have you ever worked with a person that suddenly turns on you? SEEMINGLY for no reason? how did you deal with it? do you confront them, ignore it, or slap the bitch?

quick- i need answers, as it's almost 5pm!

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2000

Answers

I would say that the best course of action is to go up them and politely and quietly say, "I've noticed you're acting a little hostile. Have I done something to offend you?"

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2000

Okay, situation reverse. What do you do when someone who you were never really on friendly terms with is suddenly all about loving you?

Situation...

Went to high school with this guy. Graduated with him, actually. In the three years that we were in the same school, I think that we spoke three times. Grand total of maybe ten words. Ever. Graduation. School's out. Great. Grand. On with life.

Flash foreward three years.

Am over at a friend's house when two other friends and said guy show up. The five of us end up watching movies for the next six hours. Guy-I-Graduated-With, whom I haven't seen in three years, sits next to me and spends the rest of the night stroking my hair, rubbing my feet, feeding me bites of pie. After four hours (!) of this, he leans over and kisses me.

What the fuck?

Someone, anyone, explain? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller...?

Meghan

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

my god, is it heaven or hell? i can see both sides to the evening, and it sounds pretty bizarre yet kinda kinky to me...

of course, i married the dork i met in 8th grade, so maybe i shouldn't be one to talk! ;)

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Irene, what a coincidence! I married the dork I met in 8th grade too! Of course, he's not a dork now, but he definitely was then. Hmmm...if I had only known him during his dorky stage, but ran into him again years later as he is now and he was interested in me, I would definitely give dating him a chance. But maybe I just think so because I already know how good he turned out.

Jodie, I had no advice for you about the co-worker, but I am curious as to whether or not she ever decided to tell you what kind of a bug was up her ass?

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

okay, here's the deal. the low-down, as it were...

i THOUGHT "kimmy" (not her real name) was a friend of mine, as well as a co-worker. we made dinner and watched movies, i modeled for a photo project, etc. things were fine. well, when i got back into the office after meeting my "new" co-workers, i was very excited. i told my boss (who is very supportive of the move) and kimmy that the job was even more than i realized- i think it's an issue of jealousy, or something. ANYWAYS, so she and i (and some guy using the phone) were the only ones in the front office, she had this awful look on her face. i asked her what was wrong, and she said she was angry with me, and we'd "discuss" it later.

so, later was, like, 10 minutes later. she said i've been really difficult to work with lately, i'm up and down all the time, really insensitive. THEN, she had the nerve to accuse me of faking laryngitis. i had no voice monday and tuesday last week, and even went to the doctor, as my second interview was wednesday morning. needless to say, i tried to explain to her how i get over loosing my voice (which happens about 3xs a year), and she said "the more you talk about it the less convinced i am." which i took to mean she was calling me a liar. boy, was i pissed.

so, saturday night, i get an email from her. talking all about how i didn't understand what she meant, and how EVERYONE was making all these allowances for me at work, and i'm DEMANDING all this attention, and that i'm totally INSENSITIVE.

news to me. i spent saturday and sunday in a funk (aside from a nasty head cold), until i decided that she's not worth the effort getting riled up over. friends don't accuse friends of lying, am i right?

so, i'm treating her professionally, and i don't give a rat's ass what happens, as i'm outta here in 7.5 days. so there.

--------------------- regarding my husband... we were totally dorky and jaded at 12. we drifted during late high school, and i (thankfully) missed the drug-induced freedom fest right after college, and landed in his arms (literally, from oslo, norway) 2 1/2yrs ago. and he's been driving me nuts ever since. :)

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Irene, sorry I called you Jodie. Why I grabbed her name instead of yours, I don't know. Who's the dork now, Lisa? My husband tells me all the time I need to wear a helmet.

I think you're right and Kimmy is totally jealous. Good riddance to friends like that!

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

no shit, lisa! thanks for the support. :)

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Oh God. There was this screwball I met through a friend-of-a-friend who I befriended 'cause I felt sorry for her. She had a lot of damage from childhood and came from a really tweaked family, however, still came across as really fragile and sweet and caring. And relatively sane - well, most of the time. She was always in the position of needing to be rescued, and every time, either me or my husband would come through for her. I should have smelled our reward a mile away. There's a lot of stuff that happened in between the time I, dumbass that I am, befriended this ingenuous shrew, but suffice it to say that my husband ended up sheepishly telling me that she'd made obvious verbal passes at him and bad-mouthed me to him copiously. He said she was so subtle about it at first, it took him a while to catch on, which was why he didn't tell me until he was sure. I later found out from some other of her former female victims (which are littered all over the U.S., BTW) that she's notorious for trying to steal their S.O.'s/husbands. Everyone I talked to told me the same thing, "Oh, I thought for sure you'd heard about _______, it's just what she does." The chilling thing is that this person (I'm loathe to call her a human being) could act sincere so convincingly, I never would have guessed her capable of such perfidy. Yeesh, what a piece of work.

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2000