Have me committed

It drives me crazy. People not keeping their end of a commitment. Especially when we've made plans, they back out, and I'm left holding the bag. I may not have even wanted what was in the proverbial bag in the first place, but was willing to support it based on time spent together with flaky people.

Now, I understand emergencies. Relatives dying. Car exploding on the 405. Getting asked out on a date by Mr. Wonderful. And there are definitely times when I want to back out of plans because I'm not longer enthused about something, or something better comes up, or I just feel like spending some quality alone-time. But, I generally will just about kill myself to follow through on plans when someone is depending on me. What really drives me nuts is when someone says they're committed to doing something, and plans are made based on that commitment, then the committed person becomes suddenly uncommitted, but the plans can't be taken back because other people are now involved.

Or maybe I'm too rigid. I concede that it's a possibility. Maybe I need to take a more lax view. Not rely on people to remember or even keep their word. But somehow that seems like a very cynical and depressing way to live. I guess it ties in to my occasional distrust of people, or at least a belief in their fallibility. So, the best way I've come up to deal with it is to live and learn. Trust those people who are reliable, and be wary of those who prove themselves not to be. It’s one way to keep my sanity … or what’s left of it.