Work:
1a. I do the heavy lift, schmoozing the customer, talking up “upgrade/replacement” of the outdated, barely functioning equipment that I’ve repaired over-and-over. Then I call you in once on a technical consult, and you take the sale?
1b. You then have the nerve to exclude me from the install of the new equipment I had the customer (my customer, by the way) 99% sold on?
- I have a nifty idea to solve another of my customer’s problems. You were sitting on your ass with nothing to do, so I let you in on my idea/brainstorming session. Next thing I know you’re building it and installing it.
Family:
Dad: I don’t care how many times other people have taken advantage of your generosity and mooched off of you, living in your home for months, years even. Clean your damned house! Living in a pigsty/garbage dump as “protection” from other people isn’t healthy; the ability to stand firm is.
Niece#1: You get what you settle for. I don’t care if you get your PhD in Public Health; you still married a bum who does nothing more than sit on his ass all day playing X-Box/Playstation/GameCube/Whatever. He doesn’t clean house, do laundry, pay bills, do yardwork, etc. He leaves all that for you, in addition to your full-time job and Doctoral studies.
He barely feeds/cleans/clothes the kids before dumping them on his Mom to babysit while he goes home and plays videogames all day long. He then attacks you and chokes you unconscious because the rest of the family pretty much thinks he’s worthless.
Niece#2: So, you dropped out of college to marry a nice guy from a nice family, have two beautiful little girls, the 3 Bedroom/2.5 bath/2 car garage home in the 'burbs, 2 dogs and a cat. How nice.
Now when are you going back to school? Your education is something that can never be taken from you, even in a divorce.
Niece#3: You dropped out of high school, started dating a twenty-something man at 15, are routinely doing drugs, have felony warrants out for your arrest, and now that you’re of age, are stripping/prostituting at a so-called “Gentleman’s Club.” And you want the inheritance your Grandmother left for you, on the condition that you completed High School? Ain’t gonna happen.
Sis: Your daughter is just like you were in your late-teens: a fun-time party girl. But you never exercised control over your kids, because some book you skimmed through 20 years ago told you not to. Good job.
Brother-in-law: I asked you for a lift to the city tow-yard to help me get my stolen car back. It was right on your way home. I called and arranged things around your schedule, offered to pay for gas, and throw in dinner for you and Sis.
And you act like I’m asking for a loan for a new car from you. Fuck it. I’m glad I took a cab; I wouldn’t be able to stand the “you-owe-me” attitude at every family gathering for the next 10 years without eventually putting my fist upside your face*.
- I think I segued pretty seemlessly right into the “Feat of Strength” there.
