I listen to my kids and husband hand out excuses like a Rockefeller handing out dimes during The Depression. Excuses are what we do when we are wrong and we're looking for a way out.
The moment you ask anyone as to why they did not do something they were supposed/expected to do, suddenly everyone becomes John Belushi in The Blues Brothers.
No I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD.
That and Eddie Izzard's infamous, "I was dead at the time."
I'm sick of hearing excuses. Sometimes it's not an excuse, but an explanation. An explanation justifies, an excuse is just sad. An excuse says, "I know I screwed up, but I'm trying to hide my screw up and get away with it."
There are some people for whom just saying their name aloud causes them to go into a Jake Blues soliloquy of excuse spouting. If they can work in "the dog ate my..." then bonus points all around. It reminds me of when my sister was a toddler and our youngest sister was just learning to get around. The moment you said my sister's name, her automatic response was to yell that the youngest had done it. She was two and had quickly figured out the excuse.
Some days it's what it must be like to live and work in Washington, DC.
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