Do I Look Like I'm New Here?

When someone does something nice for you, you are supposed to appreciate it and say thank you and smile.  Especially now around Thanksgiving what with the whole "thankful" thing going on.  Sometimes though, I don't want to say thank you when someone does something nice because I know they are doing it with the hopes that their "niceness" will keep me from being angry, not because they are really trying to be nice.  Also, you are apparently not supposed to act like you are onto what the person is doing.  You are just supposed to pretend like it's the best thing ever.

Not sure if that's an FYI or a warning.

The Party just got back yesterday evening after being in France for work for 2 and 1/2 weeks.  During that time he pretty much did not leave the conference room and was working until 2 or 3 in the morning.  Totally sucked for him, and of course we weren't too thrilled around here either.  In that time I probably spoke to him for a grand total of 11 minutes.  We weren't able to discuss any day-to-day stuff or kid stuff.  He was pretty tired and crabby and I was annoyed.  I was sympathetic at how tired he was, but come on!!  He is an attorney who handles mergers and acquisitions for a big corporation.  He is not performing life-saving surgery on anyone.  Neither are any of the people he's working with.  This is not life and death.  But, the people in charge decide stuff must get done by a certain date and off they all go.


Finally, they wrap things up and head home in the nick of time for Thanksgiving (read Wednesday evening).  Here's where the "niceness" I am supposed to appreciate comes in. Wednesday morning I'm on the phone and see a florist's truck.  I know right away who is sending flowers.  No, not the Party.  His company. More specifically, it turns out, the CEO.  The flowers are beautiful and huge!  It's like the florist was told "put all your most expensive flowers in there."  The note is addressed to both of us and reads:


Dear Party,
Thanks for your extraordinary efforts and the support of your family.  Happy Thanksgiving. CEO


Someone who thinks people are nice for real and never have ulterior motives might have been taken in by this "niceness."  Not me.  No sir.  I know what that note really said.  You just have to know how to read it.  Here is what the real message was:


Dear DTC,
Even though we essentially kidnapped your husband and literally kept him from participating in life or parenting his children for over two weeks, it would be super awesome if you did not throw him out as that would probably distract him from his work.  Happy Thanksgiving.  CEO


When I spell it out for you like that it's crystal clear, isn't it?  Yes, I thought so too.  Although the flowers were  gorgeous and it certainly is a nice thing to have something pretty in your house to look at, I figured I didn't need to rush to text Party about them because if he acted like he thought I should think it was genuinely nice, I was probably going to be annoyed.  He could wait to get home to see them.


This is where the story gets funny.  About an hour before Party is due to get home, another florist's truck arrives with a really pretty arrangement from Party (that's not the funny part).  There was a really nice note about missing me and looking forward to seeing me.  I texted Party to thank him and tell him how pretty they were.  I did have to laugh though.  By themselves, Party's flowers were really very lovely and I truly did appreciate and like them.  Next to the CEO's flowers though, they looked a little puny.  I texted Party that he would laugh when he saw what the CEO sent earlier in the day.  I didn't say anything else.


The Party gets home and sees the huge floral arrangement in the living room and looks confused.  He says "were those the flowers I sent?"  I smiled and said "No, those are..." and pointed towards the arrangement in the kitchen.  We both laughed and laughed.  He is not a big flower sender, so what is the likelihood that when he does send them, he gets shown up?  I took a picture with my phone, so the colors are not as pretty as they are in real life, but I think you will get the gist.  

Bahahahahahahahaha

Despite the fact that the CEO didn't pick the flowers himself and I bet only sent them as damage control, I will still give him partial credit for at least realizing that he overworked Party for more than two weeks and that we might not have liked it back at home.  Since it's Thanksgiving I will even go so far as to say I am thankful that I got flowers from him - a gift's a gift.  I, of course, am sincerely grateful for the flowers and note that Party sent, because he really was trying to do something nice.  What would have made me the most grateful, however, would have been if someone had sent me a tray of cupcakes or cookies.  Or margarita fixins.


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are off to the start of a fun and happy and healthy holiday season.  xo  DTC