Why Do I have No Spine?

Why? I am just wracking my brain as to why I allow myself to live the way I do. If you push me, magically I have a spine. But if you are someone who is trying to sell me something, nope. No spine.

I just got back from the Towers, to my Americans that means the Mall, which is where I do my grocery shopping. As I was walking in, I saw this little tent that had been erected near the entrance with sales demonstration written all over it. Great, somebody is going trying to sell me something. You can't not walk by it to get in the store, there is no way out of this situation.

They of course stop me and try to sell me this magic car cleaner that uses no water. It cleans every inch of your car, outside, inside, mirrors. Now, I have a not so secret love affair with an immaculately clean car. Ultimate Tire Shine{Tyre for the Aussies, yes, that is how you spell it here. You also spell jail - gaol which is madness} anyway, Ultimate Tire Shine or Tire Wet would be a perfectly appropriate birthday gift or stocking stuffer for me. I'm borderline obsessed with it. Anyway, you'd think this would be something I am interested in. However, it just the exact opposite. As a fan of cleaning products in general, I respect the fact that all cleaners are designed and formulated for specific purposes. It is not a selling point for me that I would be cleaning {and simultaneously waxing} my car with the same cleaner I would then do the glass and upholstery with. I also like using water to clean things.

Graeme, the salesman, wanted to walk me to my car to show me how this Genie in a Bottle works. I said I would love to, after I finished my shopping. What?! Did I really just say that. I am not at all interested. Inviting him to my car for the sales pitch only makes saying no after his presentation only that much more difficult!

I shopped and was walking out, wondering if I could muster the courage to tell him no now, or if I would end up put us both through the sales pitch. FYI, they had reminded me that I did need car cleaner, and incidentally I had already purchased an arsenal of car cleaners in the store.

It was then that I remembered there was an exit that I could go out that I could possibly slip by. I took my chances, and even though I had to walk an extra mile through traffic that was not for pedestrians, putting Gabey's and my life in danger as we played life sized Frogger. There was a spot where I would have to get close to them, and I thought I might be seen. I was now practically running past, casually of course, so as not to draw attention to myself.

I got to the car. I made it! Then I realized to my dismay, that I would have to drive past them, right past them, and they would surely see me, on my way out. I might even have to stop in front of them because their tent was at the crosswalk to enter the store. Crap. What now? I reverse out of my stall and start driving towards the exit. I do end up having to stop, right in front. So I roll down my window and say, "Hey, sorry, I ran out of time, I have to go pick up my daughter from school {big fat lie, it is not 4:30 in the afternoon with Laine standing there, the last one to be picked up} -Will you be here through the week? You will, okay, we'll be back tomorrow!"

Great, I hope I got everything I needed since I can't show my face at the Towers until next week. This is just typical example of what I have to do every few days when salesman are out looking for an easy sale. I used to constantly get accosted by Mary Kay ladies at Walmart. They would pressure me into giving them my contact details, which I would. They would call, I would think up a lie and hang up and promptly save their phone number in my phone as "Don't Answer". I had several of them programmed, and they all would occasionally call. When I was single I could never tell guys I didn't want to date anymore, I had a few bad situations and since I can't name names, there is probably no point in elaborating. I would always give guys a fake number because I could never say I wasn't interested. In fact, I think that "don't answer" bit that I use now was back from my single days. And don't even get me started on the Jehovah's Witnesses! The same set of witnessers has come to my house 3 times {that I know of} in the last 2-3 months because I politely agree to read their literature.

Anyway, I need to be better at just saying no. I feel bad, I don't like to let people down, I am too much of a pleaser sometimes. I need to find a nice polite way of declining so I don't have to deal with situations like these that take a lot of my time and energy!

Since every post is better with pictures, even if they have absolutely nothing remotely to do with it, here's some of little baby Laine. She used to love to eat berries and since they are so healty, we didn't really care about the mess. Man, Laine is sure getting some love from the blog, it is her birthday later in the week so she really will be getting all of the attention. I wanted to do a post about Gabey, but Ben said no to the pictures of Gabe in girl's pajamas on laundry day...