No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

In Jamaica they have a saying: "Sorry fi mawga dawg, mawga dawg tu'n roun' bite yuh." It essentially means that when you take pity on a starving dog, the dog repays your good deed by biting you. Here's my "mawga dawg" story...

I thought I'd do something nice. For years I'd been trying unsuccessfully to get advanced tickets to the Tribeca Film Festival. This year, I finally got through (using a friend's AMEX card and a lot of time online). I decided that instead of buying a single-person pass, I'd by a couple pass, and give tickets for the various shows to my friends. Since the shows were all on the weekend, and the topics were pretty specific, I had a good idea of who I wanted to take along with me to each.

Remember Mr. Anonymous? Well after our trip away, I decided that I no longer had a crush on him. We're just too different, and the late thing drove me crazy throughout our trip. But I still thought he was a great friend, and I wanted to do something nice for him.

So I invited him to go to see a documentary of his choice. He was the only friend who had free reign of what date and time they chose, since I called him first. I gave him the date and time, and begged him not to stand me up. The day before the show, I texted him to tell him about my plans for after the movie. He seemed pretty ok with it. The day OF the show, knowing his penchant for being late I texted him 4 hours before with the address, show time (which I moved up by half hour) and other details.

An hour before the time he's supposed to get there, I get a text: "Oh, the show's today?" My blood started to boil. I willed myself to calm down before calling him back. I called him...he sounded like he'd just woken up, but he assured me he was out the door and would get there in time. I advised him to take the train, since driving to the city on a Saturday afternoon would be a nightmare. He agreed.

An hour and change later, I still hadn't seen or heard from him, so I left his ticket at the front and sent him a text telling him how to get it. The show begins...10 minutes later, an usher tells me they have to sell the seat as that is the policy. So I had to sell the seat, and I was fuming because I'd paid good money for it, and it was just gonna go to waste. So I send him another text saying, "They sold the seat. Sorry."

I put it out of my mind and just tried to enjoy the film. An hour and fifteen minutes after the film started (and nearly 3 hours after I'd spoken to him) he sends me a text: "Where is it?"

It was all I could do not to scream out my frustration in the theater, but by that point I was livid. I swear, if I wasn't so dark, I'd have been purple at that point. Even my friends who are coming from Long Island don't take 3 hours to get to the city...and their train only runs every half hour!

I ignore him. Two minutes later, another text message: "I'm out front." By this time, the film was over and the Q&A session had started, but I wasn't quite sure what he expected me to do at that point since the Q&A is one of my favorite parts of first-run films. I ignored the text and put my phone away.

When I got out of the screening, I saw that he'd sent me 3 more texts: "I'm out front." "Where are you?" and "I'm heading back to BK." which just means he didn't listen to my instruction not to drive and had just done his own thing. I was too through.

Needless to say, he's sent me a couple emails offering to make it up to me, but really how can you make up a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Yes, that film will probably show at other theatres, and yes, I'll probably go to other TFFs, but the combination won't ever happen again in the same way. I told him as much, and I'm still very salty about the whole thing, so I probably won't speak to him for a while.

No good deed goes unpunished...(please evaluate this statement separate from my Good Friday blog. LOL)