Evil Erin and the Origami Rose
Yesterday, a woman acquaintance of mine said just about the nicest thing to me.
So once upon a time, I was dating a woman whom I now call "Evil Erin," because her name was Erin, and she was eeeeeeeevil.
(Note that she is not to be confused with my friend Good Erin, who I sometimes also speak of on this page.)
Well, so it happened that Evil Erin and I were dating during Valentine's Day, and it happened that she liked roses. So I figured it'd be nice if I made for her an origami rose for Valentine's Day, which I did. I had to go buy the special paper, and then spent most of two days figuring out how to make this thing, and practicing it, and then making the good rose. It wasn't easy, but I thought the result was pretty cool.
Well. Evil Erin did not think it was cool. When I gave her the rose, she got this look on her face, which said very clearly, "What the hell is this? I don't want this! What does he think I'm going to do with it? What a jackass!" And I knew right at that moment that we were later going to have a very heated conversation where she brought this up and used it as a bludgeon with which to beat me. Which is exactly what happened.
Now, the upsetting part of that for me was Evil Erin's total failure to appreciate the fact that, even if the end-product wasn't to her liking, I'd thought about her, and put effort in, and made a gesture which under most circumstances would be considered kinda sweet.
Well. So, I had related this story to my woman acquaintance. This was probably a few months ago.
Yesterday she told me that she'd been thinking about me and my story. Apparently her boyfriend had been out in the yard, and had seen some spring flowers and picked them for her, and brought them to her. At which point, she told me, her immediate internal reaction was, "What, you were too cheap to go to the flower shop?"
But then, she told me, she'd thought of me telling her about my experience with Evil Erin, and had been able to flip her thinking to, my boyfriend just made a sweet gesture, and I'm going to appreciate that.
And then she said just about the nicest thing she could have said to me:
"Your story actually helped me."
Wow.
So, I'm going to take my personal triumphs where I can get them. And if tales of my misfortunes can somehow help others, then you all are welcome to them.
So once upon a time, I was dating a woman whom I now call "Evil Erin," because her name was Erin, and she was eeeeeeeevil.
(Note that she is not to be confused with my friend Good Erin, who I sometimes also speak of on this page.)
Well, so it happened that Evil Erin and I were dating during Valentine's Day, and it happened that she liked roses. So I figured it'd be nice if I made for her an origami rose for Valentine's Day, which I did. I had to go buy the special paper, and then spent most of two days figuring out how to make this thing, and practicing it, and then making the good rose. It wasn't easy, but I thought the result was pretty cool.
Well. Evil Erin did not think it was cool. When I gave her the rose, she got this look on her face, which said very clearly, "What the hell is this? I don't want this! What does he think I'm going to do with it? What a jackass!" And I knew right at that moment that we were later going to have a very heated conversation where she brought this up and used it as a bludgeon with which to beat me. Which is exactly what happened.
Now, the upsetting part of that for me was Evil Erin's total failure to appreciate the fact that, even if the end-product wasn't to her liking, I'd thought about her, and put effort in, and made a gesture which under most circumstances would be considered kinda sweet.
Well. So, I had related this story to my woman acquaintance. This was probably a few months ago.
Yesterday she told me that she'd been thinking about me and my story. Apparently her boyfriend had been out in the yard, and had seen some spring flowers and picked them for her, and brought them to her. At which point, she told me, her immediate internal reaction was, "What, you were too cheap to go to the flower shop?"
But then, she told me, she'd thought of me telling her about my experience with Evil Erin, and had been able to flip her thinking to, my boyfriend just made a sweet gesture, and I'm going to appreciate that.
And then she said just about the nicest thing she could have said to me:
"Your story actually helped me."
Wow.
So, I'm going to take my personal triumphs where I can get them. And if tales of my misfortunes can somehow help others, then you all are welcome to them.
posted by Craig at 6:21 AM
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