Do Not Answer

I have a hard time telling people "no." This is actually only true in certain situations. I discovered during my last job hunt for instance that it was next to impossible for me to tell people that I was not interested in working for them. While sitting there secretly thinking to myself "I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than work here," out of my mouth would come "yes, I'm definitely interested in this job. It sounds like a great opportunity." I even went so far as to accept one job offer, and had to call back and decline later.

I also have a problem saying no to men who are nice, sincere, and very persistant. So usually I just avoid them all together, but every now and again one sneaks up on me. It's usually on airplanes for some reason. I attract men on flights. It's really kind of weird, but men on planes love to chit chat with me, and I have no ability to put them off. Meredith can attest to this, since she was with me on the flight where I got roped into a conversation with two drunk cowboys across the aisle from us on a flight home for Christmas. Did I want to be conversing with them? No, but I did.

This weekend I went to a little church function in San Diego Friday night. I got cornered by a short Mexican man. I have nothing against Mexicans, but he looked way too old to be there, didn't speak english all that well, and of course stood uncomfortably close. I was trying to be nice though, so I chatted with him for a bit, and then he asked me if I like to go to movies. I told him that I don't like movies. His response: "What are you doing tomorrow night? Can I take you to see the Batman movie?" Why bother expressing an preference when it's either misunderstood, or just completely dismissed? Fortunately I was on call all night Saturday night, so I got to tell him that I was working and couldn't make it. That didn't even phase him. He asked if he could get my phone number because he would like to take me out some other time. I told him no less than three times that I live in Orange County. He didn't have a problem with that I guess, because he still wanted the number. So there I was, rattling off my phone number like I couldn't wait to field his phone call. Fortunately he called me last night while I was on the phone with someone else, and I inadvertantly screened his call. Now I have created my first "Do Not Answer" contact in the new phone. I'm too embarrassed to admit how many of them I had programmed into my last phone, I've got to start giving out a fake number or something.