Vexatious Thought of the Day

Knowing how nice it is to be remembered on your birthday-the knowing comes from my not being remembered on my birthday-I sacrificed a sunny Saturday by fighting through mall walkers, slow browsers and teenaged loiterers to purchase a gift for a friend/co-worker. Our predetermined plan had me going over to her place and dropping off the gift and spending a little time with her and her husband. After much debating and scouring for that perfect gift and doling out some cash for said perfect gift and card, no less, I'm ready to show up bearing gift-the singular. I call, as per the plan and I get an earful of,

"Oh, we're about to go to lunch I'll call you when we get back."

Three hours later I get a text message intimating that she is now having her nails done and when she gets back she'll call and I can bestow upon her the gift. Ok, I'm familiar with the allotment of time needed to have your nails done as I was once married to a faux nail female and from my experience two and a half hours is not the allotment of time I had in mind. That comes out to be 15 minutes a finger. It's not like she has man-hands, these huge bratwurst sized digits more at home on the mitts of a burly plumber.

So, finally I get the call at 5:30pm.

"I'm home! The thing is, though, we're going out to dinner and I don't know how long it's going to take me to get ready and how long we'll be here. Maybe you can give me the gift on Monday at work."

Uh-huh... I spend my entire day shopping and waiting. So, the gift goes back. That may be harsh on my part but if you make a plan with me and renege, all bets are off, toots! I can't take the card back, but I signed it with a generic "Happy Birthday" so I can recycle that.

Do I feel bad about getting my money back? That would be a negative, for I've already given her a gift worth much more than the money I spent; my time. I frittered away 6 hours of the most precious of gifts one can give another. She should be so lucky to have someone waste that much time on her behalf...