Julep: Ingratitude, Again

It occurred to me as I was on my way here to post that we all have our themes here, don't we? Twinkle struggles to be recognized and valued as an individual in the face of her in-laws. Dibbs is surrounded by crazy people. LoLa is the Tweeter of happy little moments. And I am the ingrate.

Before I launch into that -- Mr. Twinkle had a nose job? Do-buh-what?

OK, so ... ingratitude. Here's what I've reconstructed from the evidence: shortly before we went to Italy, Mr-Papa suggested to Mr. J that he was thinking of signing us up for scuba lessons. When I say "us" I don't mean Mr. J, who is already certified and would love for me to be. "Us" is Mr-Papa, Mr-Sis, and myself. We have had this conversation in the past, that it would be neat and we should all arrange to do the lessons here at some point. The prime talker on my count is Mr. J. I have not been 100% on board with this notion, as I am a pretty poor swimmer, but I am willing to smile and nod about something that is well down the road.

Not as far as I thought, apparently. Mr-Papa has his big ol' boat gearing up for next winter in the tropics, and he is making plans. He called around, got us registered, scheduled the first class ... all before anyone mentioned it to me. Now, in Mr-Papa's defense, he apparently did discuss this with Mr. J - at least in the initial stage, and then we left for Italy. And in Mr. J's defense, it was a preliminary mention while he was running around getting ready for Italy. It slipped his mind. Highly understandable. But the long and short is, the first I heard of this was on Sunday night, when Mr-Papa inquired what time they should pick me up on Monday to head to the lesson at 4:30.

Now I don't usually leave work at 4. And I often have plans in the evenings that can't be rearranged. (Not in this case, thanks to LoLa's willingness to be flexible.)

It was very nice of Mr-Papa to take the initiative, and even nicer of him to pick up half the tab. But I generally like more than 18 hours notice that I am going to drop $250 on anything.

And did I mention that I wasn't completely on board with this whole scuba idea? The first lesson did make me feel more comfortable on one count, as I survived the swim test (note that 14 laps and ten minutes of treading water have left me totally exhausted even a day later). But it did raise another issue: the medical page of the release you have to sign asked if you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant. I checked Yes and no one said anything ... I am not too worried for the time being as even if I conceived this month, it's not even anchored in yet - plus we are only "diving" in a pool to get used to breathing with the regulators. I figure by the time the class gets to pressure changes, I will know I'm not pregs or can call the doctor to ask if I should stop the class.

I don't want to put life on hold on the off chance that I might get pregnant. But I would sure hate for all this time (and money) go to waste if I can't complete the course, not to mention having to share news with the Mr-Family well in advance of the time that I would otherwise choose to do so.

Sometimes a gift can be a burden. Maybe check with the recipient first sometimes. That's all I'm saying.