess everything you say?

I have a dear friend, let’s call her Alison. Alison is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, but because she has so much information floating around in her head, I think she sometimes tries to anticipate what I’m going to say, and often she’s wrong.

It can be very annoying to have a conversation with her when she’s constantly filling in the blanks before I’ve said what I’m going to say, or when I have to say, “No, it was X not Y, or no it was Dave not Steve, or no we went on Saturday, not Tuesday.”

Here’s a typical conversation between us.

Kardamom: Hey there Alison, did I tell you that I tried to see…

Alison: Mandy, you actually saw her? That’s so cool I haven’t seen her since I moved back to town.

Kardamom: No, I was going to say that I talked to my sister in law…

Alison: Karen, right? How is your nephew? I haven’t seen your brother or your folks since I got back.

Kardamom: No, her name is Carolyn.

Alison: But you got to hang out with all of them them. That’s so nice. I can’t wait to get together with them next time they come over to your house.

Kardamom: I didn’t get together with them. I just talked to Carolyn on the phone…

Alison: It’s nice that you get to visit them when they come over to your house all the time, though right? I’d love to get together with them the next time they are over at your house. I haven’t seen them in so long.

Kardamom: No actually, they hardly ever get the chance to come up, that’s what I was going to tell you..

Alison: But everybody’s doing OK right? No more hospital visits? Everything’s back to normal right?

Kardamom: Uh, no actually…

These conversations usually happen when I haven’t talked to her for a week or more. She and her family just moved back to our town, after having been gone for almost 5 years, although we have kept in touch during that whole time when she was gone. But it seems like although she kind of knows all of the details and players (she actually knows all of these people) she seems to anticipate that I’m going to spit out a specific bit of information, and it is often wrong, so then I have to go back and correct all of the details.

This friend is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, she could probably build a car in her living room, while at the same time cooking and planning for a dinner party that she was going to throw on the same day, while in the meantime she could talk someone through the set-up of a new computer or smart TV over the phone, while at the same time, changing her baby’s diaper and giving her dog a pill. She’s smart, but sometimes I think she has so much knowledge and information in her head, that she can’t focus on one thing at a time, so she makes assumptions about what I might be going to say, and it often gets exasperating.

She’s also one of the kindest and most considerate people I’ve ever met. She would do anything to help a friend or family member, even if it means going way out of her way with her time, skills and money. This is not someone who I want to hurt in any way.

Any advice? Do you have any friends like this?

Side note: the funny part is that I have 2 friends like this, and they both know each other. You should see the hilarity that ensues when both of them are talking to each other.