First of all, let me say that my relationship with my sister seems to be on a rollercoaster about 72-76% of the time. I usually do something that upsets her or I simply don't include her in my life and it hurts her feelings. It's not intentional, it's just that I can be thoughtless at times. To my defense, I am a pretty busy person. I have a family, and school, and church responsibilies and I used to have a job. Nothing out of the ordinary, just life as a father and husband. My sister is also very busy. She is single, but keeps active with work, friends and Lord knows what else. Anyway, not to drag the story out too much, we don's see each other a lot and I often forget to call and check on her.
Anyway, Holly is a very caring, sensitive and loving person. She wants to make people happy and she'll do just about anything for her family and friends. She has been very supportive to me and my family while I've been out of work and I appreciate it very much. Even when I did have a job, she was always hooking us up with tickets or something that she could get through her work (she works in advertising for a TV station and used to work in Radio). So, if a show or sporting event was coming to town, she could usually get us set up some way.
Well, about 3 weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to take the kids to see the Harlem Globetrotters when they came to town. When I went online to buy the tickets, I noticed that a local radio station was a part of the game and offered the tickets for 20% off. I just so happened to have a friend at the radio station and called to get the password so that I could get the better deal. However, before I got them, I was talking to my sister about it, and she told me to hold off on getting them and she'd see what she could do. A day or two later, she called and said that she found some tickets for me. Again, Holly (my sister) had the "hook up" and got us tickets. Or, so I thought. More on that later.
Well, as the game day approaches (actually it's tomorrow), we had planned to meet Holly before the game and have lunch with her and get the tickets. But, this morning about 11am, I got a call from a friend of my mine who works for the radion station where I was originally going to get the discounted tickets. He said that, he had 4 tickets with a prize that would allow my daughter to be the ball girl for the team and would let us all sit on the floor for the game. How could I say "No"? So, I accept them and was so excited that I felt myself pee a little bit in my pants after hanging up. But, I knew that this was not going to be easy to tell my sister. I had this horrible feeling that I was about to really hurt her feelings. But, I also knew that, if I didn't tell her, it would get back to her and then I'd really be in trouble. So, I decided that I'll go ahead and make the call.
That afternoon, I get ahold of her and just pray that this will be no big deal (keep in mind, I still think that she got the tickets for free through her work). So, I tell her about the tickets that were offered to us by my friend at KLTY. Immediately, I could hear it in her voice and could sense her of let down. She said, "That's great - don't worry about the tickets. I'd want you to sit on the floor...". But, it wasn't OK. She insisted that it was fine, but I've known her long enough to know that I was treading on very slippery ground here. I finally realized that she had bought these tickets for us so that we could go to the game. She wasn't going to say anything about it becuase she didn't want us to know. I don't know if I could have felt any worse or sicker to my stomach than I did at that moment. She had gone to the trouble of getting us those tickets and I completely ruined the whole gift. I must say that I'm quite a piece of work.
She called later and said that she was sorry for reacting like she did and that she thinks that she can get rid of them. But, I can't really blame her for acting like she did. That was a pretty rotten way to treat her and the gift, whether she bought them or not. So, now the world knows (or the 5 or 6 people who read this) that I'm a huge jerk. These are the times in life when I wished I had a do-over. Maybe I'll get hit by a bucket of confetti tomorrow and they'll have to rush me to the hospital. Lord knows I deserve it.
2 comments:
your gonna get confetti sized paper cut on your cornea for that one!!! and if Geese Goslin or Marques Haynes gets wind of what you did, they are gonna dress you up in a Washington Generals uniform and pull your shorts down at the free throw line!
I've got your back Tim. It sounds like the tickets were free... How could you say no to that sort of deal?
I hope things went over well with your sis.
Oh! How was the game?
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