Arlington guilt

"I screwed up so I publically need to assert my earnestness by holding a contest for $15." Arlington guilt. It's a serious thing.

Dear fellow Arlington List subscribers,
I have added a 20-hour/wk job (supporting families of children with
disabilities, which I love doing) to my already overflowing plate, and in
my zeal to pick up inexpensive things to decorate for the baby shower I'm
hosting in three weeks, I have responded to a few offers on the A-List and
have dropped the ball on picking up at least two (that I remember) on time.
I feel so bad for doing that, because really, isn't it annoying when
someone does that to us, repeatedly?
So, this morning, my most recent victim (after much patience and completely
appropriately) went on to the next person in line, and does not want me to
drop off the money I would have paid, which has been in an envelope in my
purse for several days, which I offered to do just to make myself feel
better. He declined, so now I have $10 which I am not going to keep. I also
thought I'd throw in the approximately $5 NYAJ gift card which they gave us
eons ago when they messed up our take-out order for the last time. I
thought the items have a certain thematic similarity.
It would make me feel not quite so awful about being unreliable, if I could
also make someone else feel better about having been stood up or
disappointed in some way. I wish I could give everyone something, but I
can't, so let's have a contest. If you have a funny short story about your
travails with someone like me (sorry in advance!), please post.
I'll start. Eons ago when I was young, athletic and wore make-up, a single
guy I volunteered with kept telling me how lonely he was and how he wished
he could find someone like me (except not married like me). At the time, my
sister lived in Philadelphia, and I described her to him and him to her in
such glowing terms that they set up a date involving him taking the train
to Philly for a day with her. The train arrived, and they looked for each
other until they were the only people left on the platform, finally spoke
to each other face to face (they had spoken on the phone at length several
times, but apparently not enough, or too much, depending on your point of
view), and got as far as driving around the block in my sister's car before
they mutually agreed that him staying longer would be a painful waste of
time. My sister dropped him off and he got the train back, and I have never
heard the end of it. "You said she looks like you!" (Well, I did hear the
end of that, because the guy stopped speaking to me). "I can't believe you
thought I would go out with such a misogynistic pig!" How could I have not
noticed that? My sister has always been way ahead of me. They were both
very disappointed, not to mention quite annoyed.
So there it is. If you can top that story, I will happily set aside the $10
and the gift card for you. Just don't expect me to deliver it anywhere.
And if I have neglected to do something for you that I promised to do,
please reply offlist. Seriously.

NAME REDACTED