Right?

Following the theme this week of People I Play Tennis With, another guy I play with is kind of an asshat. This is not just my opinion, but the view of many other people I've gossiped with. He's arrogant and makes offensive comments during matches, like "You should thank me for giving you that game." He gives the impression that he thinks he's better than you, even when you routinely beat him (like I do.) He does have some really amazing shots, much better than anything I can do, but he's so inconsistent that he often loses to people who he thinks are beneath him (like me.)

For some reason, I had this weird vibe that he was a devout Christian. I didn't have evidence for this. He never mentioned Jesus to me, never made any statements that belied a rightwing Christian ideology, never talked about prayer or God. He never even made a passing reference about going to church when we tried to schedule matches. I just had a hunch. I told another tennis friend about my theory, but he didn't buy it.

(I don't mean to imply that his asshatitude and his Christian vibes have anything to do with each other. I know many devout Christians who are not asshats, and many asshats who are not devout Christians.)

So the other day the Asshat Guy "friended" me on Facebook. When I looked at his profile, he listed the following information:

Political Views: Republican Party
Religion: Christian
Favorite Music: Christian (most all types...)
Favorite Book: The Bible
Member of: One Body of Christ Experiment

When I told my tennis friend about this, he said, "Wow, you can really sniff out the Jesus freak, can't you?"

There was another time when I went out to dinner with friends, and after our waitress took our order I said, "I'll bet she's new." They all disagreed. No, she's doing a great job. I didn't disagree that she was a competent waitress, I just had a vibe that she hadn't been doing this very long.

When she brought the check there was a slight mix-up and she said, "Sorry, this is my first day."

I was right again.

My hunches are not always right, but I'm often pretty good at picking up on subtle clues and figuring out stuff. (Try watching a mystery movie with me.) The truth is my hunches are probably wrong as often as they're right, I just don't remember the misses.

But when I'm absolutely sure of something-- and it doesn't happen very often because I'm not usually so sure of myself-- I almost always turn out to be right. So when SnarkEx and I would get into an argument about facts (not about feelings, which is a whole other issue), I would remind her of this: I'm always right.

And I would be.

Sometimes it's a curse always being right. People resent you for it. It must have been hard to be married to me for that reason. Maybe that's why she left me. Or maybe it's because I was an asshat who pointed out that I was always right.

Check that-- I was almost always right. I was convinced SnarkEx was the type of person who took her vows seriously and was dedicated to her marriage.

In that, I was wrong.