I didn't write this post in a bad mood, I was just wandering around the house, fully dressed, but clothed also in slippers and a dressing gown, thinking about how I needed my hair doing. And then I was kind of hit with an array of things that people say and do to me that really really irk me. Let me begin.
1. When someone tells me how I should dye my hair WHITE blonde. It's always someone in my family, and it always wants me to just pull all my hair OUT. No, I wouldn't look good with white blonde hair. I'm pale, and I'd look like death personified. I like having dirty blonde hair, it's something that I just have and yes, I get highlights but no, I don't feel the need to bleach the life out of it. When someone says this to me, this is how I interpret it - "
You look nice, but you COULD look nicer, if you do what I tell you."
2. When someone tastes food I have just cooked and says - "That's really nice, but you know what it's missing...?" And then they go on to reel off some ingredients that could make what
I have made 'better'. This is how I interpret these helpful hints -
"This is really nice, but I could make it better."
3. When I write something at work (I write a lot of training manuals and notes), and someone else WRITES OVER what I wrote because it 'makes more sense this way'. NO. I will not be edited by someone who does not know what I was writing. I don't mind people suggesting I change wording to 'dumb it down' etc. But when someone writes over MY own words, thus kind of taking credit for the work, it makes me want to kill myself. And I mean that. This is how I interpret their suggestion -
"Yeah, this is good, but I think if I write this bit better it will sound way better and I'll get credit for it". Note to all, whenever people do this to me they actual confuse matters even more.
4. When I get blamed for things
other people don't do. Again, it's a work related thing - you see I 'fix' things at work. When the system is broken, I am the technical gal who does calculations and work arounds to figure out what should be done to fix said circumstance (hard to explain without really going into it, which is dull!). People who send things MY way to get fixed
should write a note on the file to say what has happened. But they don't. And when things go WRONG because of this, it's kind of incinuated that
I should have done their job for them. Now, I don't get paid to fix things, I do it because I like it, but managers and colleagues alike take the effing piss when they suggest something that isn't my fault is. This is how I interpret their effed-up attitudes -
"You fixed this for him/her, why didn't you do the rest of their job for them?" Well, A. I'm not paid to, and 2. Because they are adults and they should be able to do their own work themselves. Where I work, it's apparent only 10% of the staff work at an adult level.
5. This one isn't as annoying at the others, but it's still something that annoys me and everyone I know. Music and films. Most of us like them, and we ALL have different tastes, but when you're having a conversation with someone about music of films you like and they visually turn their noses up and basically say you have crap taste... just, why? WHY?! This is how I interpret their music snobbery -
"You like ? Seriously? Oh my God, you have the worst taste of anybody I've ever met in my life - Hitler had better taste than you. I know this because I am the GOD OF ALL MUSIC AND FILMS AND YOU MUST OBEY MY LIKINGS!"
6. Vegetarianism. There, I said it. But it's probably not what you're thinking. I AM a veggie, well, I'm a pescatarian (which means I eat fish). This is also another thing that irks me. I eat veggie stuff, I don't eat meat. It's not really an animal rights thing, it's a mixture of different reasons, which I don't have to explain to anyone. All people should know is I don't eat meat but I DO eat fish. This doesn't make me a sickly person. I'm probably healthier than anyone I know, and it doesn't make me a 'fake vegetarian', it doesn't mean I hate people who eat meat, so just GET OFF IT. But people are always asking 'Why?' and giving me strange looks like I'M the one who's wrong because I don't want to eat cows and chickens. I just don't want to eat them - it's nothing to do with anyone else, but people comment on it all the time. This is how I interpret these meaty bastards and the veggies who say I'm not a 'real vegetarian' -
"You don't eat meat but you eat fish? But, you must either conform to US, the meat eaters, or US the vegetarians. YOU CAN NOT HAVE AN OPINION OR FREEDOM OF CHOICE - despite the fact that that is what we claim to be ALL about... No, you can't have it both ways because WE say so". Well, go jump you idiots.
7. Finally (because everything should always be in 7 parts), being a part time worker. The way people view me due to my part-time working bothers me on a lot of levels. People who look at part timers thing they are lazy. They don't like the facts, or the figures of it. I don't like the figures of it, damn it - I want more money but I can't get it right now! I'm stuck in part time limbo from my own actions. I went part time to start a uni course. I work 3 days a week and I'd like to go back to at least 4, just for the money - it doesn't matter that I wouldn't have much time for Uni work, because I really do need the money. Sadly. But A. people think I'm lucky I only work 3 days a week. Let me tell you, doing uni work is harder that working in an office so... gah! and 2. Just because I work part time it doesn't mean I can't do my work. Let me explain. My manager is a crazy dumb woman. I like her as a person, but as a manager she is just utterly stupid and I'm so close to leaving the team because of her dumbness it's crazy. Almost EVERY day she comments on how I can't do something because I'm 'only part time'. I used to have the heaviest work load because I can handle loads of work. I just can, it's a talent in multi-tasking and an inability to do NOTHING at my desk. But she has basically taken 90% of my work load off me, because she thinks it's not possible to work 3 days a week and keep on top of everything. Now, she is part time also, but she works 4 days a week. This, in her mind, is the only way part time works. Her way. Every time I say I can help with something, her reply is the same 'maybe we need someone who works full time doing it...' literally for everything I suggest it's the same answer. It doesn't matter that I find work SO easy that I do my work and make sure everyone else on the team is up to date also, whilst fixing peoples work that they do wrong all in 3 days. No. None of this matters, because she doesn't care, really. Here is how I interpret her idiocy -
"You only work 3 days, that's one less day than me, but I know it's not possible to do that. You must work at least 4 days, LIKE ME, in order to make a difference in the world and only MY way works. Look, I know, because I'm a single mother, and if I can do this whilst being a mum and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah AND YOU CAN'T WORK 4 DAYS EVEN IF YOU WANTED TO BECAUSE WE ARE ALREADY OVERSTAFFED". For the record, this isn't true. We are understaffed, they are just cheap bastards.
Well, I'm sorry I bored you all with this list, I just felt like ranting! :P Should really get back to my poetry essay... damn it!
Sam