Rlyss

Hi everyone. I'm having a bit of trouble talking to my girlfriend. I've only just started to realize this over the past few weeks, and I don't know if it's been like this for the whole year we've been together or if it's just started.

I'm always interested in what my girlfriend has to say. I always ask her about her day, how her shift was, how her classes were, how her friends are, etc. And I'm genuinely interested in what she has to say. I'm always full of questions and I love talking about that stuff. I don't do this cause I'm supposed to be a responsive boyfriend, I love asking questions about her day.

But the most she'll ask me is 'How was your day?', and my response is the end of that conversation. She will only very rarely ask any follow-up questions, and even then it's one, or two at the most. She seems to have nothing to say in response. It's not that I gush everything out and pre-empt her questions, or that I'm so exhaustive or thorough in my story of that day that she has no questions. It seems like when I answer she's just hearing what I say and leaves it at that.

Today after I asked her how her day was and had a great chat about that, she asked me how my day was. I told her about the weather and my shoes, and my lectures, and the girl in one class who stood up and asked 'Am I the only one in this class who's crazy?' out of nowhere, and some other stuff about my day. But I left it rather general and with plenty of room for questions, to see if she'd appear interested and ask more. As soon as I'd finished that (it took all of thirty seconds or so) she stood up and said she'd better get going, as she had a bit of a drive home.No follow up questions, no remarks on the crazy girl (I'd told her another story about her another time), no response at all.

This happens a lot. Whenever I start to see her attention waning (almost immediately) I'll usually stop and half-joke that my story wasn't so interesting and that I could see she's bored, and she'll laugh it off and claim that she is interested! Then before I know it she'll be talking about a totally different subject.

I know I could be more assertive and keep at it, and not let her change the subject like that, but when I'm telling a story that I think she'd be interested in, and she clearly doesn't care, then I can hardly just keep going and humiliate myself, can I? I could always just quit telling her my stories and how my day was, but she's my partner! I love talking about our day. And it's not that I have boring stories, or that my days are empty, or that I have a monotone voice, or that I'm just a boring guy, or anything like that. Basically, I just want to talk to my girlfriend about our days, and she's only semi-interested in telling me about hers, and not at all interested about hearing about my day.

And this isn't just when I talk about my day, it seems to be about a lot of things. I know she's often the jealous type (which is funny, since she's great friends with more men than I am, and I have very few female friends) so part of me wonders if she doesn't like hearing my stories if they don't involve her?

Does anyone have any advice? Since it's a communication problem, I know it's ironic that I should sit her down and talk to her about the fact that she doesn't let me talk. When I've tried that it's been the same response: that of course she is interested! Then a hug, and a sexual innuendo and then she subject's changed before I know it.

What can I do?

(And please don't think my six thousand word essay here is anything like how I talk, because it's not! I just type too much, I don't speak for 20 minutes about the weather!)