Didn't say yes

Today was the first real time I've shirked the "Say yes" manifesto. Sure I've declined cups of tea and things like that, but I don't think they really count. Especially with a lovely doting mum who would probably feed me till I exploded if I just kept saying yes to everything.

Anyway, on to the "no".

I went to my second Tai Chi class today (and dragged a lab mate along for company) and had a very good time. The session was fun, and the group went to the pub afterwards, where we sat round an outdoor fire and toasted some marshmallows. I got into a heated debate with an American, when I made a flippant comment about the US, which got taken rather seriously.

Towards the end of the evening, one of the group pushed round forms for a charity blind date event. Everyone was basically turning it down (she later confessed that she wasn't going to do it either). Although she didn't explicitly ask me, I feel like a bit of a cheat because it was an offer by implication, and even had she asked, I would have declined. (I took a form for a lab mate though).

Basically, I rationalised the "no" for these reasons:

1) I don't have much time left here to finish my lab work and get this PhD
2) I'm really not over the whole breakup thing
3) I don't really want to be dating anyone
4) I wouldn't want to spoil some other poor sap's evening
5) I'm terrified at the whole concept of a blind date
6) I really don't want to

Excuses 1-3 are the most relevant, as 4-6 are the kind of excuses which are just that. Excuses. The habits that stop you seeing the whole wide world and living life to the full.

I'm justifying it on the basis of the first three. I'd like to think that if I didn't have the first 3 as excuses I'd use the "yes manifesto" to get over the fear behind the last 3.

In Danny Wallace's book "Yes Man", he talks about different levels of "Yes". Level 1 is the easiest to say yes to: the one's where someone offers you money, or a cup of tea when you want one. He does a few level 5 yeses, where he texts his phone number to a screaming horde of "Busted" fans, or flies to another country on a whim, just because an advert told him to. For me, this blind date would have been a level 5, and I'm just not quite hardcore enough to go that far.

I'm feeling more adventurous, and would encourage the whole saying yes thing, but despite feeling like I've chickened out, I'm not going on the blind date.

So there.

AcidCat