When I’m talking to other guys our conversations tend to be linear, have a single topic and a sense of resolution. When my wife talks to her friends the conversations will have a variety of topics and will jump around between past, present and future.
At work, when we are trying to decided where to go for lunch, everyone gets together, some people throw out some suggestions, we get a consensus, and we go to lunch.
My wife and a friend: start talking about where to go to lunch, resume some conversation they had last week, talk about what they want to do later this week, talk about some aspect of raising kids (meanwhile I’m desperately trying to figure out how all of this is helping them make lunch plans) and then they notice the time and decide they’d better leave. I’m still trying to figure the conversation out: “so where are you going?” “We’ll decide in the car.” They haven’t made any decisions yet! This conversation makes no sense to me! Nothing was resolved! Aaaarrhhh!