Even though I promised myself I’d be in bed by 1am, it’s not happening. It’s now 3am, and I’m wide awake. If you’ve read my other blogs tonight you may have also noticed that I seem to be in a little bit of a bad mood. There’s a really good reason for that.

I received an email tonight from someone I thought was a friend that kind of upset me.
This person called me a Saturday night asking if I would help her with some computer problems she’s having. She wanted me to come over then to look at it, but I told her I couldn’t. I was taking the weekend off for the holiday, and I already had other plans.

I said I’d be more than happy to take a look at it this week, on her day off (Thursday) or in the afternoon after she got home from work. I also said she could drop it off at my house, and I’d look at it.

This is normally what most people choose to do, and she knows this. I custom built this computer for her. I’ve fixed it many times since when she’s loaded it down with viruses and spyware so bad it wouldn’t turn on. I even went to the mall (an hour away) with her just because she wanted me to check out some ceiling and wall speakers she really liked. She wanted to make sure they’d work with her computer before she dropped over $500 on them.

So why she sent me this email, I don’t know.  Basically the email told me she was pissed off that I wouldn’t drop my plans Saturday night to go straight to her house.  She told me I was pathetic because I don’t bust my butt working a 9-5, and she doesn’t have time to sit around waiting for me to decide I “feel” like fixing her computer…for free I might add.  She said she didn’t consider me much of a friend anymore because I was “there for her” when she needed me.

I was blown away.  Not only do I do all this for free for her, but I don’t decide to do it “just whenever”.  I work her in just like everybody else.  I had already sent out an email to my regulars letting them know I wouldn’t be working this weekend, and she was on that list.  I think I deserve to take days off just like everybody else.

No, I don’t have a really busy week this week, but I planned it that way.  I set my own hours, and I plan out my schedule ahead of time.  If I’ve already planned something else that’s important to me, I’m not changing my plans.  Taking the weekend off was important to me.  I wanted to spend the holiday with my family just like she did hers.

I don’t even know why it bothered me so bad that she sent me that email.  I wasn’t there for her?  What?  I didn’t run to her house to spend hours cleaning up her computer so she could get on Myspace?  Is it my fault she refuses to use the very simple programs I installed for her (and showed her how to use) to help keep her pc clean?

Now that I think about it, I know exactly why it bothered me.  Here she is a woman in her early 30s with a family, and she acted so childish as to send me this email.  That’s what really ticks me off.  She sank to the level of one of her pre-teen children.

Seriously.  People wonder why I don’t like to have a lot of friends…why I actually hate making new friends.  I tend to generally think people suck, and things like this just prove it to me.