Ado Annie

If you're familiar with the musical Oklahoma!, then you know that Ado Annie is the girl who "caint say no." Ado Annie 2.0 lives at our house, but she answers to the name of "Sara." She has gotten herself into a "terrible fix" or two because of her inability to reject undesirable would-be suitors. These gentlemen catch her in a moment of weakness--while she's eating unaccompanied.


The first "fix" occurred over a year ago. Sara was employed at a local craft store and often lunched at a sushi restaurant. As she got into the car one day after work, she announced, "It seems like I have a date with a Guatemalan waiter." The waiter's English was incomprehensible, but that didn't matter. Sara is fluent in Spanish. She didn't want to go out with the waiter, but she didn't know how to respond to his request for a date and her phone number. "It was the only thing I could think to do," was her explanation when I asked why she had accepted his invitation and given him her number.


On her cell phone, she recorded a message in Spanish to the waiter telling him she "couldn't" go out with him. He called her 26 times attempting to reach her. He finally gave up. Sara hasn't returned to that sushi restaurant even though she loves sushi.


The second "fix" occurred last week. Tuesdays are long days for Sara as she stays at school from 8:30 am until 5:10 pm. She finds some place to eat dinner and then walks to her Institute of Religion class (7:00 to 8:30 pm) across the street from the college. She's eaten at Dairy Queen the last two weeks. The first week, she apparently caught the eye of a male employee there. The next week, the guy (who Sara estimates to be about 25 years old) was just getting off work when Sara arrived. He sat by her as she ate and they ended up talking for 2 hours. Guess what? He asked for her phone number. Guess what else? She gave it to him. "It was the only thing I could think to do," she again told me.


Mr. DQ has called Sara 4 times and she hasn't answered because she hasn't been near her phone when he's called. Not to worry, though, because Mr. DQ hasn't given up. He called our home phone last night. Sara told him that it wasn't "a good time to talk." I suspect he will call again.


Mark said that she should have given him "the telephone number to the Rejection Hotline."


The other night, Sara and I stopped at another eating establishment to pick up dinner for the rest of the family. She asked, "You're not going to leave me here alone, are you?"

In a related situation, Sara met one of Rachelle's former would-be suitors at her religion class. Rachelle had no trouble giving him the shaft, but Sara wasn't quite as assertive. Now another guy has Sara's number.


I think some assertiveness training is in order for our Ado Annie. Either that or she needs to give out the number to the Rejection Hotline.