NYC and M&Ms!

My family took me to NYC as a birthday surprise. We took a day trip. Over 4 hours each way on a bus for about 8 hours in NYC. We went to see Mamma Mia on Broadway. It was a great show and we had really good seats. I haven't even seen the movie so it was a great surprise.

But I was super duper excited to go to the M&Ms store. Three floors of just M&M stuff. An endless variety of useless M&M items. It's like being in Disneyland where you feel the need to buy those stupid mouse ears because everyone else has them. You just want to buy stuff! I think we did very well, only one t-shirt and a bag of M&Ms between us. But we spent a lot of time looking around and taking pictures.

Six Days Later

Today is my friend's birthday. I've known him for eight years now. My birthday is six days after his and he never, I mean NEVER, remembers it. And he's always been fascinated by the fact that we are both Scorpios. It's a big deal to him. He's always talking about Scorpios and their behaviors. Really he just uses all that Scorpio stuff to justify his own bad behavior because Scorpio men are the worst and he knows it. He also thinks it explains why we get along so well because we both think alike. I think it explains why we fight all the time because we're both stubborn and need to be right no matter what the cost. We've had some huge fights. We've also survived eight years as friends. Maybe we're both right.

This year he called me on October 14th to wish me a happy birthday. Cracked me up. He said, "Well at least I'm early!" True, three weeks early. Who am I to complain? He called me a week later to wish me happy birthday again. I think he's going to call me once a week and hope he's lucky enough to call on the right day. Each call he asks me the date to try to remember it. I tell him, but I still think he's going to forget. You'd think in eight years he would remember that my birthday is a few days after his. Perhaps the exact date would slip his mind but the proximity to his own birthday should trigger some kind of memory. It just doesn't.

I have to give him some credit, at least he's trying this year. In eight years he's never once wished me a happy birthday and now I'm getting a happy birthday once every week. I guess he is making up for all those years he forgot. I wonder if I'll be getting eight years worth of gifts as well?

UPDATE: He didn't call on my birthday. Just like I thought. Amazing. I guess change is harder than it seems! There goes my dream of all those un-given gifts.

Nice = Gullible

In what world is this true? Did I miss a memo? Why do people assume that because you are nice, you are also stupid? I equate gullible with stupid. So I'm just going to use those interchangeably here. Do we think that people haven't learned life's hard lessons because they are still being nice? Is there some sort of mental deficiency equated with niceness because surely if you were fully capable of rational thought, you would be mean? Is it some sort of given that I'm just not aware of? I'm pretty jaded and I'm still nice. I still want to give to people and the universe. I believe that in order to make the world a better place we have to give more than we take. But that doesn't make me gullible or stupid.

I took a personality test and it came back with words to describe me, kind, genuine, thoughtful, and gullible. Huh? What question did I answer that gave you the impression that I'm gullible? I don't remember the question that read, "Some guy tells you his grandmother just got hit by a train while watching TV in her living room and that's why he didn't call, do you believe him?" or "Your best friend is wearing your favorite shirt and tells you she didn't take it, do you believe her?" Honestly, come on. That test had no gullibility questions, just niceness questions. Because people are nice does NOT mean they are gullible. I will not believe every stupid thing that comes out of your mouth. I will probably be nice enough to let you save face, but don't mistake that for gullible. I do not believe you and it does change my opinion of you. I know it will surprise you when I'm not as nice as I used to be and I don't give you what you ask for anymore. I just don't understand why it surprises you. You are the one lying and trying to take advantage of me, why did you assume it would work? Because I'm a nice person? Seems to me that I'm not the stupid one in this equation.