I am an attorney living in the Midwest after having lived in downtown Chicago for school and work. One of the strange transformations that occurs when going to law school and then being an attorney is finding the fault in everything. It made me appear negative to every new idea when I was only meaning to help evaluate it rather than completely shoot it down. When a gift idea was presented, I would offer a few reasons why it wouldn't work or why it should be designed in a different way. After many years of frustrating loved ones, I finally realized (or listened to the others pointing it out to me) that I should stop appearing so negative. Most attorneys don't realize they are being negative, and worse yet, become defensive upon pointing it out. So... maybe try using some of these ideas to avoid starting another argument (because attorneys strangely love to argue, though they will argue with you that they don't like to argue).