You Just Don’t Think

Someone reacted unhappily to what I wrote about our Galera vacation. She said it was - and this is the part where I got dumbstruck - too offensive.

I did not want to attack anyone, and I believe that others who read that post knew that my intent was not to discredit. I wrote to chronicle, and to inform about what Galera is like.

I thought she could offer constructive criticisms, so I asked her to quote the words she disliked. She pointed my unfavorable opinions of the rooms that I and all guys, sans the boss, slept in. Okay, I didn’t like that room. It was shabby. It was cramped. Its blankets couldn’t warm the hairiest wolf-man. Its aircon housed rats and, when turned on, smelled suspiciously like dust (personally, if I know that an aircon is the sleeping quarters of vermins, I will not use it). I was being honest. What was I supposed to say, that that room was Shangri-la?

I had the sense neither to mention nor to blame the person who booked those rooms - the same girl who’s angry at me - because I thought she didn’t know beforehand how bad they were. But when she confronted me, she said she knew all along, and she intentionally chose those rooms for us. She reasoned that if we guys were made to sleep in a room as bad as those, we’d wake up earlier. Meanwhile, she and the rest of the girls got rooms that looked first-classed.

If you oversleep, what difference does it make if you’re slumbered on a bed that’s hard and if on a bed that’s soft? Evidence said, “None.” The guys who hibernated in previous year’s company outing? They hibernated on this year’s too. Look, you do not remove people’s oversleeping problems by having them sleep on a janitor’s cabinets, because that will not affect them. They’d sleep anywhere with a bed. Heck, they’d sleep standing up! You want to wake them up? You throw a bucket of ice on them, or prick a needle on their butt. But you do not goad to them drink beer all night and then expect them to wake up early. That’s the mother of half-assed expectations!

Meanwhile, think of those - like me - who do not fall asleep and remain asleep as easily. Think of this cold I had to fight off because of how awful our rooms were. And you see now who should’ve been angry.