Life of Brian: Coat
We recently had another weird temperature surge and then dip, as you get used to with the approach of Spring and it reminded me of the Life of Brian story I’d first thought of to post. It’s silly, not very interesting, probably a little bit petty, but that’s my life.
I was living with the boy1 and we were shedding the last few chilly days of Winter and hit a warm patch. I own too many clothes, so I had no trouble swapping things out for a few days, but he wasn’t similarly blessed. His view of the teasing temps was that it was time to swap out wardrobes for the season. Including sending his warm weather coat–that I’d picked out–to the dry cleaners. Not trusting things myself, I advised him not to do so and to wait just a bit longer, even though he was nice enough to offer to take some of my things in as well.
Fast forward a week or so when we experienced another dip back into cold weather. We’re getting ready to leave for work and I see him wearing a warm coat–one of my coats2. Not thinking it would start something, I asked, “Why aren’t you wearing your coat?” The response, “I just had it cleaned, so…” And I could not stop myself from saying, “See, I told you not to do that.”
I’m typically not an active “I told you so” person… with my mouth, anyway. Usually the look on my face is enough to make someone say it themselves on my behalf. Still though, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the above exchange was sort of typical for us. Choosing not to go into “fight mode” I brushed it off with a shrug that conveyed, “You just got off easy buddy,” and we got on with our commute.
It wasn’t that he asked my advice and didn’t take it. That’s grating, but ultimately forgivable. What gets me is when someone makes a poor decision–this was admittedly minor, but not the first/last/only time–and it falls on you to deal with the results or the fix. He wasn’t Pig-Pen, he was capable of wearing a clean coat one day without getting it filthy–I think. And while I could understand his solution, I still found it suboptimal.
See? I told you it was both not that interesting and petty. 
1 For the sake of brevity and anonymity, all previously dated boys will likely be referred to as “the boy”. You have no idea how many e-mails I’ve gotten over time saying, “I can’t believe you wrote about that!” The times when I haven’t used their names, the temptation to respond, “No. I can’t believe you DID that.” is so strong.
I always feel personally responsible for dips in the temperature because I, like the boy, tend to swap things out far too early. I did it again, and now we’re back to flannel sheets.