Honesty....Is Such A Lonely Word

I have a very bad habit. Or maybe you would call it a weakness.

I am a trusting soul.

I tend to always believe what people tell me and trust them.

As usual, it has gotten me into trouble again.

Of course, you have read about my search for the perfect place for my new theatre ventures. Or maybe you haven't; if not, you can read about it here. I still haven't found someone to share the space with, by the way----even though I have a belly dancer who is renting it by the hour----two hours a week, anyway. That doesn't make much of a dent in the rent, but I will take what I can get...

But back to the subject at hand. I did have a successful summer in the space, doing Musical Theatre camps there, and ended up with a record number of students in my last camp, with 17 students! It was a lot of work, as I write the shows that we do and then choreograph them, and the students learn them to perform on the last day---this while trying to do acting exercises, vocal exercises, teaching costuming and stage hair and makeup! Its crazy....and STRESSFUL!

So, naturally, the week with the 17 students was the most stressful, and I now swear that I am NOT going to put more than 15 in a class----EVER!!

Well, this brings me to my weakness. There was this Dad that had put his daughter in the camps last summer. Two of the camps, actually. But he is one of these kind of Dads that show up on the first day----never pre-registered, no paperwork, hands you a wad a cash and says that his daughter is ready to take the class. Well, of course, you don't turn him away, and you scramble to get a folder and supplies ready for the girl. She is a cutie and talented, so no worries.

So, this year I got an e-mail from him at the first of the summer. I guess that he had found my e-mail on my Facebook page. (He is one of my "friends"----this is where I am making a face...)
He wanted to see when the dates for the camps were for this summer, and was interested in having his daughter take them again. Well, I was rather surprised and excited that he was trying to enroll her BEFORE the class started, so I wrote back...

He then wrote back to me a few weeks later, telling me that his daughter did, indeed, want to take my camp again,---and he told me which one----and not only that, but his other two daughters wanted to take the camp also! "Wow!" I thought, "Thats great!" He then went on to inform me that he had to figure out how they would get there---he had to arrange the rides for them, etc., as he was no longer living with them, as he was going through a divorce, etc.

"Hang on," you are saying. "Did I just read a 'red flag'?" Divorce? And what is he doing for a living? Well, he said that he was bartending, so I thought that was probably why he paid in cash.

I'm sure that you are way ahead of me by now.

You are very smart.

You are not the trusting type like me.

I already admire you for that.

So, he then wrote me to tell me that he wouldn't be able to bring the girls, as their Grandma was going to, but that he would see me on the last day, when he came to see the show, and HE WOULD PAY ME THEN.

Oh,..........no..........not that, Shawn. You are obviously not that stupid and moronic.

Yes, I am. I believed him. I spent that week going through the worst stress of any theatre camp I had done---busting my buttocks to work with 17 students. And when he came on the last day,
(YES, HE HAD THE NERVE TO COME AND SEE THE SHOW!!) and I asked him about the money, he had the gall to say, "Oh, my wife didn't pay? I thought that SHE was going to!"

So, he took my address and promised to send it in the mail...

Its been over three weeks now, and of course, I have not seen any of the money. I have e-mailed him, and we even went by the Grandma's house to harass her. (Bret did that, not me----I could NEVER!) We got his number----he was living with his Dad,----puh-leeeze----but his Dad said that he had moved out and didn't know how to get ahold of him----RIGHT, uh, huh... I even wrote a Facebook reminder----something like----"this is your conscience speaking".... Nothing....

The problem is that I was counting on that money to pay my rent on my new space for Sept. I have been trying to make a go of this business for about three years now----never getting any money from grants, (I'm too brain dead to know how to write to get one) and never have had a loan (my credit is too bad---because of my first marriage, but that's another story)----so I have used every dime that I have made to put right back into my business. My dream... (Cue the teary-eyed music)

Blah, blah, blah....you are saying...I don't want to hear your sob stories any more... There are people with a WHOLE lot more problems than you! I know....I hear you....

But here I am, SCREWED over again and all because I am a trusting person.

So, what is a girl to do?

It sucks.

So, do any of you have stories about your trusting nature? I could so use a few....

....to make me feel better.