Permission Not to Notice

I was talking to someone. I was slumped down on the couch and practically asleep. I heard the sound of a police officer's radio. I said, "There's a cop outside."
She hadn't heard anything, and said as much, so we got up from our seats to look out the window. The cop was across the street in a parking lot, even further away than I thought. She was surprised and noted that she only heard the noise when she saw the officer.

Needless to say, I notice a lot. In fact, my general arena of noticing things is so large that I often give myself a hard time for not noticing things that I know the average person would not have noticed. I can be pretty rough on myself at times, but I am trying to relax and let some stuff go. In many cases it just isn't important, especially when other people don't notice it in the first place.

But then there's that person who has given himself permission not to notice. What I mean is, this person can just ignore stuff going on right in front of him. It's almost like a teenager type thing, except he isn't a teenager. So, often, I go through a little game. It's called Did he really not notice that? I don't like the game. It's no fun. I don't want to assume this is an act.

I try to do the polite things. It can be hard for me, for instance, to properly greet everyone. Words tend to leave me, and sometimes even a nod is tough. But I try. I know acknowledgement is important to people. After all, it's important to me. That's why this not-noticer is really getting on my nerves. You'd think, if nothing else, the effects of not noticing would have forced him to change his behaviour by now.

So maybe it's not an act. Which I suppose is even sadder. There isn't much hope for a decent relationship if it isn't an act. How can someone take on the responsibilities inherent in a relationship if he can't even see what those responsibilities are? The simplest things, like being able to read someone's face and perceive their general attitude toward you, seem to elude this man.

In any case, dealing with this guy is very tiresome. I'll see something a 12 year old would notice just pass right by him, and then I have to hold my tongue. It's hard to be constructive. I just want to say, "you didn't notice that!!!" Sure, I miss things now and then, but this guy is getting ridiculous.