Good Girl Gone Bad

I take pride in having the ability to love unconditionally, the capacity to forgive easily, and the virtue of enduring patience. Before I react to an irritating situation, I would try to envision myself in the other person’s shoes and understand why he (or she) thinks the way he does. Modesty aside, some people actually tell me I’m a sweetheart ;-).

Having said that... there are people however, who can push my buttons (especially on a bad day), test my patience and trigger my b*tchy side.

Case in point…

One day in college, driven by my perpetual curious nature, I decided to try and watch a movie by myself. I bought the movie ticket, grabbed a coke and popcorn, and settled in at a seat close to the exit. A few minutes later, a guy sat on the seat next to me. In the middle of the movie, his hand accidentally brushed against my leg and said “sorry”. Since I thought it was an accident, I made no big deal about it. It happened again a second time, and again, he apologized. I started to feel annoyed. I gave him an evil look and tried to sit as far from him as possible. Two more times however, and I totally lost my cool! If in the beginning I thought I was just being paranoid, after that, there was no doubt in mind that I was being harassed! However, instead of getting mad, I decided to get even. Since the movie was almost at its end, I took a sip of my coke, set it in between our seats, and as the credits started rolling, “accidentally” knocked the drink onto his lap! I said “sorry”, then strutted out of the theater feeling vindicated! (I never watched a movie by myself again after that though).

Another scenario…

After a long and hard day at graduate school, I went to the grocery store to pick up some items for my fridge. I drove my car to the parking lot and saw an empty spot I could park at. I signaled my intent, but there were a couple of pedestrians blocking my way. I waited patiently for them to cross, but as I was about to park, a car in the opposite side dived in and tried to grab my spot. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have let it go, but after just dealing with frustrations in my research and abdominal cramps, I was ready to blow off. Still, I tried to be calm and said nicely, “Excuse me, I was about to park there.”

The woman looked at me haughtily and replied, “Well, you’re taking such a long time! I'm in a hurry!”

That was the last straw! If she acted nicely about it, I probably would have been more patient. But given the arrogant way she responded, I flipped out and yelled angrily, “Didn’t you see the people in front of me?”

The woman chose to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, and continued to inch into the spot. At some point however, she realized she couldn’t park completely as I was partially blocking the way! When she had no choice but to look in my direction, I said, “Either you find another parking spot or we’ll be here all night! ”. I was bluffing of course (and it was probably a childish reaction), but at that time, I felt that I have to stand my ground. It’s a matter of principle! Aside from that, I was so tired and grumpy, there’s probably no way anybody can talk sense into me! The woman grudgingly gave up and left me to my precious spot ;-)

Moral of the story: There's a b*tchy side to every woman... even if she's a sweetheart.