Acerbic and Mouthy!

I’m in a rather acerbic mood this morning, generally cranky with life and people in general!

As I traveled the distance of my hour long commute by public transit this morning, my mind composed rather biting and sarcastic responses to comments that were never made. There was the woman who was rude to my brother and me yesterday morning in a passive-aggressive sort of fashion. There was the driver who slowed enough to acknowledge that I needed to cross the street, made eye contact to acknowledge that she knew I had the right-of-way and then proceeded to drive anyhow. There was the girl who pushed to be first off the train, only to stop dead, waiting inside the station at the top of the escalator in the warmth of the building for her bus, while those of us she’d pushed aside continued past her and into the cold.

All of these sorts of incidents made me rather glad that most days I have learned to control which thoughts come out of my mouth. (It may not seem that way to those of you who know me well, but trust me, I filter out quite a bit!) I was reflecting on the fact that as a child, I rarely got in trouble for defiance, or generally bad behavior, but was often in trouble for something I said, whether it was thoughtlessly rude, or deliberately designed to destroy. I received my fair share of spankings, usually because of my mouth!

Now if only I could gain control over the rather nasty and judgmental thoughts, stop having them, instead of having them but never expressing them aloud!

Compliments?

I was thinking yesterday about giving and receiving compliments.

I wore my hair in a different way than usual to work, by virtue of the fact that I overslept in the morning, and woke to curly hair going in every direction. With some quick work, I twisted it and piled it on top of my head in a fashion that looked cute (to me, in my bleary eyed early morning state, staring blankly at the mirror!) and seemed to show off the various red and blond shades that I paid a great deal of money to have added to my natural colors over a three hour time slot last weekend.

Apparently, however, the new style paid off, and I received a number of compliments on the style, and on my choice of clothing (also quick and utilitarian - designed around the fact that I had known I would be spending a large chunk of yesterday afternoon re-potting the office plants, and mucking around in the dirt).

However, there was one coworker (whom I generally find rather difficult to respect) who may have been trying (on two different occasions) to pay a genuine compliment, but came off as basically telling me that I should dress and wear my hair in this manner more regularly, because this looked "pretty" and the other ways and clothes do not.

The whole situation reminded me of the need to frame words carefully - to pay attention to even things like the tone with which they are delivered. I'm not sure this coworker in any way intended to be rude and critical (though he does have a general tendency to be tempermental and concerned about everything but his own job), but he came off this way none-the-less.