I really hate when I have the misfortune of crossing paths (in this case semi-regularly) with someone who is subtly but definitely insulting but not blatantly enough that I feel I can call them on it, not that I would, necessarily, anyway because doing so is almost always a waste of time. But sometimes I really just want to slap someone. Or say something that is such an awesome put-down that the other person is either so shocked or so deeply chastened that they are rendered speechless. You know… just like in the movies.
Life would be so much easier if everyone had to follow my script.
(edited)
February 24th, 2011 - 9:23 am
In cases like the one you described, I try to tell myself that the person is just a miserable person…or as I once said about a former boss, “I just have to work for her. She has to live with herself.”
Sometimes, smiling and saying “Bless your heart” works for me. But that’s because very early on in my life in the South, another woman clued me in to what lots of women REALLY mean when they say “Bless your heart.”
February 24th, 2011 - 9:32 am
Maybe I should have mentioned that this is online, in some other bloggers’ comment sections. That hasn’t happened to me in “realspace” in many years. I wish I had thought of saying “Bless your heart” in some of those situations.
February 24th, 2011 - 9:36 am
Eh, I’ve been known to say “Bless your heart” (in my mind) to the person online.
February 24th, 2011 - 10:28 am
If they’re altogether hateful and rotten, killing them with kindness will catch them off-guard, which is always fun.
February 24th, 2011 - 11:32 am
People like that are like gnats. Have you ever had a gnat that kept flying around your head? A gnat can’t hurt you or change your life but while it’s flying around in your face it is seriously annoying. Soon as it’s gone though, you forget about it.