Lies, lies, lies

I'd hoped to keep this blog mostly about my writing, but what happened to me this afternoon completely blew my mind.

I'm a firm believer in taking a lunch break when you work 8 hours a day. First, I think it makes you more productive, because you give yourself time to recharge, and second, well, you need to eat (and as is apparent by the size of my ass, you can tell I like to eat *grin*). On my lunch break, I usually hide in a corner and read a book. Call it anti-social, call it my way of recharging, it's what I like to do.

So I'm sitting next to one of the only windows in our cafeteria (which quite frankly is entirely too small when you consider that over 800 people work in this building.) I've been there for a while, so I've settled in with my book du jour (Writing For Children & Teenagers), when this woman comes right up next to me and says "excuse me."

She claims she'd said it several times, and I'll admit it's entirely possible she did, because I've worked hard at tuning everything out around me when I'm reading. Blame it on growing up in a big family.

I guess what she wanted was to get into the chair that was directly behind me at the table behind me. The thing is, I was leaning on the table I was sitting at, so had I moved in, I would have been squashed up against the table. Which is not the most comfortable position to read in. So I said "I don't have anywhere to go, sorry."

And she starts freaking out at me, screaming that I'm not the only person in the cafeteria, and that all she wants to do is sit in the chair. So I say again, "I don't know where you expect me to go. I'm sitting here." So she's still screaming at me, then pushes the table that I'm leaning on several feet away.

I'll tell you, I was flabbergasted that she was so rude, but whatever, it's not worth freaking out over, despite the fact that she's now made it difficult for the person at the table on the other side of me to move anywhere and completely invaded my personal bubble.

So I scootch my chair over and go back to my book, not giving this crazy lady another moment's thought, despite this being the SECOND time this woman has freaked out at me like this. Of course, on later reflection, I should have pulled the table back to where it was and told her to shove it. But I'm a wuss. What can I say.

At the end of the day, boss lady comes to me and tells me that she had a call from Nasty McBitchy. And I'm all, who? And she says that Nasty called her to tell her we had a confrontration in the cafeteria and she was really mad about it. Not only was she really mad about it, apparently *I* was rude to her and this was the second time I'd been rude to her in the cafeteria and she was going to go to the CEO about me. (Because I'm sure the CEO has nothing more important to do than listen to Nasty McBitchy whine about not being able to sit in a chair in the cafeteria, despite the FOUR OTHER EMPTY CHAIRS at that table.)

I was floored. She actually called MY BOSS. Worse, SHE LIED and made up this story that I was totally out to get her, leaving out the accosting me and slamming the table on which my elbows were resting across the room part. Really, what did she think she was going to accomplish? Get me fired because I wouldn't scootch my chair over? Umm, can we say wrongful dismissal much? Can we say giant lawsuit against a company that needs more bad publicity like I need a hole in the head?

But seriously, how pathetic is this woman's life that she gets her kicks out of starting shit like this? I just couldn't believe it. I can't wait to find out if anyone else says anything about this. I'm almost aching to go to the press cause this has made me so mad. Arrrgh. it almost makes me wish I had told her to shove it. Let her try this shit again. She'll see a whole different Pink Pen, let me tell you.