Men Suck

I don't mean to generalize, but if I have any more experiences like the ones I've been having, I'm going to be forced to think it's true.

Here's the story:

Three weeks ago the Bagel made plans with me to go out for a really nice dinner. He said he wanted to take me out on a "fancy date." We settled on yesterday night as the day. At the time he mentioned that his sister back in Boston was throwing a surprise party for her husband that night, but he'd already told his family he wasn't going home for it, especially now that he had made plans with me.

At the beginning of last week, he started teasing me--giving me little hints as to where we were going. As of Friday all I knew was that we had reservations for 9:00 on Saturday and that proper attire was required.

I met him for a drink after having dinner with a girlfriend on Friday night, and he asked me if I had any guesses as to where we were going. I had a guess, and it turned out I was right. He was taking me to Ambria--a four-star French restaurant in Lincoln Park. I have always wanted to go there, so I was thrilled.

We talked again on Saturday morning, and he told me to be ready by 7:00 and he would come pick me up. So I went about my day, doing laundry, planning what to wear, and when I got back upstairs from the laundry room at about 4:00, I saw that I had a new voicemail on my cell phone.

I deleted afterwards so I can't remember the exact wording, but here was the gist of it plain and simple:

Hey Jen, it's me. I'm going to have to cancel our dinner tonight. I talked to my mom today, and she said my sister really wants me to be at her party tonight, so I'm on my way to the airport right now to catch a flight. Give me a call later if you want..."

No "I'm really sorry," no "I'll make it up to you," no "I'll give you a call later to explain."

Nothing.

It made me feel terrible--like I'm just something to be discarded on a whim, like he doesn't really care at all about my feelings.

Then I got mad.

His behavior was just plain rude. I would NEVER do that to someone else. If I had made plans with someone, I wouldn't have canceled them unless it was absolutely necessary. And then I would have gone out of my way to make it up to him. That's just common courtesy.

So I haven't called him, and he hasn't even tried to get in touch with me again. If he does, I hopefully will have cooled down and can calmly and rationally explain how I feel, and if he doesn't, then he gets offical rat status.

Or maybe I'll downgrade him from a bagel to a piece of Wonder Bread--light and fluffy, with absolutely no substance or nutritional value. Only worth eating if slathered all over with peanut butter and jelly.