Serendipity
'Tis the Season
What is it about Christmas that makes people think that they can get away with slander, defamation, or libel? (These three actually belong in one tort family and basically mean the same thing.) What is it about this season that attracts undesirables and makes them temporarily forget that they are outcasts as they crawl out of the woodwork into malls shopping for buy-one-take-one lotions? And what makes these social pariahs think that baseball caps are de rigueur?
Last weekend, I had an ugly meeting with an undesirable entity from my past. But before I go on a tirade about this revolting creature, I would like to say that it is not my objective to ruin everybody's Christmas eve (just one Christmas eve in particular). It's just that I've always believed in the power of karma and that universal truth "what comes around goes around", so this story is just way too good to pass up.
After watching Hitman with hubby dearest last Saturday, we decided to get some toiletries. As we were wandering around this health and beauty shop, somebody exuberantly greeted us and even tapped me on the arm like we were long lost buddies. I looked at the girl and as I have a short term memory, couldn't remember her name or her face. Often I would remember the face and forget the name, but for some reason, I couldn't for the life of me remember both. Call her the poster child of generic-ness or the queen of plain but really, I couldn't place her face. And so in that split second of trying to remember who the hell she was, I just decided to greet her back with a warm "hi" lest I be branded a snob.
After 5 seconds of memory lapse, it finally dawned on me that the git who said hello to me was actually the Anna Wintour wannabe that I wanted to lynch a year and a half ago. Of course, I went ballistic. If I had a gun, okay, make that two guns, I would have shot her brains out ala-Hitman (the memory of Tim Olyphant was still fresh in my mind).
What do you do when faced with someone you've already burned bridges with? I've never ran away from my enemies, I face them head on. And so, I approached the gutless git who was wearing an ugly baseball cap (why, oh why, in the name of fashion was she wearing a baseball cap at 11 pm inside a mall?) and told her that she makes my skin crawl. I said I haven't forgotten what she has done to me and the fact that she had the audacity to say hello to me is the clearest manifestation of how thick-faced she really is, blah, blah, blah! The whole time I was spewing invectives at her, she just stood there like the pathetic idiot that she was with her mouth wide open. She attempted to say something but she ended up sputtering incoherent words instead.
I thought I was the one with the short term memory. After everything that happened between us, she says hello and that's it? She expects me to go all mushy, shake hands, kiss and make up? I know it's Christmas and "peace to all mankind" is the mantra of this season, but I draw the line especially with people who have attempted to destroy my reputation and tried to discredit me to my friends and colleagues. Apparently, she didn't succeed. I'm still here, standing tall and unscathed, doing the things that I've always done (like ranting and bitching about her and other lowlives).
That girl and I had a bad history, and although there are so many things that I still want to say here about what she has done, seeing her looking the way she did last Saturday (like a loser trying to hide from people she owes money from because she couldn't pay her monthly office rent, what else?) was vindication in itself. Apparently, the law of nature has taken its course. Her little publishing project is dying (or maybe it's already dead as I haven't seen a single copy in months), thanks to bad grammar and empty promises (er, 20,000 copies, are you kidding me?).
What irked me a year and a half ago was the fact that she had no honor, no delicadeza, and no sense of integrity. A tap on the shoulder and a fake hello will not make things right. Maybe an apology will.
One thing that I have learned after years of going through crud while dealing with crappy people is that there's no use being a hypocrite. There should be no gray areas when it comes to our relationships with people. Be genuine and real. People might hate you for being honest, but believe me, you'll love yourself more that way.
Merry Christmas to my family, relatives, in-laws, friends, and to all those who love this column!