One of my methods of dealing with problems has always been the “ignore it and it will go away” theory.

If I don’t like what the bathroom scale says, I stay off it for a few days. If the kitchen is messy, I spend my time elsewhere so I don’t have to look at it. If I have a mosquito bite, I pretend it’s not there.

Ok, that was a lie. I will scratch a mosquito bite until I have gouged it from my flesh and left a scabby crater in its place. I hate those blood-sucking little bastards.

But most of the time I am able to ignore the various discomforts of life.

When I was in middle school, there was a girl who had been an annoyance to me for several years. She was “clingy” and I have always despised “clingy.” She seemed to be under the impression that we were great friends when I had no interest in her at all.

So I put my theory to test and ignored her. Completely. She would follow me down the hall asking me questions and I refused to look at her. I ignored the notes tossed to me from accross the room, the messages passed through other friends, and the taps on the shoulder when she happened to be behind me in class.

But she was persistent. And obviously didn’t get my well-established and carefully-constructed hint. After a good week of ignoring, she finally cornered me in the hall with a “what’s going on?”

Um…I don’t do confrontation, so I promptly melted into my shoes and died. But not before blurting out something stupid like “you’re-annoying-and-I-don’t-want-to-be-your-friend-bye” and running off to another class.

So much for my anticonfrontational tactics.

That said, the theory remains to be a pretty good mantra for me in most situations because truthfully, I have such a bad memory that if I ignore a problem it usually DOES go away, if only because I’ve completely forgotten it existed. If I confront someone about it though, the confrontation is burned into my memory, leaving a scar that is much more difficult to get over than a mosquito bite. Unfortunately, I’m not a very forgiving person.

However, I am now faced with a delimma that I fear cannot be ignored without making the problem MUCH. MUCH. WORSE:

Please be advised that your case has been set for Court on the below referenced date. A copy of the Court’s notice has been enclosed herein. WARNING: YOU MUST APPEAR ON TIME FOR YOUR COURT DATE. IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR THE COURT WILL ISSUE A WARRANT FOR YOUR ARREST. IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR, I MAY AT MY SOLE DISCRETION ENTER A PLEA OF GUILTY OR NO CONTEST FOR YOU ON ALL CHARGES. A PLEA OF GUILTY OR NO CONTST COULD CAUSE YOUR DRIVER’S LICESNSE TO BE SUSPENDED. A WARRANT FOR OUR ARREST WILL ALSO BE ISSUED IF YOU FAILY TO PAY AND/OR TIMELY PAY THE APPLICABLE FINES ON YOUR CASE.

Wow. They don’t mince words, do they. Most of the reason I hired a lawyer to represent me was so I wouldn’t have to show up at court. I’ve never been to court before and truthfully, it kinda intimidates me. And while in my own mind I have a solid case (I didn’t do it, I swear) there’s a growing doubt about the outcome of this little trial, made worse by the fact that the court is insisting I be there anyway.

Ugh.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 16th, 2006 at 11:38 am and is filed under Daily, Memories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.