Say What?!
It's one of those things that if it doesn't actually happen to you, you'd never believe it to be possible.
Here is a collection of things that you'd never think a person would be able to say out loud, and yet, they did. These stories are told in the first person, but did not necessarily happen to me. I am simply retelling them as they happened.
But It's My Daughter's Wedding
I've lived in my neighborhood for over 20 years. I've lived next door to the same couple all this time. When I moved into this neighborhood, it was a brand new suburban subdivision with minimal landscaping. After the first few failed attempts to get a tree to grow in the centre of my lawn, I finally got this Russian Olive Tree to grow. It didn't just limp along and suddenly die like any of my other trees. It grew to an unbelievable size (okay, so it's not more than the 12 meters of typical maximum height, but it's much bigger than I expected since they told me I was buying a shrub at the nursery).
Years pass, and the tree grows to a phenomenal size of roughly 12 meters in height. My neighbor's daughter, who is in her mid-to-late 20s recently got engaged, and it has been decided that she will get married early spring next year.
One day, as I was out on my front lawn, my neighbor approached me. In a very friendly tone, she greeted me and I politely inquired after the well-being of her and her family. And then, it happened.
“Lily, I wanted to ask a favor of you, for my husband.”
“Okay. Sure, Sophia. I'll try and help if I can.”
“Well, it's about your tree. My husband was just noticing how, you know, your tree has gotten so big.”
“Yes. Isn't it beautiful? I never thought it would get this big, considering how many other trees failed to grow.”
“Well, see that's what I wanted to talk to you about. You know, for my husband. You see, because your lot is a bit higher than our and the wind always blows from your side, the leaves are always all over our lawn. And then, when the tree is in bloom, the blossoms fall all over our yard. And then in the summer, when the tree has fruit, the fruit falls all over our yard, and there are birds everywhere.”
“Uh, yes?”
“Well, my husband was wondering, you know, since our daughter is getting married in the spring and we want to take some wedding photos in the front yard…”
“Uh-huh?”
“Well, we'd like you to cut the tree down.”
“The tree is almost 15 years old!”
“But our daughter is getting married in the spring and I don't want all the little blossoms all over the yard. It's such a mess.”
“Look, Sophia. I'll ask my husband to trim the tree back a bit since we have been fairly negligent about it, but I'm not cutting the tree down.”
“But our daughter…”
“No, Sophia. I'm sorry, but I'm not cutting down my 15-year old tree unless it's dying.”
iPhone Chivalry
The only thing my boyfriend wanted for his birthday was the iPhone. I told him it didn't make sense to get one because we don't live in the United States and the iPhone was not yet unlocked. It was days before the release and all he could do was moan about how badly he wanted one and how much he hated his Blackberry Pearl. So to appease him, I asked my friend who was in the US for a conference to please pick up an iPhone for me so that I could give it to him as a birthday present.
My friend kindly asked the Apple Store staff if the iPhone could be unlocked for use with a non-AT&TSIM card. The staff not only said it would not be possible to unlock the phone, but that the phone would have to be in the United States to be activated with the AT&T SIM card. I explained all that to the boy, but he still insisted that he wanted the iPhone despite the fact that he might never be able to get the phone to fully function outside of the USA.
The phone was purchased, and given to him a week before his birthday. He was ecstatic for a few hours. Then he whined and moaned about how everything was locked. After playing around with it for a few hours and checking out the Hackit0sh forums for advice, he got the phone unlocked to the point where he could access the applications, but phone service was still unavailable.
