If you hadn't rented that billboard, I wouldn't have known what you're trying to tell me!

You know what I like about my friends? Their complete lack of subtlety. Whenever they've got it in their minds to try to talk me into something, I'm surprised they don't follow each sentence with an elbow nudge and a wink that could be viewed from 500 yards away.

All I can manage as a response is to nod and say, "I hear ya'." But what I'm really thinking is, "We should really play poker sometime. With a bluff like that, I could retire on my winnings."

Maybe it was all those years I spent being naive and oblivious to subtle hints while at the same time being stubborn to do whatever someone was trying to talk me into doing...but anyone who has known me for any appreciable amount of time feels the need to break things down into fill-in-the-blank clues for me to solve.

I'm not annoyed by this, nor am I bitching about it. In fact, I find it hilarious!

My biggest temptation in all of this is to do whatever they're trying to talk me into doing, and do it behind their backs for a couple months. Let them all sweat it out and make their hints more and more obvious before I finally tell them, "Oh, that? What do you think I've been doing all this time?"

I know I'm the kind of guy that can't keep his mouth shut about anything, and that this kind of trickery would be a major accomplishment on my part, but the thought of that look on my friends' faces would be priceless.