Responsible

It's not easy being responsible…

It takes a lot of planning, making sure the plans are set and following through, following up on people, reminding people and RSVP-ing (is that how it's written?) and preparing, going out and purchasing necessary things in preparation.

Why do all of this?

You do this so that you don't have to scramble to do things last minute.  You do this so appointments are not missed.  You want to avoid conflicts in schedules.  You want to make sure people arrive on time to be ABLE to surprise the honoree of a surprise party. The bottom line is you don't want to waste your money and (more importantly) your TIME, of which (you are well aware of) can never be recovered or replenished.

"No Pain, No Gain!"

My fellow responsible friend, along with the benefits and "security" of being in a controlled (or, having control of) situation comes a couple of issues…

Issue 1: People expect too much of you.  You can't slip up…

 …and if you do they get immediately disappointed and your stock?  It PLUMMETS!

Issue 2: Your being extra responsible allows your friends to be even less responsible because they know that you are going to have their back.  You are their "crutch".  Their responsibility "muscles" are never fully developed, because they have not borne any "weight".

Two scenarios:

One. A friend of mine who is always late and never follows up just canceled with a few friends of mine for an event that we had after the event was over.  He let us know that he wasn't going to be able to make it because he had previous plans.

Two: A friend of mine got upset with me because I didn't let her know that circumstances had changed while I was still dealing with the circumstances which calls the circumstances to change.  ( Confusing, isn't it?)

Sometimes, this is very taxing; there is a limit to what one can take.

Now, don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying that I want to be less responsible or to have less of a burden of responsibility planning and arranging logistics and organizing things and  researching and… and…. and… 

Disclaimer: I am, by no means, perfect, nor do I follow all of these rules all of the time (I'm human, man).

All I'm saying… is that I would like to have a little bit of credit for the cache that I have built up over all these years with some people and some respect from the people who are less reliable and dependable than I am in letting me know when they are not going to make it, when they're running late, conflicts in their schedules, etc.

Too much to ask?  You tell me.