If you can't decide in a day... you can't decide

I can get quite irritated at the the indecisiveness of some people, Most likely because I am one of those people myself. Nothing annoys us more than seeing our own flaws accentuated in someone else. A few days ago, I went with Betty to the Wal-mart to buy me a cellphone. Of course, it is impossible to go Wal-mart with a woman and a shopping list, buy what you need, and get out. At a certain point you will hear the line "Oh, while we're here..." or one of its many variations, which will be the start of a shopping spree no man can easily endure.

To Wal-mart's credit, they have quite a few different products. And by that I don't mean that they have everything from hunting rifles to peanut butter (they do), but that they have a hundred different brands of peanut butter. Including one that sells 16 kilogram(!!) buckets. But I digress.

On this particular day, Betty had decided to buy some bread, and so it was that I found myself at the giant store's bread section. And Betty was dancing around it like a child around a Christmas tree. Feeling the texture of all the different breads, admiring their looks, marveling at all the different flavours. Seriously, this went on for 10 minutes. I mean, how hard is it buy some friggin' bread!?!

And that's when it got even worse. I know, it's hard to imagine, but she managed it. She did the one thing possible to make this situation even more dire: She asked for my opinion.
As you may have guessed, I don't give a **** about bread. And I was annoyed. Normally, when faced with such a situation, men use tried methods that have been known to work, such as the no-no-yes rule. However, this only works for specific questions ("do you like this?"), not when asked for an opinion. Needless to say, I panicked a bit, and opted for the simple approach: point at the nearest bread and pray she'll just go with that. Luckily, it worked this time, though she caught on to the arbitrary nature of my decision.

The funny thing is, I did the exact right thing one can do in such a situation. If it is that hard to choose between the different breads (and one can abstract this advice to other concepts), it is likely that the choices are equal in value. Which means that more important than what you choose, is that you choose. The worst option you have is not making a choice at all.

Epilogue
Betty's indecisiveness cropped up again yesterday, when we were at an auction. I swear, this man talked so fast it was unbelievable. But I'm straying again. The problem was that by the time Betty decided she wanted to bid on some item, it was already sold. I was determined not to get caught in that habit, so when an old keyboard came up for auction I immediately cast aside any doubts and vowed to get it. And I did. For a measly 80 dollars, I now have a keyboard standing in my room, a re-branded JVC. It doesn't even come near a piano, but anything is better than nothing at all.

Today's title is a quote from "Munich," which is a good movie. Go see it. And sorry I didn't make it with the post. I'm only an hour late in my timezone though.