I was thinking about the counselor said to me earlier this week. She told me I had too many rules. When she said that, I was flabbergasted. As far as I was concerned, I'd never made ANY rules for Mr. Nick. I've never told him what he absolutely can or cannot do, so I don't know how this notion of me and rules came up. I am not a controlling person. The only thing I've ever requested is no phone calls after 10, but Mr. Nick still calls me then anyway.

But something came up for him while I was in Boston. He had a very bad experience with a dermatologist. He mentioned it in one line of an email. I had replied to that email offering some words of comfort. He replied to my response, but it was just mostly venting about what his doctor said about the dermatologist. I didn't bother replying to that email for a number of reasons:

1. The doctor that badmouthed the dermatologist wasn't doing anyone any favours and I didn't want to feed into the negativity. Mr. Nick just regurgitated everything the doctor said, but I was thinking...why don't you stop reliving that and move forward towards thinking about getting better?
2. I felt like all Mr. Nick wanted was pity from me, and I didn't want to give him any.
3. I was going to be home in two days, and since he's not diligent about replying to my emails, I didn't think it was necessary to reply to his email with high priority. (It was a little "here's a taste of your own medicine."
4. After the lengthy diatribe about what his doctor said, he ended the email with one line to say he was hoping I was having a better time in Boston [than what he was going through].
5. It would have been too much of a pain to reply to his email saying everything I would have by typing in my iPod.

Although I had free wifi, the only time I was at a computer was when I borrowed my cousin's laptop -- hence only two blog posts while I was gone!

In counseling, we talked about his medical emergency and my lack of response to it. What he had really wanted was for me to contact him by phone. I said if he really needed to, he could have called me. I had my cell phone with me all the time, and I told him exactly what hotel and what room I was staying in. But he took it as a rule that I did not want phone calls while I'm away. I would prefer not to, honestly, but what did he think I was going to do if he called? Hung up on him? Told him I didn't want to talk to him? Tell him I hated him and to never call again? What would have been the worst thing to happen if he called me?

Like, seriously!

On a more positive note, I did a presentation for my team yesterday for the first time ever, and when I was done, my boss said I did an excellent job and then asked me if I had participated with Toastmasters before!