Not only did the lying skanky whorebitch I was trusting to find a living space for us next year bail out on me, but my ride/Neil Gaiman In Portland Weekend Of Fun! party partner is leaving me in the dust.
PEOPLE ARE LYING EVIL UNTRUSTWORTHY JACKASSES, and there isn’t a Greyhound bus that runs after my noon class and gets me there in time.
I mean, seriously, if you can’t do it, don’t TELL me you can do it! AAAAAAARGH!
Dammit, I really want to see Neil Gaiman.
When you grow ancient, (like me) you’ll probably remember how much getting messed up by other people sucks and not do it to anybody else.
That’s the only good thing I can see that came out of me being mesed up several times by other people.
I never, never leave somebody hanging if they are counting on me. If I’m going to be even 15 minutes late, I’ll call.
Maybe Dame Fortune will smile and you’ll find another ride to Portland.
Good luck!
Honest question.
Who the hell is Neil Gaiman? Maybe more important, is he that much more a draw than a strip club?
Whatever the case, sorry to hear you were let down. It always hurts. Try looking forward to the next good thing. It’ll help ease the memory of this. 
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards and writer of the comics series The Sandman, among other things.
This pissed off enough people that they rewrote the rules so a comic book couldn’t win again. Because a comic book can’t be brilliant, y’know. I’d be pretty damn pissed off too if my roadtrip partner bounced on me to go see Harlan Ellison. Gaiman too.
Yeah, that’s pretty much my take.
Of course in my case, “friends” didn’t actually say they wouldn’t rob me blind every chance they got.
sappyness You were warned.
I can be trusted. Granted, it’s a message board, but the truth stands. Just a lone voice of 6 billion. And I like people. For the most part. Well, except people that breath. But that shouldn’t be a barrier.
E-mail in profile and all that, but I think you’re going to be fine Tracy. If you can come up with 5 things out of your control that make you miserable, I’ll worry. Otherwise, you’re experiencing life. And for that we can all sympathize.
Paging Oprah, duffer on the line for Oprah :smack:
You’re absolutely right. It’s a tough lesson, but now you’ve learned it.
And bless you for saying “people” rather than “women.” It’s nice to see good old misanthropy instead of all the misogyny that usually flies around here.
Real life paging **Tracy Lord! Real Life paging Tracy Lord!
(Sorry, that’s just the way it is… :()
Have you considered [del]stealing[/del] “borrowing” his car for the day? 
Seconded. You have good taste
I can empathize w/ you completely Tracy; this is how the conversation went around midnight Monday at a train station 40 miles from my house;
Moi: “Don, I need a ride home from the train station, my other ride bailed. I hate to call in the exact favor you promised, but…”
Don: “Can’t you take a cab?”
Don later called to make sure I wasn’t ‘stranded’. Fucker, you stranded me!! I had to take a $75 cab ride w/ a very strange man who could have done who-knows-what to me in those 40 miles. And I didn’t have that cash on me so he had to first take me to a CVS so I could get cash b/c there aren’t any ATMs for my bank that far from my house.
At my age, I’m inclined to mostly agree w/ you about most people sucking.
Well, getting stood up always sucks - but didn’t you get a much better living situation out of being stood up? I seem to remember a thread about you getting screwed in your living situation, and then another telling of a fabulous new place you wouldn’t have found were it not for that problem.
I’m just saying, is all…
Trust. But check the facts anyway. 
Sucking like being called in the middle of the night to go pick someone up 40 miles away who doesn’t carry cash on them?
I generally expect a certain amount of flakyness from my friends. If we have 20 people who are on board with taking a road trip to Montreal, I can expect that all but 2 will bail once reality separates those who really want to go from those who agree with the CONCEPT of taking a road trip. People show up late. They change their mind. They forget shit. They find better opportunities. They get drunk and go wandering off. They get lazy or don’t feel like driving. They think someone else is taking care of stuff.
The lessons I have learned over the years:
-Stick with your ride. The last thing you want is to be stranded because your friends think you went off with some girl or something.
-Have an alternative way home. It wouldn’t hurt to have the number of a taxi or to know the train/buses in the area where you’re going
-Get money up front. The last thing you want is to be stuck with tickets or non-refundable reservations for someplace when half the people aren’t going
-Expect people to show up late. No one likes to be the first to a party.
-Don’t drive a big car. If you are the guy with the SUV while everyone else has 2 seaters, guess who is going to get pressured to drive all the time.
-or always drive. Hey…if your driving, you set the rules where we go
-Don’t depend of flaky people. If someone constantly flakes out, stop making plans with them
-Don’t use your credit card to pick up the tab. People of no sense always think a $10 will cover their share of the five hours of food and drink you just had.
Have you tried CraigsList? Sometimes you can find a ride, or post a request for a ride…
[Disclaimer] Of course, I don’t really advocate women* traveling by themselves with complete strangers, and have never actually tried this myself, but perhaps it will work if you carry a registered hand gun and hold a third degree black belt, and tell a million people where you’re going and who you end up traveling with…[/disclaimer]
*I have a male friend who travels this way regularly between LA and San Jose. Sure saves on trip costs, as it’s cheaper than Greyhound (and a lot faster). But…he’s a guy: much less likely to be raped/molested/otherwise harmed by some sicko.
I have stopped going out to eat or drink with several people specifically because of this, and I will not attend a group outing at a “family-style” restaurant (Maggiano’s, Buca di Beppo, et cetera) if they are present, unless how the bill will be accounted for is abundantly clear.
This isn’t fire of a million suns rage, this is clock tower with a rifle rage.
lno, do you think you can provide us with a listing of the various Levels of Rage?
I’d had to use a term improperly.
Skip the class.
In ten years, you’ll barely even remember what class it was, let alone what you might have learned on that day. But I bet you’ll still remember Neil Gaiman’s opening joke.
And, yeah, people suck. I have friends who are
Hamsters suck too.
That was supposed to be "I have friends who are constantly bailing out on me and late when we are expecting to share rides. I have since decided that my next offer to share a ride will be phrased as “I will be leaving at <time>. I suggest you get there 15 minutes early if you want to come with.”
Are you currently in Ashland? That’s a bit far but if you’re closer (say Eugene-ish) I’d be willing to drive you to Portland. A road trip would be a hell of a lot more interesting than cleaning my room which is what I’d otherwise be doing.
Which is true! Also, I’m secretly trying to make it out to do the Firefly midnight show, which reminds me of Guy Dressed Like Jayne. He may be in California with an extended research grant, and I may be going back to Ashland in a week and a half, but he’ll always be my Firefly Ride Ninja.
I totally would without a second thought, except that I’m skipping the entire week after that to go to a mumblemumble Harry Potter academic symposium mumblemumble in Boston. A week and a half of missed classes in the first two weeks of school is a bad plan in anyone’s book.
YOU ARE SO COOL! I will be in Ashland at that time (I’m not now, but school starts in a week and a half), but it may be easier to get a ride to Eugene than Portland. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the offer!