The Fine Art of Shunning

So, I admit that I'm occasionally a blunt person. I can dissemble, it's just that, unless I see the need, I don't. And I know that things don't seem insulting/hurtful/what have you to me, but do to others. The other week, in a discussion with my sister about how she needs to be an adult and discuss a problem that she's having with our mom, rather than throwing screaming fits about it (she's 22, btw), I somehow managed to upset her by bringing up the fact that an adult deals with things in a certain way, meets the requirements of their job, etc. I didn't *mean* it to upset her - in the past she had a problem with oh, getting up in time to go to work. I was using it as an example of how she acted when she was a teen, and how she acts now as an adult. But it upset her, apparently.

Never mind that my talk with her actually worked, and she did sit down and discuss the problem with Mom. But then, the next morning, *I* got told by Mom that I shouldn't bring the work thing up anymore, because it upset BabySis! Which leads to the whole problem of why am I expected to ignore history? What good does that do? Though I did point out that I didn't have any intention of making BabySis feel bad about it. It's just something that exists in the past - I'm not clinging to any sort of negative feelings about it, though apparently BabySis is. Anyway. I said something like, 'I don't get why she's so sensitive about it.' and Dad said, 'It's because other people *have* emotions.' *rolls eyes* Now, it's not that people think I don't have feelings, it's just that...for the most part, they don't impact the things that I say. And I sometimes forget that other people aren't as prone to divorcing how they feel from what they think needs to be said or done. I'm not all that concerned, generally, with holding other peoples' hands to their own detriment. And I keep my own emotions to myself, mostly, because that's where they belong.

Something ugly in the past? I'll drag it out into the light, because I think it's healthier! I get that I don't get why certain subjects are socially taboo to talk about in public, and try to edit myself in that regard, but that's about it.

Anyway! The point of the post is, I realize that I am occasionally perceived as insensitive by other people. (Not to mention odd, and possibly certifiable, but I'm pretty sure they were joking about the men in the white coats...) So, yesterday, I'm sore from exercising, and a coworker comes up to tell me that we're out of 8 1/2 x 11 paper in the closet. I keep an emergency stash under my desk, and pulled a ream out, and tried to hand it to her over my computer monitor. In the mean time, she said something about there only being 11x17 paper in there, to the tune of 8 cartons. I responded, jokingly, that there couldn't be 8 cartons in there, because I only ordered 6. So then she starts to count them on her fingers, rolling her eyes up in that way that denotes imagining the room, and the whole time I'm holding this ream of paper out, and I finally just told her to take the paper. She took it, and I got up to go see if she was right about us being out, because if so, then I needed to find one of the warehouse guys before they left for the day. Well, so I found an almost full carton (someone had stacked an 11x17 carton on it), and sat back down to tell her.

Well! She wouldn't even turn to look at me, but, very nastily, told me that 'she had had enough of me!' 'she was through with me!' and 'shut the hell up!' *rolls eyes* So, whatever. I didn't say anything to her the rest of the day (like, an hour), because I figured that she was clearly having a moment and anything I said would just aggravate her, and that she'd get over it. Apparently, she hasn't, because she's not speaking to me today! All day, nothing! And I really have *no idea* what it is that I did!

So, whatever. You know what the only response to such childishness is?

Niceness and adult behavior. :p

And yet she'll still forward joke emails to me. Confusing person is confusing.