Steady as She Goes...

People amuse and boggle me at the same time.

It's interesting how an individual can realize their shortcomings and will even mention it as a personal pitfall. But if someone else dares agree with them or point out such a flaw at a different time, well, the audacity of mentioning the obvious!

I know someone who will freely admit to not "playing well with others". They have a lot of life struggle going on in everything from their job to their living arrangements to their kids, but insist on taking on secondary obligations and responsibilities that they possibly can't do effectively. They'll flake on these secondary obligations consistently (the only instance where they are consistent in their lives), apologize, give a sob story as to why they couldn't come through, promise to improve, mention that personal pitfall about knowing that they're not doing what they need to do, but then the cycle starts all over again. All the time. For years.

It's not that this person is bad or stupid. In fact, they're scarily intelligent. But sometimes they're not very smart. I've seen genius people who can barely function in the real world and I've seen high school dropouts become rather successful. This person is definitely more of the former than the latter. I think some Better Living Through Chemistry in their past plays a part in the flake factor, too. Sad, because this person's talents are absolutely wasted on them. Even sadder when they know what to do to maintain their responsibilities but they don't/won't do it.

Yeah, I'm not part of the clique they'll casually say when they're called on their track record. No mention of their own petard-hoisting that leads to everyone around them eventually demanding that they sh!t or get off the pot. It's never their own fault when they flake, there's never any payback for having others cover their spot when needed. No follow-through on anything, but it's everyone else that is acting like they're still in high school in the eyes of this person when they can't wiggle out anymore and push finally comes to shove.

I dared this person to follow through on their requirements...they couldn't do it. Yet I get hated for their failure. Such a shame, such a waste of energy. My time was wasted then, their energy in hating me and using silly name-calling is wasted now.

It'll be interesting to see what their next distraction will end up being.