My Unsuccessful Trek to the UC

I emailed Russell today to find out when he is coming up to Salt Lake City. He replied:

I am not riding the bus to SLC carrying my luggage. I got sick because the bus schedule is mentally disabled. I had to wait in the freezing cold for a long long time. So you are going to pick me up, or something. I know you don't want to drive an hour, but call Chris and make a day out of it. I don't care about your precious time, you finished your finals and I think I deserve a break.

Sincerly,
The Queen of France,
Your brother,
Russell

Since he didn't want to take the bus, I thought I'd be a nice brother and pick him up. The only time I had open was tonight, so I called Megan and Scott to see if they'd accompany me on the trek to Utah County.

"The only problem is that he doesn't know I'm coming to pick him up," I told my passengers. Russell finished his finals on Wednesday, so I thought that he has been doing nothing for the last two days. 'By the time I get to Provo', I said to myself, 'he'll call me on my cell phone.'

We were standing outside of Russell's apartment ready to knock on the door when my phone rang. It was Russell.

"I'm here in front of your apartment. Where are you?" I asked.

"You are?" he hesitantly replied.

"Yeah, and I'm ready to take you to Salt Lake. Where are you?"

"I'm at my friends house. Jesse, I can't come up tonight. I have to babysit tomorrow."

I had spent the last hour driving and knew there was an hour ahead of me. I wasn't going to come back and pick him up. "Okay," I said, "That's fine. But you'll have to find your own ride to Salt Lake because I'm not coming back."

Frustrated, Russell told me he'd call me back. He did and notified me he could come up with me. When we went to pick him up from his friends apartment at Carriage Cove (my old stomping grou... apartment), Russell was very upset even to the point of being mad at me. Russell's not the angry type--he'll just be mad and you'll know it.

On the way back to his apartment (since he had to pack), Russell realized that he had a cleaning check and actually could not leave Provo tonight. Having had cleaning checks at BYU myself, I totally understood. Since Chris and Naomi Hathaway were coming up on Sunday for my Christmas party, I suggested that they could pick up Russell. It would solve the luggage problem and the ride problem. He agreed, so I turned around and dropped Russell back at Carriage Cove.

I asked him if he was still mad and he said yes. He even told me that before I picked him up, he spoke badly about me to his friends. I told Russell he shouldn't be upset because everything worked out for him. (I hate when Russell is mad at me because it reminds me of when we were younger and I was a really mean older brother to him. I used up all my "big brother" authority when we were younger, so there was no way I could use that authority tonight and force him to come with me).

I basically wasted a night by taking the initiative to drive to Provo. I even ruined Scott and Megan's night because they had plans which had to be cancelled. The only person's night that I did not severely impact was Russell's.