Separately: if someone comes into a windfall and needs your help in spending his/her fortune, would you put great efforts into assisting him/her in acquiring his/her dream situation or would you pout at the unfairness of it all?
Separately: if you go out to dinner and one of your party announces that they are suffering terribly from a debilitating pain and potentially horrible illness, would you continue to chomp away at the food before you, or would you abandon all pretense of a fine evening and move on, perhaps to a local ER room?
Separately, if this were your last overnight in Evanston, probably ever in your life, because your family member who has heretofore provided housing in Evanston every time you stopped over in the greater Chicago area, would you feel compelled to do something Evanston-specific? Like, teeter along among the staid and proper? Or would you go to your favorite Chicago neighborhood and enjoy it, because it is oh so much more with-it than this northern city enclave?
leaving Evaston, finding the hipper neighborhood of Andersonville
All this to consider in one day. My last day in Evanston (Chicago). Tomorrow, back to Madison.
1) It depends on the project (hehehe). But no, seriously, I try to get expectations nailed down at the outset so no one is disappointed. I've been in both the done-too-much and done-too-little positions, and both are bad, and it's hard to tell which is worse because both cause all kinds of resentments. "Don't piss anyone off" is my unofficial motto when it comes to people I work with.
ReplyDelete2. No pouting allowed! I think everyone experiences windfalls of different types from time to time, and we all need to be happy when someone we love is unexpectedly set up for life. Yay!
3. How many in the party, and what's my relationship to the sick person? I know that sounds horribly callous, but if you're in a group of 8 or 10, there's no point in all of you going to urgent care. Group of four? Yeah, you're all going, at least until you have some idea what's going on.
4. Teetering, staid, and proper are all right out. Enjoy Chicago for what you like about it, and don't pretend to like Evanston just because you've stayed there from time to time. You weren't visiting Evanston for Evanston's sake, you were visiting your family member there. Once family leaves, you'll never go back, and why pretend otherwise? Evanston will never know. You don't owe it anything.
After all that, I'm thinking those were rhetorical questions, but since I'm struggling with something that has no immediate resolution, I'll post the comment anyway. It's therapeutic.