Friday, December 02, 2005

The Hypocrites are Out There....and they're coming for me

You know how some days, it just seems like the world is conspiring against you? As the witty Edmund Blackadder once pithily stated, "Once more the Devil farts in my face!"

As I mentioned, I am trying to watch what I eat. While at school today, my coworker, who knows I'm trying to be more healthful than slothful, offers me an ice cream. It wasn't deliberate sabotage, but it sure felt rather Puritannical of me to say "no."

And, speaking of mixed messages, when I passed through the staff work room this afternoon, there were brochures and coupons for a new health club and personal training sessions lying side-by-side with coupons for discounted and free pizzas. Isn't this like offering jello shooters at an AA meeting? I suppose they figure you could gorge on the pizzas and then head off to the spa to either be sick or to work the pizza off.

Another sound bite in the saga of Hypocrites Are Out To Get Me today was the coworker that laid into me a few weeks back not only *spoke* to me today, after weeks of icy silence, but actually managed not to sound like she was being fed ground glass in order to pretend to be polite. All in all, it was a rather Bizarro World sort of day.

8 comments:

Phantom Scribbler said...

Mean, mean co-worker. Even if unintentionally so. My husband and I had some of the greatest conflicts of our marriage over his need to go out for ice cream every night at a time that I was trying to lose baby weight...

Running2Ks said...

How very through the looking glass on the last coworker part.

Anyway, I think some people don't even know they are sabotaging. Food is love and friendship and all of that. Or maybe it was a way to stay feeling superior, like if you got thinner, she'd feel less adequate. Really insecure people love to put others down and make them feel "less than", even if they are doing it unintentionally. Good for you for sticking to your guns. I can't stand passive aggressive people.

ccw said...

There is a gym next to one of the yummiest (still made with eggs and cream) local ice cream shops ever. I laugh every time I see this. I am also perplexed by fast food in hospitals and junk food vending machines at my YMCA.

I doubt the ice cream offering was a deliberate attempt to sabotage your plans. Breaking the habit of food, alcohol, smoking, etc is often difficult for those around us who are so used to us doing the thing we have stopped/trying to stop doing.

KLee said...

Oh, no -- the coworker who offered me the ice cream was mortified! she said several times that she had just plain forgotten, and that she was sorry. I knew hers wasn't deliberate, but I just thought it was par for the course for the day.

It's just interesting how we can get so deluged with such mixed messages.

halloweenlover said...

Turning down ice cream would be hard for me too! Although free pizza would be harder ; )

purple_kangaroo said...

Food allergies and baby colic give me a ready-made excuse to turn down just about anything these days, LOL. But I know what you mean by that "puritanical" feeling. It can easily turn into a "martyr" or "healthier-than-thou" feeling, too. I really have to watch out for that.

jo(e) said...

I stopped drinking years ago, and friends still forget and offer me alcohol all the time. I think often those gestures are just automatic.

KLee said...

jo(e), I no longer drink alcohol, and I still get offered it all the time as well. That doesn't bother me since I don't really WANT any alcohol. I DO, however, want the ice cream, so that does make me twinge a bit.