Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I have a lot of pet peeves. Bad drivers. Slow walkers. People who don’t stand on the right on metro escalators. Loud eaters. The sound of snot (people blowing their nose…etc). People in customer service jobs who don’t understand basic english. People who are in customer service jobs who are bitchy. Biggest pet peeve – getting stood up.

Yes – I’ve been stood up before. Dates. Friends. It’s all happened before.

A guy I dated freshman year and I remained friends – after he cheated on me with his ex, after I found out about it because he left his email open on my computer. His ex was mocking me for being an idiot. The times he said he’d come hang out, then never called…he was with her. It took two years to get over that. He kept promising me we’d hang out. A summer with unreturned phone calls, and many dinners that should have happened but didn’t later, we were finally able to be friends. He’d leave me messages on IM saying how he hoped I was doing well and let’s hang out soon. So eventually we started to – just dinner at Uno’s like we used to or lunch in the student center. By the end of senior year, I was really glad I had forgiven him until I had to see him and the girl who I hated for the rest of my college career together at the senior ball. Quite possibly one of the worst nights of my life – not because of them but for other reasons as well but moving on.

We live and we learn right?

Not so much apparently.

I questioned whether I should write about this but I’m livid and well…passive-agressiveness at it’s best right? Oh well.

You see, I had plans with a friend last night to watch a movie and just have a girls night in. I was thrilled, I was supposed to have seen her the day after boyfriend and I arrived back from the great roadtrip to the North, but alas car troubles and lack of cell phone or computer prevented her from showing up, much less calling to apologize. I was left hanging, and upset.

Before that, there were trips that were supposed to have happened. I’d clear out weekends, and low and behold, no phone calls, no emails. No apologies. Only excuses. I brushed it off because this girl has seen me through a lot of crap so none of this could be intentionally brushing me off right? just bad luck mayhaps. Well…so I hope. [there's more back history to here which i will not get into]

But those are in the past. We forgive and we forget right? Sure why not.

As I was talking to boyfriend before bed, nearly in tears but mostly out of anger, we talked about how immature it is to stand people up. To not call if something comes up. How bad it makes you look. We weren’t just talking in terms of her, but more in general – for instance when you’re apartment hunting, and you have an appointment to see a place – most people if they found something else, they would just not show up. Boyfriend was checking out apartments a couple years ago and he was running late to look at a place and he called ahead of time. The people were very appreciative because so many people had just not shown up and not called. Basically, by not calling or whatever…it really just makes you look like nothing more than an ass hole.

Now I must also say that aside that my friends are all for the most part good people. I surround myself with good people which is why I value all you fabulous readers because those that I have become…dare I say e-friends with…are all great and i sense we’d all be pretty tight “IRL” (god i hate internet lingo) but I guess it just goes to say in this situation “fool me once shame on you. fool me twice shame on me.”

Now, I don’t know what makes a good friend. I also don’t know what defines a bad friend. I do know that things that I value in a friendship are reliability, trustworthy-ness, honesty, a good sense of humor and someone I know will be there for me when I need them. I value these, because these are what I bring to the table in a friendship. Don’t get me wrong, just cause I have a boyfriend doesn’t mean I’m going to disappear for no reason on your ass if we have plans. I do NOT value people who don’t hold their word, who are flaky and unreliable. One of the Cosmo resolutions/Things to do in 2008 is to “call out that flaky friend” and I vowed to myself that I would tolerate this kind of crap by ANYONE in 2008…I’m tired of feeling like I’m being taken advantage of because in general I’m bad at standing up for myself…it’s a bad trait.

So hey readers, what’s your advice? Should I tolerate this regardless of the excuse (which I know inevitably there will be one)? Or should I brush the dirt off my shoulders and move on?

In other news, i get the joy of working 1-7 at the gym today. After that I’m going to work out for a bit and then come back here and read some and watch sunday night teevee Yay Amazing Race  Anyhoo…time to take the pup out!

Tagged as: I get by with a little help from my friends, pet peeves, resolutions