optimist vs. pessimist

If you guys haven't already figured this out, Jill and I are different in so many ways. Don't misread this, I love my wife a million times over, but we are definitely uniquely wired. Some of it is just gender difference, but other stuff is personality differences. One thing that most people don't know about us is that I'm generally the pessimist and Jill is generally the optimist. Jill always sees the glass half full and I see it half empty. Which is really weird because I'm usually the dreamer and Jill is the realist. Strange, huh. I think I can attribute this to a couple of factors.
1. Jill puts an amazing amount of faith in people. Sometimes I get frustrated by this because I feel that she is being naive...like I somehow have the right to tell her who to trust. But she doesn't see it as naivety, she believes in trusting people until they give you a reason not to trust them. This may frustrate me at times, but this is also what makes her so good at loving people.
2. I need proof. I like facts and numbers. These are the things that keep my mind in order. Without them, I can feel lost in a situation. Somebody can tell me a true statement, but it's not true in my mind until I can tangible "hold on" to something. Sometimes it feels arrogant to be this way. I wish I didn't always need proof.

Jill loves getting stuff for free. She is a deal hunter. In our old neighborhood, we would have large trash pickup on the first Monday of the month. Jill would drive the block looking for stuff to pickup. She would come home with a packed trunk and show off her treasures. Jill the optimist sees a treasure, Mark the pessimist sees the trash. When Jill and I first got married she would always get phone calls about sitting through these time share presentations and getting a free gift in the end. I would always say, "it's a scam, I'm not going." It seemed ridiculous to get such a big gift for sitting through a 90 minute presentation. In fact, I remember her talking on the phone and signing us up for an appointment. I just sat in the background and yelled, "I'm not going, hang up the phone. I'm not going, hang up the phone." This would always bum Jill out. I can't tell you how many times Jill has signed up for the these time share things, but I've always refused going because it's obviously a scam. Until...one day...I saw Israel's Macbook Pro.

One day Israel told me that a friend of his got a Macbook Pro for free by signing up for these offer things. Mark the pessimist said, "that's great Israel, go for it and let me know how it turns out. (wink wink)" Israel went to the website, signed up for the offers and three months later I'm staring at his Macbook...for free, did I tell you that part. (the website actually discontinued the offer because so many people were doing it) Israel the optimist, a laptop. Mark the pessimist, no laptop. Israel...laptop. Mark...no laptop.

So Israel gets a phone call about a time share presentation and signs up immediately. When asked if he wants to refer anybody, he gives them Jill's name and number. So what does Jill do you ask? Our appointment was Saturday at 12:30. And for the first time ever, I said I would go. I don't know if you remember but I was feeling inspired by, Israel...laptop, Mark...no laptop. I thought to myself, what do I have to lose, I'll give it a try. So we politely sat through the whole presentation. At the very end the "closer" came in to make the deal. He showed us the numbers and tried working his magic, but we held strong and declined the offer. Before I knew it, we were being walked down the hallway to pick up our gift. Was it really that easy? A lady handed us an envelope and said, "inside is your voucher for 2 nights in San Diego, 2 passes to sea world, and a 100 dollar gift card. Do you have any questions?" The moral of the story; Mark the optimist...trip to San Diego. Mark the pessimist...another weekend sitting at home. I think the optimist will enjoy life a little more.