For those of us on the spectrum, what others say can be taken very, well...literally. Some of the idioms and figures of speech that most people say to others are said inferring that the other person knows it means something totally different. With Asperger's, that's often far from the truth. See, figures of speech I've heard before make sense because I've either figured out or have had explained to me (usually the latter of the two) what they mean. I still find myself stumbling across new sayings and wondering what on earth the person is talking about.
A couple weeks ago, a coworker was talking about how his daughter had been misbehaving, and was checking in with her mother to find out how she was acting that evening. He said that he was going to call her to find out what the temperature was like in the house. I started to ask "what does the temperature in the house have to do with anything..." and then after a moment, a light bulb went off. "Oh, you mean you want to know how her behavior is today, right?" I said. Duh. Well, not do duh when you take what others say word for word. This can make communication difficult at times, and sure makes for funny stories! The same coworker had used the phrase that someone was "a tempest in a teapot" about 5 years ago and I remember just standing there trying to decipher it as I had never heard it before XD
Does anyone else have any similar stories? I'd love to hear them!
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