Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about declining.

THE PROMPT: "Sorry but I couldn't accept this gift." -from 30DBC Creator/Founder

Good afternoon people? What's up out there? Earl's got the prompt and I've got the laptop, so anything can happen.

This is tough. I, like many of you, have probably recieved a useless gift or two on occasion. I dated a girl once who's mom gave me movie passes as a gift one year, presumably to take her daughter on a cinematic adventure. If you've retained any bit of knowledge about me over the course of numerous entries in the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" , you may recall that I have absolutely zero passion for movies. This feeling was reinforced by the fact that while I wanted to see Will Smith in Ali, the girl wanted to see a Harry Potter flick. I lost that battle.

So I'm stuck for a good segue here, since that was a gift I accepted. It would've been rude to decline it, as poorly thought out as it was. I may have inadvertantly made up for it a few months after we broke up. The girl called me out of the blue with "computer problems", that is, "a lame excuse to see me". Told her I'd help her out in exchange for a 12-pack of Heineken. She picked me up, went back to her place, and all she really needed was her speakers plugged in. But what she really wanted to do was proposition me one more time. Being the gentleman that I am and having uninvested myself emotionally from this woman, I took my 12-pack and got out of dodge. See ladies, it's not always about sex.

But back to the matter at hand. Refusal is something I believe humans are not cut out for. Saying no to someone's generosity isn't always in our moral constitution...sure, we're supposed to say no, but deep down we crave that gratification for our efforts/services. We desire more than words...mere words. Silly utterances of praise. We want something we can touch, feel, use, and break.

I work in retail, and every so often I'm inclined to go above and beyond whatever my job description is. Maybe I'm feeling extra special that day, or maybe common sense dictates that I should offer something more than basic customer service. So say I offer to take an old lady's groceries out to her car, or walk halfway around the store to find whatever they're too lazy to find (even if they walked past it six times on the way to me), and they're so moved by my perceived intention of caring, that they want to brighten my day by slipping me a couple of George Washingtons. "Buy yourself a coffee" they'll say, or something otherwise as witty. In our profession, we are explicitly instructed to turn this offer of a tip down. So I do, as politely and humble as possible.

But I have a rule. Because no one's ever paid what they're worth, and no company is going to reimburse me when I do more than what's expected of me at my hourly wage, I take the money and don't think twice. I make sure I refuse once, but if someone's going to insist on handing me free money, well, only a fool wouldn't take it. Because maybe I do need another cup of coffee, thank you.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Run DMC never gets old.

VITAL STATS:

Insomnia sucks. Woke up bright and early at 3:30am with no chance of falling back asleep until about 7, and was up again about 10am. Or, in the normal people world, maybe the worst time to not be asleep. And now I'm a ball of nerves about to try and get ready for work. Ugh.

So I'mma get a shower on and try to work this ragged bag of bones into something profitable today. And I feel like a jerk...got a job offer from an old friend yesterday, told him I'd call him, and I haven't. Well, I've still got a little time before work, so I'll see. Maybe I will, just to hear him out. But me and phones don't do very well. Who knows. Peace, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!