Work in Progress

I’m pretty sure Sally (I’ve changed her name to protect her anonymity) will be in today. She’s out Tuesdays and Wednesdays. She has another job, I think, and I can relax a little more on those days.

Sally is another introvert. And she doesn’t like me. She only ever talks to me when I’m doing something wrong. Although, to be fair, she has helped me on the register a couple of times.

Sally, I guess, used to work in Somersworth, but burned her bridges there and transferred to Portsmouth. I’m to understand she drove a lot of employees out of their jobs with her unpleasantness.

She doesn’t like “new” people. But I’m really not new, anymore, so what gives?

At first, I used to try to at least say hello to her in the morning. But she’d just look at me and look away. So I gave up real fast. I’m just about as dismissive of her as she is of me.

Okay, I’m introverted, too, so I totally get it. New people are hard. Sometimes exhausting, depending. But you have to still be civil and do the bare minimum. It’s part of being a functional adult. Apparently the rules don’t apply to Sally.

I used to be far more introverted than I am now. As I’ve said, Katey brought me out of my shell in high school. I also did drama, which helped some.

I have mostly always been able to make some friends (except seventh grade, when my mother had her first nervous breakdown in my lifetime). It’s much easier in adulthood. Adults are much more accepting of the socially awkward.

Freshman year of college was hard, because I went in completely straightedge—no drinking, smoking, nothing—to an all girls floor with no other straightedge girls on it. One of my two roommates was a nightmare. The other, thank God, was better, and we became close that year.

I had different friends almost every year, though, depending on where I lived.

As usual, I’ve gone off on a tangent, and it’s time to go. This feels incomplete. Oh well.