2007-10-08
My Parents Are Way Richer
I think I've mentioned that there is a person from my same hometown who works in my office.
Last year, at the Christmas Party, she took it upon herself to tell me I am a bitch. She didn't stop there and her elaboration included this juicy quote, "I told my mom there was this girl from Springfield here? And she's a total bitch? And my mom was like, 'I bet she went to Sacred Heart-Griffin' and you did. Even my MOM thinks you're a bitch."
Crazy?
Hell yeah.
But during her analysis of my character and the supporting evidence she has that the high school I graduated from (15 years ago) is proof of my bitchitude, I bummed two smokes and realized I would rather be the one in this situation being CALLED a bitch than be the one in this scene doing the name-calling.
That actually has happened a lot in my life.
I sort of have learned to enjoy it when some girl goes berzerk on me for no apparent reason besides, "You looked at me weird!"
"Eh!! Deal with it. Wy do you care how I looked at you?"
Anyway, it happened like that at my Christmas Party and it hadn't happened in years. It was nice to be reminded that I've still got it, though, whether "it" is the ability to inspire knee-jerking hatred in random girls approximately mny own age or whether "it" is the ability to understand that the weaker person is the one doing the name-calling in a sudden-death bitch-fest.
I'm figuring out that I continue to have her number just by.... existing. Or she has an epic superiority complex, one that is way beyond my control.
My high school????
I live 2,000 miles away and graduated 15 years ago. Who cares besides the people who went there with me? Even my best friend doesn't think of me as an SHG girl.
And she went to Southeast - what a shit-hole!
The other day, I was having a private conversation about how I'm nervous to go back for the first time since I've moved and how my friend Heather said everyone there is fat, to make me feel better. I was clearly joking around and the person I was talking to got that and was telling me about her own experience returning to her small hometown in the Midwest.
So this girl was apparently listening and decided to butt in with, "Hey! That's MY hometown you're talking about!"
"It's mine, too."
Seriously? FUCK OFF ALREADY.
Today, I sent this office-wide email request for a donation to a great organization. I messed up the day/date combo in my email.
One person (guess who?)sent a reply to me: October 13 is a Saturday. Is it Sunday the 14th or Saturday the 13th?
Now, let me make it clear that the actual date/day does not matter at all.
I was asking for money for a big charity event and I'm collecting that money well in advance of the event.
The day of the event doesn't matter.
The date of the event doesn't matter.
As long as I am there with a wad of cash in my hand and my roller skates on, everything is all good.
But in that smug, unfounded email from her, I came to understand that her issues with superiority are at least in part targeted at me.
Because I'm a bitch.
And the high school I went to proves it.
Now, there are two options for me:
1. I ignore it and pretend like I don't notice her trying to meddle with my self-esteem. I laugh the next time she calls me a bitch and I play dumb, like I think it's all in camaraderie like, "You're a bitch!" "Yeah, I'm totes down - I'm a bitch, you're a bitch, let's all be bitches, yo!" This seems passive-aggressive and like it would lead me to more trouble than she's worth.
2. I go Springtucky on her ass the next time she calls me a bitch. "Oh really? I'm a bitch? Because of where I went to high school?"
And then I prove her point for her:
"You must be the most insecure and sad little person to keep calling me a bitch and talking shit because of where I graduated from HIGH SCHOOL. Jealousy is an ugly emotion and I hope that you get a chance to talk to a professional sometime soon because this?
Is not my problem.
Sweetie, you want to see 'bitch', I will GLADLY keep giving it to you and you'll be sorry you kept pushing for it."
This is a much more likely scenario and while it usually leads to tears when I say what I am thinking to someone in the heat of a moment, it justs them up every time.
I went to a great high school.
She's right.
My parents loved me more than yours loved you and also were way more rich.
You see, this... THIS is why I couldn't probably live in a town as small as that again.
I already will never fully escape the same things that happened when I was actually in high school: Dudes I like being hung up on hotter, more popular girls at my school and girls who feel inferior or jealous of me trying to cut me.
It's such a pointless girl game and what the people who act this way don't get is that all that's being accomplished is another notch in the headboard of Feminism Failing.
Every time a girl goes after another, more alpha girl just to prove her alpha is every time someone gets to say, "Women are inferior because they always eat their own."
While you're wasting your energy and my time, women everywhere are getting eye-rolled for antics like this by dudes who make more money than we do, combined.
It doesn't matter how I look at you or how someone looks at me. It doesn't matter where I went to high school and where you didn't. The only thing that MATTERS is if you see that none of that stupid crap matters!!!
Except, of course, that my parents are way richer than yours.
arizonasarah at 12:31 p.m.