Laundry-My Best Option on a Monday Night

Maybe I'm just too nice or too dumb, probably a combination of the two but Specimen #2 never ceases to amaze me with his Houdini-like disappearing acts. In fact, he is about as regular in my life as the feedback I receive on my dissertation from my chair, few, far and in between and you're always pissed off afterwards---I mean really pissed off. I think the only difference between #2 and the dissertation is that at least with the dissertation I am making some sort of linear progress, whereas with him it's like this endless circular argument. Maybe I am insane? Didn't Einstein says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different result? I don't know, I mean how many rain checks does he get to have before I can combine them in the form of some ultimate 5-day cruise get-away package? Doesn't matter anyway because you couldn't get an rsvp out of him anyway,  he can't commit to anything, because he is always waiting for the better option and if he does commit he always manages like Houdini to find his way out of it. I mean how in the hell do you tell someone let's go to dinner for their birthday then take off on a vacation with your brother instead. Then proceed to float in and out of my life for the next two-months with little to nil communication and then all the sudden say "Hey, let's go to dinner for your birthday?" A good friend of mine once told me that "men only go as far as the women in their lives allow them to." So yeah, I am probably culpable for allowing this type of behavior to continue in the first place but I must say today I felt a little empowered and a little more rational in responding to the 2-month belated birthday dinner offer. Rather than jump at the opportunity for dinner and company this time, I actually thought this one through and realized that it was a Monday and that I haven't heard from him for over 2 weeks. From those two realizations I was able to deduce (which doesn't take an Einstein) that there obviously wasn't a better option in his life today and that I was his last option to fill the void in his endless array of drinking, rock concerts, cars and frat activities. Instead of being insane and going to dinner, however, I opted for the inner-self respect of knowing that I am never going to allow myself to be anyone's last option and decided to instead settle for my "better option" which is my laundry because unlike him, at least, when I run my dirty clothes through the wash they come out clean at the end of the cycle.