fwd: re: gorillas for everyone!

i had an epiphany today.  nothing went right all morning, right down to arriving at a big conference late with my fly open, so i was more than a bit a little irritable.  then i got a cutesy-tutesy email from a sometimes-coworker who keeps asking me to lunch (you can tell it was cutesy from the subject line, above).  i'd turned him down 4 times consecutively, and on the 5th time invited 10 other people, but he still didn't get it.  so, being irritable and stuck in a conference all day, i was able to be far, far more blunt and un-soothing than usual, and wrote back:

You make getting together seem inappropriately flirtatious and date-like, and I don't want to hang out that way.
See you around -
g

and he replied to "apologize for any offense or discomfort," and "thank [me] for [my] candor". 
it was awesome!  it's so much easier and more convenient to be not nice.  after that, the day got a lot better.  i didn't even write back to soften the blow at all!   the only bad part is that it makes me feel like my old officemate (who was often truly nasty, but who certainly never had to deal with people she didn't care to).


ps - it was rainy today, and i couldn't get the sidewalk pic i wanted, so you don't get to see sidewalk part 2.  will try to make it back there soon...