Rudeness

I’ve tried really hard to limit my rudeness since I’ve been here. But I think that my rudeness is really directed at others as a direct result of their rudeness or inconsiderate attitude.

Take for example, outside of one of the exits of our office building there are two trash cans. In between our office building and our apartments there is a dumpster. Granted the dumpster is maybe 30 seconds out of the way, but come on people, if the trashcans are full, take your stuff to the dumpster. This isn’t a game of “how high can we stack our trashbags”. People leave their personal trash for the cleaning crew to take to the dumpster. Grrr!

Last night was a little windy, and someone had stacked a whole pile of flattened cardboard boxes next to the trashcans (which had four bags stacked on top). The wind had blown the pile of cardboard boxes all down the steps and it was kind of a mess. Rudeness #1 – the person who wouldn’t be bothered to take their cardboard to the trash. Rudeness #2 – someone, and I couldn’t see who, walked down the stairs right past (and over) the cardboard boxes on their way to the apartments. It took just about everything NOT to yell and have them come back and help me pick up the cardboard.

Here’s another think that really gets my goat. I like good coffee. Mike likes good coffee. Therefore, we have our own coffee pot IN our office (Room 245). We make our own coffee so we don’t have to drink the “community coffee”. And we share – and usually don’t have a problem with it. The community coffee pot is right outside the door of room 247 (notice how close the offices are). Naturally, Mike or I will come in a few minutes early to make coffee for us, Spence, and Chip.

But when the jackholes who work over in the other side of the hall come in and try to get our coffee before the other coffee is made, that really makes me mad. It would be different if the other coffee had been made, and had already run out. Make another pot and while it’s brewing - come and get some of ours. But the coffee in the other pot is from the day before! Mike is cool about it, so I try to chill out. There are some people who are good about keeping the community coffee fresh, and we know who they are. We also know who the lazy moochers are.

So what I’ve learned to do is this. When our pot is almost empty, and Mike and I are done for the morning, I’ll top off our cups and then put more water in the pot and let it go through the used grounds. Mmmm!!! Share and enjoy!

But a great number of people who work here are good people. And we are all in the same (figuratively speaking) boat. And being away from friends and family is stressful, to say the least, and you never know what someone else is going through. They might have had a bad day at work topped off with a fight with a girlfriend or boyfriend back home.

So I try to be tolerant and think about what the other person might be going through. Maybe, just maybe, they really aren’t being rude. Hold on – there’s a quote I have to look up. And the internet isn’t working now. That doesn’t surprise me. At all. But the quote goes something like this: “Never ascribe to malice, what might easily be explained by incompetence.” The last time I saw that quote, it was attributed to Napoleon. I think rudeness is a form of malice when it is intentional. But I don’t think I’m ready to equate incompetence with social-ineptitude and laziness.

I need to calm down.

We had lasagna for dinner. It was pretty good.

Oh! I ran into the opposite of rude tonight! I was so hung up on being mad I almost forgot. Sara wanted to hire a cat sitter to come by the house while she is in Colorado visiting her parents. But the cat sitter company doesn’t have a pass to come into our gated community. So I was trying to get the phone number of the guy to help Sara get a pass.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone to get the phone number for the guy who can help with the passes. My old number was busy, Nicole wasn’t in her office… I couldn’t remember anyone else’s number. Finally, I wrote to Courtney and called her and when I asked for the phone number, she started scolding me! She wanted to watch the cat… I forgot that she lives around the corner and down the street from Sara and I.

So that was very nice of Courtney. It was extremely nice of her, and I double-tripple asked if she really wouldn’t mind - because Sara’s going to be gone for a month. Courtney said, “That’s what friends do when you’re gone.” Okay. So she helped restore my faith in humanity. I’ll try to reciprocate the favor when I return.

Let’s see if the internet is up yet. Nope.

Nope.

Yep!