Principles

Side Note: Whenever I eat at the Santa Cruz Diner, I walk away smelling of greasy diner sausage and burnt coffee. When I arrived at work this morning, my boss gave me a hug and now I smell of too strong cologne mixed with diner stank. Eww.

I've been thinking about principles. (No, not the heads of schools, that would be principals because they are your pal. Was I the only one taught that word association in school?) The other day our internet service at home was cut off. Turns out my detail-oriented housemate Mikey didn't change his billing info when his card was lost. D'oh. So, all weekend we were without the world wide web. I inquired as to when we might be reconnected and Mikey said he had to research other service providers because his old one, the one we got disconnected from, wanted to charge a reconnection fee (gasp!) and he wasn't paying it. The fee was $10 folks. Ten buckaroos. He said it was the "principle of the matter" as to why he would not pay. Um, okay. Way to go Mikey. You and your $10 principles.

People rely on the principle of things a lot. Too often in my taste. When you want to be a stubborn ass or not give up your massive, ego-laden pride, you say, "It's the principle of the matter!" Yeah, right. We humans want things easy way too often. Or then we expect it will be hard and we don't want to do it. Too much work. Better just sit here and watch tv. Yeah. And the stuff that comes easy, well, we never appreciate it enough. And don't get me started on how we want to be right all the god-damned time. Please.

On principle I suppose I should not be returning any calls from HBC (aka Mr. Disappointment). It took him another week to return my call. This has got to be the longest round of phone tag I have EVER engaged in. I am very unclear why I persist in playing along. On principle I should probably shun him. We haven't seen one another in a month. What is the point anymore? But then I think of how when we were in contact and how fluttery I felt inside and then I go all mushy and well, all my ass-kicking-women's-studies-principles go to shit.

I have known for some time now that I give people too many chances. It's on my self-improvement list. Right there under "learn patience" and "don't be so bossy." Baby steps, people. Baby steps.