love me or hate me

I am the kind of person that you either love or hate.  There is no in-between. I am like liver and onions, I hate it, but my dad used to love it.  One time, when I was a little socio, my parents made me eat a piece of liver.  I couldn’t leave the table until it was gone. I used a whole bottle of ketchup over the course of 4 hours to eat that liver. But I ate it.  (FYI-I hate ketchup too and this is probably why.) I digress…sorry. Back to the love or hate. 

When I meet people, I should say if I have to meet people (remember socio here) I usually have an instant reaction to them.  Like everyone else, I size them up, they size me up.  If they take too long to introduce themselves, going on and on (ad nauseum) about their accomplishments, how smart they are, how talented they are, how many degrees they’ve earned, I’m kind of done. No need to tell me how great you think you are buddy!  We will not be friends, you big show off! Move along.  At this point, I think you might feel the same about me. At least I hope you do. If I am already bored just meeting you, it’s over for me.

I guess the same can be said about me. I know some people who just love the shit out of me when they meet me.  I don’t know why. (Yes, I know this is hard to believe.)  I don’t think I’m particularly nice or funny, I yam who I yam. I am a little bit too honest in most situations, but I can’t change that. Neither can you, so stop trying please. However, there is another option here, those who hate me immediately. Shocker, with me being socio and all.  Again, I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because I am too truthful and not everyone likes that.  I don’t always use pleasantries; I tend to start by going right to what’s on my mind. I usually skip the perfunctory how are you, etc. I regularly refuse to put nice in my emails, phone calls or conversations.  I go straight to tell you what I want and look for my answer.  If you ask me how I am or mention something nice, I usually ignore it and go to the business at hand.  It’s not personal, it’s just my socio way. Getting shit done. But I guess it could be why some people don’t like me.

Let me be clear, it’s neither here nor there to me.  I don’t care if you like me or hate me. I have enough friends in my life.  I used to tell my kids that you don’t need a lot of friends in your life, just a few good ones.  For me, the fewer the better, lol.  Easier to manage and give them lots of love and attention (well within reason, remember socio here) when there aren’t so many.

Occasionally someone who hated me at first (and of course I hated them back) will change and then they “ride or die” love me.  It hasn’t happened often, as a matter of fact, maybe only once. Of course, there is a story here that I am about to tell.

I met my nemesis many years ago.  Our paths crossed and we really didn’t have a lot of interactions during our first few years working together. I did not know them well and as I said earlier, didn’t need to. They were someone who I heard about occasionally and I didn’t need to dig any deeper. I know how to mind my business. There was no love or hate, more like don’t know, don’t need to know and don’t care. Move along, for both of us, I might add. Then they did literally move along and disappear under dicey circumstances. Well, it really wasn’t dicey but there was a lot of drama surrounding it.  I didn’t care much about the drama, but everyone else did.  Lots of oohs and aahs and much ado about nothing really. I ignored as much as I could, it really didn’t change my world much, back then, until it did. They came back in a nemesis sort of way. If anyone ever tells you that it’s a small world and you’d better be kind to everyone because you never know when they will POP back into your life, you better listen!   It happens more often than you think.

So, when my nemesis reappeared it was bad. They hated me, I hated them.  I don’t think we hated each other the first time, but I do think that this time, we were being trained to hate each other.  We didn’t know it at the time, but we were being lied to by the evil man that was bringing us back to together. Some people like drama, (I know you are screaming NO WAY, right now, but yes, it is true!) and the evil man liked drama the most. In this crazy world, there are lots of people, we usually call them narcissists, that enjoy manipulating other people to benefit themselves. Some of you can recognize this because you have seen one or unfortunately, you are one. Either way you get it, but I don’t want to digress again, so let’s get back to the story.

It took us a while, but we finally realized that all the drama was being caused by the evil man.  Once we figured it out and banished him to a place far, far away, boom, that was it. We became besties. And of course, they love me.  I might love them too, but I’m not putting it in writing.  Like I said, you either love me or hate me.  Pick one and stick with it, I don’t care either way.

PS- Having a “ride or die” friend is great, but of course this story is completely made up. (wink, wink)