Do I have to go?

Did the unthinkable yesterday. I worked on a Saturday. Now I know what some of you are already thinking. It's either, I work every Saturday asshole, what's the big effin deal? Or it's But you just told us you love your job, so again, what's the big effin deal? But I wasn't working my for my new boss, I was moonlighting. Only the moon wasn't out. I spent a day painting for a friend. Yea, he paid me, that's why I did it, mostly, I needed the money. But then, on a day filled with the unimaginable, horror struck twice. Tired after a long work week, denied the Saturday morning pleasures of being a complete loaf with remote in one hand and scratching with the other, I went out that night.

Oh the utter horror! Well, why didn't I just stay at home then? The thought had crossed my mind several times. But in the end it was one of those times. You know, those times when you know what you want to do and what you have to do are two completely different things. You see, it was my sister-in-laws birthday, and the wife didn't want to go alone. Now I love all my sister-in-laws equally and without bias, but really? The couch looked so darned good yesterday. It was calling to me, not unlike a wanting mermaid on a rocky outcrop at sea calling to the lonely sailor. Usually I am content to let the girls be girls and have a drunken night of bar hopping all to their own, the wife sleeping over as I am too senile now to drag around behind her shouting "Can we go yet?" over and over like some parrot with a set of car keys. But last night, she really wanted me to go with her, and promised me she would be tucking me in by 11:00. And I knew the SIL would like me their too. So I did what I had to do. I went.

We had fun, don't get me wrong. Nice dinner and a few yucks. (Although I did manage to play the wet blanket when the group tried in vain to drag me past my bed time to a Karaoke bar. I am not against going to a Karaoke bar. I like to sing. I sing a lot. In the car, on the job, with the band, sing, sing, sing, that's me. But it wasn't me last night. Moral obligations do have their limits. It's not like they wouldn't have any fun without me.) But really, I went because it was one of those family obligations that bind us together like duct tape. You have to suck it up, and do something for someone else. Why? Why must we put aside our selfishness for the sake of someone else? Because it lets that person know that you care. That you care about something else other than yourself. That you would sacrifice one night of your life to make them happy. It's not about you. It's about them.

So, young kiddies, lies the moral of today's epitaph. If you want people to do something for you, because you are so special, than show them you are so special by doing something for them, even if you don't want to. Even if you are tired and just want to lie on the couch and watch the Northwestern/Illini game at Wrigley Field that you taped going all day without hearing the score. Even if you have to drive all night through a blizzard with no gas and a broken arm fending off crazed wildebeests knowing all the while you have to work the next morning. Just do it. Take that Nike.