It's confirmed--I'm still a pushover

After two years of being a hardened anti-teenage-manipulation machine, I thought my days of being unassertive and a pushover were done. Funny how quickly we revert back to our ways once a certain behavior is no longer a necessity to daily functioning. Personality really is consistent throughout the life span!--Thank you counseling theory classes. Anyway, I used to be able to say anything to a kid about how inappropriate their behaviors were, but I sometimes find myself being worried about even hurting little kids' feelings and having them dislike me when I need to confront them for the greater good. How lame.

Well, last night was truly a confirmation of my unassertiveness and munipulability (yes, I am pretty sure I made up that word). My husband and I decided to splurge and order pizza, but didn't think about the tip (we paid online). I never have cash, but luckily I have a little piggy-bank that comes in handy every now and then. The cheapy that I am, I ran up to my little bank only to find large bills, one $1 bill and several quarters and decided the $1 bill and 4 quarters would have to do. I have no idea what ettiquette says about tips for pizza delivery.

Well, when I answered the door, I grabbed the pizza and sheepishly handed the delivery guy my cleverly concealed quarters, which were hiding within the folds of the dollar bill. Phew. Glad that's over with. But no, the doorbell rang a second time with the pizza guy exclaiming, "Umm. This is only two dollars. . .blah blah blah. . . the order was $24." Oh the horror and shock of being openly confronted for shafting a pizza guy. Completely caught off guard, I played dumb to hide my guilt of being so cheap, "Oh, was that not enough. . .I don't know what is standard. . I'll be right back." I rushed off to my little bank, trying desperately to find extra quarters and wondering how much I really had to pay him.

Luckily, cops are assertive and aware of scumbags. And I just happen to be married to a cop. So while I was frantically searching for change, my husband stepped in and asked the pizza guy if there was a problem; if I didn't pay him for the pizza. Now scared of confrontation, it was the pizza guy's turn to play dumb, "oh, did you pay online? They must not have told me." Issue settled.

Except now I have to wonder how rude and conniving this pizza guy was. Was he sincerely confused about how the bill had been paid; a little too pushy and assertive about getting a good tip; or a con-man trying to dupe a naive, seemingly alone young woman into paying HIM an extra $24? We'll never know, but I sure feel stupid eitherway!

Ironically, my husband originally commented that the pizza guy seemed like a nice guy. Jinx!

Life as a pioneer sucks!

http://www.brighamyoungwomenslacrosse.com/index.html
I found the website for my old BYU lacrosse team--excuse me, "Wasatch South." We were only allowed to officially associate ourselves with BYU if it is was they could make money off of the team by putting on the annual BYU Girls' Lacrosse Camp. Anyway, I know I should be happy to see such a professional website (it looks awesome!), but I suppose I am a little jealous and disappointed I never had the opportunities the present team has. And probably the worst thing is they don't even know they have it so good. And yes, I am being bad, but I also feel sad that I am sure no one on the team would care that I was a player. I am forgotten. *sob*

I remember the difficulty in finding fields to practice and play on, the excitement to buy our new uniforms in place of the mismatched home-made ones (which have now been replaced by official Harrow sponsored gear), and the thrill of traveling to CA and CO for the first time--ever! I remember being proud to wear my BYU lacrosse shorts that I bought from the men's team and the first BYU lacrosse sweatshirt and T-shirt that we had to claim represented the men's team and not ours so we wouldn't get in trouble. The 1 point loss ending my lacrosse career and any hopes of making it to nationals (I was graduating). And I remember when we had to struggle to get more than 8 girls to show up to practice on a regular basis. And I remember the team always CHOKING--it didn't matter we had the best record in the league, we would always choke when it mattered. Of course the current team went to the national tournament this year as well--about 2-3 years after I left.

Perhaps my covetness comes from also leading my high school team to the best records of the season and several semi and final championship games, only to lose it in the end by biased ref calls or our own goalie scoring on herself. Of course, just about 2-3 years later, they finally won the state championships.

Okay, so you can all see how wicked I am, but to clarify, I am happy for the progress of the team and I am grateful to have helped develop successful programs. I suppose any team has its pioneers and I don't remember or know of my own predecessors, either.

So go "Wasatch South!" Slaughter the opponents and show BYU what they are missing!! Just remember to send me one of your fancy new T-shirts.