Wednesday, July 13, 2011

There's this United Colors of Benetton store that is a little more than a block away from my house, that has been broken into twice this month. The first time was about two weeks ago, and the most recent time must have happened this morning. I was returning from the pool when I saw one of the female employees sweeping up the glass that was strewn all over the sidewalk. I removed my headphones and walked up to this woman and said, "Damn again?", and she just shook her head and said, "Yeah this is pretty f**king unbelievable.".

Now, the retort I SHOULD have come out of my mouth with was, "I'm really sorry, good luck to you all" or something to that effect, but I suppose that would have been too much like right. Instead, as I walked away and put my headphones on, I decided to say, "You all must have some really good stuff in that store." The woman shot me a look that said, "You're a real class act buddy", and I knew immediately that was the wrong thing to say, but my headphones were already on, and it would have been awkward for me to go back to her and undo my stupidity. I felt bad that I didn't put my need to smooth over an awkward/weird moment with humor and just have a bit of compassion. Then I wondered how sincere I really felt, because I made ZERO effort to apologize..or maybe I'm over thinking..


One more thing...about a month ago I went to a cookout at my main man Greg's house, and instead of bringing the traditional beer or liquor over, I decided to bring a nice Port. It wasn't one of those bottles that is over $100, but it was a decent bottle, and I chose that because a)I wanted to drink it and b)I thought I would get props (or at least an ego-boosting compliment) for doing something different (like I did last year at this fight party, when I brought a Chikfila platter--no such luck this year).

Anyway, because I had to drive home from the cookout, and Port tends to be a bit strong, I drank very little of it--unfortunately the same could be said for everyone else in attendance at this cookout. The wife and I stayed at the party almost 2 hours, and there were at least 40 people there, and nobody helped themselves to my Port. I saw folks pick the bottle up and put it back down, but nobody had the chutzpah to try it, and it pissed me off (not once did it dawn on me that no one likes Port or it didn't fit at a cookout). Of course I asked the wife if I could take the bottle back home when we left, but she shot it down quickly. But is that really so wrong to take my gift back if no one seems to be feeling it?

Personally, if someone brought something over to my house that I didn't take a shine to, I would give the person the option of taking it back from whence it came. It is the equivalent of letting someone out of a contract with no hard feelings. "I didn't like your stinking Port, so please take it home, because I know you like it anyway.." If I'm good enough to get an invite to your party or vice versa, we should be able to be honest about the gifts, beverages, food, etc..That's the kind of world I want. I don't have the heart to ask Greg whatever happened to that bottle I brought, but it has been on my mind for a month now..

1 comment:

Neil MacLean said...

It's definitely possible to leave a party with what's left of your own bottle, especially if it was opened but not finished. The thing is, I think it has to be initiated by the host, like "please take this with you, we might not finish it and I don't want it to be wasted". I've been to a lot of parties where the host begs people to take stuff home, including liquor (which is crazy by the way, I'd never GIVE away liquor, the best part of a party is acquiring extra reserves of beer/wine/liquor).