My wife and I have this running argument - discussion. We differ on how to say good bye, how to bid farewell after say, an evening at someone's home. I decide when it's time to go. I say, "Well, this has all been wonderful, and we wish we could stay, but it's late and we should be going." I then rise and move toward the door.

She sits there. She knows it's late, that it's time to go. She also wants to go. But she feels that its rude to just get up and go, so she sits there, continuing to visit, acting as if leaving has not entered her mind. So there I am, standing in the middle of the room, coat in hand, all by myself.

"Well what's your big rush?" ask our hosts. "You sure are in a hurry to get out of here!" they say to me.

Why can't we just leave? I keep asking her on the way home. No, …