My husband, king of directness.

So one night earlier this week we're just hanging around on a rare night that Tim is actually home. The doorbell rings at around 8 pm and we both look at each other like, "huh?"

He goes to the door and it's some 13 year old kid, who (poor thing) is losing a terrible battle with acne and puberty. His poor face tells the whole story and his voice is cracking to go along with it. I have never been a guy but I can say that if I was, I would not want this sort of a puberty experience. Mortifying.

So he is trying to sell something and the conversation goes something like this between he and Tim (also note that Tim does not open the screen door the whole time):

Kid: So, I'm uh, uh, a worker of (???) organization and I'm trying to (???)....mumble, mumble, mumble.

Tim (interrupts): Do you just want money?

Kid: Uh, yeah, basically.

Tim: Well I don't have any. Sorry.

I totally dig the way Tim handled this. I get so annoyed with all of the solicitors. And you might as well ask upfront if what they really want is money and get to the bottom of it. I mean, why are people even doing door to door sales anymore? It just seems like that's probably fallen by the wayside with the internet prominence now. Not to mention, we already are involved in various charities and organizations that we do pick to donate money and time to. So why would we just be like, "oh the organization for blah, blah, blah." Oh yes. Perfect. Here's $100 in exchange for a 100 year old caramel bar.

While I love our new place, it seems as if it is a prime target for solicitors (which, by the way, is weird considering our old place was on a major road). It just irritates me. Like I said, we carefully pick what charities we choose to give money to and I'm sure once we have kids we'll give enough money to schools to last forever. Until then, I wish these people (ie: kids) would stop ringing the doorbell at 8pm. And by the way, as just a sidenote: when I was that age, I was on my way to bed at 8pm. Um, maybe I was just weird or had parents who were weird and made me go to bed but I know I was certainly not going door to door at that time of night...

I might have to practice Tim's way of handling this next time I'm by myself. I usually try to listen to the speech and then 10 minutes later, I'm just annoyed because the whole time I know they just want money, I know I'm not going to give it to them, and I know that I'm just getting my time wasted. So lesson learned... I was absolutely amazed that his encounter only lasted about 30 seconds.