I must be a glutton for self-punishment.  Honestly.  Not only is it the holidays, but I have also committed myself to an art show that is being displayed at the school that I work at in January and also, I have just signed on to participate in The Sketchbook Project being put on by the Art House Co-Op which is due in February.  I’m so excited about all of it, but now that I’m sitting back and thinking of everything that needs done, I’ve concluded that I’m slightly insane for not considering this all before hand.  Oh well.

I finally got my Christmas decorations up, after a lot of whining and complaining.  I was tempted to just leave them in the attic this year.  Had it not been for the kids, the decorations would have stayed up there.  However, I can’t deprive those sweet stepkids of mine of Christmas cheer.  So here are a few snapshots that Tommie Rae and I took the other night of our favorite ornaments and decorations.

Wednesday night our little disgusting puppy was hit by a truck.. or more accurately, Bruiser hit the truck.  He always chases our neighbor, Steve’s, big diesel F250 down the road.  Usually Bruiser can stop himself in time before he smashes into the side of the truck as he tears across our yard, perpendicular to the road, but on Wednesday, unfortunately, the roads were icy and he just slid straight under the truck.  Steve had stopped before Bruiser made contact, but much to our dismay, Bruiser did not come out unscathed.  His bone was completely exposed on his left front leg, and his back paw “toe” was dislocated and cut pretty deeply.  We rushed him to the vet, the poor dog was shaking the entire time.  They decided to keep him over night because they had to knock him out to stitch him up.  After X-Rays they found he has a few pieces of bone chipped off on the exposed part, but no breakage.  His whole leg is in a cast now.  It’s pretty entertaining watching him hobble about the house and smacking his cast off of stuff.

Normally, Bruiser lives in the basement, but we’ve been keeping him upstairs since the accident.  It’s been quite amusing watching him and the 2 kittens getting used to habitating the same space.  He’s so doped up on pain killers right now, though, that he will just look at them and fall right to sleep.  My poor puppy.  He’s a dumb dog, but I love him still.  Hopefully, he learned his lesson this time.

I want to talk about mean people today.  Not very often do I think of someone, “Wow, they are so mean”.  Today has been an exception, though.  One person in particular for the past year has consistently rubbed me the wrong way.  Despite my numerous attempts to “kill them with kindness”, this person continues to belittle, humiliate and lash out on me.  I’ve had it.  How do you handle someone like that?  The nicer you are to them, the more they feel they can walk all over you.  It doesn’t make sense and it’s driving me crazy.  I have never met anyone so purely, originally, mean.  Up to this point, I think that they believe that I am their friend (or nice to them) because I look at them as a desirable object, like when you’re a teenage girl that it’s unpopular trying to suck up to the popular cheer leaders in school.  This is SO not the case for me.  I am nice to them because I have to be and no other reason than that.  Now, though, I’m realizing that being nice is not helping things here.  Being nice is causing them to be even more mean to me and humiliating me in front of other people.  I guess there’s a time when even the nice guy needs to stand up for themselves even if it means being mean.  So this is what I’m going to try to do.  Sarcasm will be responded to with a blank stare and silence.  Raised voices will be returned only by my silence in walking away.  I will not apologize anymore.  I will not smile anymore.  I will not go the extra mile. 

Perhaps this person feels inferior to me and as a result attempts to belittle me in an effort to make themselves seem more important?  That’s everyone’s typical response to a situation like this.  However, I don’t think that’s the case.  I think this person is just mean.  Mean to the bone.  It seems to seep out of every part of them.  Even the way they walk is mean.   

It kills me to be like this.  I don’t like treating people the way they treat me, but I’ve exhausted all other options.  I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but after an entire year of this behavior, I’d have to say that this isn’t just them having a “bad day”.  It’s like when you go to a restaurant and your server is especially inattentive to your table.  Most assume they’re just bad servers, but I always think, “Perhaps their last table was mean to them” or “Maybe she has cramps..” and in that case I’ll tip even more in the hopes that I cheer them up and send them to their next table with a better attitude.  This isn’t like that, though.  This person is relatively happy all the time.  Happy and Mean.  What a great combination!   

I hate that this person has brought me to this, but after consulting several other people who’s opinions I respect, it’s agreed that this is my last resort.  I won’t sink to their level.  I won’t degrade them or make things personal.  I will simply be unresponsive to them.  I simply will not let them speak to me that way anymore.   

And I’ll start looking for a new job.  haha  Yes, that’s my last resort.. run away with my hands up in the air.Any advice that any of you unbiased, third parties may have to offer will be greatly appreciated!!!

And now for something that actually  makes me smile…