Never a borrower nor a lender be.

I hate loaning stuff out. I always end up saying I'll never do it again, but of course, I want to be a nice person, a good friend, etc. I just never learn. People are crappy and inconsiderate borrowers, and me being the nice non-confrontational person that I am, I always end up feeling like I've been taken advantage of.

Now, don't get me wrong, I admit it - I myself have been the crappy borrower before. The difference is, I realized that I was WRONG, and I've since turned over a new leaf. Nowadays, I just don't borrow stuff from people - the simplest way to avoid any bad borrower/lender situations. On the very few occasions that I actually do borrow something, I will make it a point to follow my rules of borrowing etiquette.

I'm married to a bad borrower, who borrowed some gear (granted, from one of his best friends) and didn't return it for months afterwards. I asked him about it a couple of times in the weeks immediately after we got back, and basically got a "mind your own business, it's not a problem" attitude. Boy was JB surprised when, after so many months, his friend finally had to break down and ask for his own stuff back (see my rules below). JB had forgotten he even had it! Of course, I knew exactly where it was all along - it being a somewhat sensitive topic for me after so many bad experiences. And then (!) he actually MAILED the stuff back !! Not following rule # 5 at all. Guess what?! Yep, the package arrived damaged, with half the stuff missing. I don't know if he followed rule # 6 yet or not, and that all transpired a couple of months ago. If not, maybe a nice gift certificate to a sporting goods store (or a joint shopping trip, more fun & personal), given ASAP, would be in order...?

I have this friend at work, I loaned her about $200 worth of snowboarding gear for a trip she took at the beginning of February. She's not following the rules. Maybe she'll see my website and get the hint. Now, she hasn't broken all the rules... YET. If she doesn't return my stuff to me tomorrow, I'm going to be forced to do all the stuff I shouldn't have to, and her credibility will be GONE (it's already going... going...). Funny, she's always the one pointing out other people's etiquette faux pas or behavioral quirks. I thought for sure she knew the borrowing etiquette rules, which is why I even loaned her the stuff to begin with. Huh.