Pretty Low
I just passive-aggressively attended a party. That's something I would do. And then I wanted to brag about it, but not in any forum anyone else there could possibly see.
As you know, I have volunteered at the same elementary school for 12 years, and they've had the same office manager for something like 3 times as long as that, and she's retiring on Tuesday. One of the teachers invited me to her retirement party, at another staff member's home. This office manager is a nice lady, so I made her a cute card:
It's a pastrami sandwich on pumpernickel rye swirl with a dill pickle. She liked it. I'll probably put it in my RedBubble shop eventually. So, I mean, I did want to give this lady something and make an appearance at the party. But the real reason I wanted to go was that, per usual, there is another volunteer at the school who drives me up the wall. She's in my space all the time, she does the work I like to do before I get to it, and goes around congratulating herself on how important she is while complaining that she doesn't get enough accolades as a volunteer. Meanwhile, she has massive class issues that affect her interactions with the kids and she has absolutely no life beyond being a helicoptor mom. She never talks about having friends. She never talks about her husband. She never talks about books she's read or movies she's seen or ideas she's had, except as they pertain to being a helicoptor mom. All she does is take care of her kid. She plans out all her kid's enrichment activities. I once saw her with a schedule for the local book festival and thought: hey! She actually does have some interests. But, no, she was scheduling out her daughter's entire weekend, in 30 minute blocks. I've even tried to ask her about herself and she's one of those people who simultaneously take pride in having no interests beyond her child while complaining that mothers cannot have interests beyond their child. They totally can, lady! Those 20 hours a week you spend at this school? You could use some of them to make yourself less boring! Or not.
Being the petty person that I am, one of my primary reasons for attending this party was so I could casually mention it in conversation while she's within earshot so she knows that she didn't get invited. And I did. Because telling people how important you are isn't what causes them to assign you value. It certainly doesn't make them want you around.
I mean, seriously, don't spend your entire morning shelving library books and then the entire afternoon complaining about how many library books you had to shelve. A) you didn't have to shelve any of them. That was a choice. And B) I *enjoy* shelving books and I wish you would stop doing it so there would be some books for me to shelve.
Meh. I'm petty. It was amusing to watch all these teachers getting drunk on a Saturday.
As you know, I have volunteered at the same elementary school for 12 years, and they've had the same office manager for something like 3 times as long as that, and she's retiring on Tuesday. One of the teachers invited me to her retirement party, at another staff member's home. This office manager is a nice lady, so I made her a cute card:
It's a pastrami sandwich on pumpernickel rye swirl with a dill pickle. She liked it. I'll probably put it in my RedBubble shop eventually. So, I mean, I did want to give this lady something and make an appearance at the party. But the real reason I wanted to go was that, per usual, there is another volunteer at the school who drives me up the wall. She's in my space all the time, she does the work I like to do before I get to it, and goes around congratulating herself on how important she is while complaining that she doesn't get enough accolades as a volunteer. Meanwhile, she has massive class issues that affect her interactions with the kids and she has absolutely no life beyond being a helicoptor mom. She never talks about having friends. She never talks about her husband. She never talks about books she's read or movies she's seen or ideas she's had, except as they pertain to being a helicoptor mom. All she does is take care of her kid. She plans out all her kid's enrichment activities. I once saw her with a schedule for the local book festival and thought: hey! She actually does have some interests. But, no, she was scheduling out her daughter's entire weekend, in 30 minute blocks. I've even tried to ask her about herself and she's one of those people who simultaneously take pride in having no interests beyond her child while complaining that mothers cannot have interests beyond their child. They totally can, lady! Those 20 hours a week you spend at this school? You could use some of them to make yourself less boring! Or not.
Being the petty person that I am, one of my primary reasons for attending this party was so I could casually mention it in conversation while she's within earshot so she knows that she didn't get invited. And I did. Because telling people how important you are isn't what causes them to assign you value. It certainly doesn't make them want you around.
I mean, seriously, don't spend your entire morning shelving library books and then the entire afternoon complaining about how many library books you had to shelve. A) you didn't have to shelve any of them. That was a choice. And B) I *enjoy* shelving books and I wish you would stop doing it so there would be some books for me to shelve.
Meh. I'm petty. It was amusing to watch all these teachers getting drunk on a Saturday.