Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Miss CrankyPants. Or Miss Crankypants.

You know my kindness resolution? I've been trying. I managed to smile and thank the fellow in the  dealership who misplaced the used car Boy#4 and I had made an appointment and driven three towns away to drive (but, really?), I cheerfully held the door open for someone behind me as I arrived at work, I called for clean-up when I tripped and spilled my coffee all over the sidewalk instead of looking around to see if anyone had seen me make that mess before I walked away from it. Mostly, I'm trying and doing okay.

Still, all this kindness is wearing. It puts a strain on me, a strain I discovered a few hours ago when I got an e-mail from a vendor who is working on my college's website.

I am employed at Small College, one of the nation's multitude of directionally-named institutions. It's not Northwestern University and it's not Northeastern University, and it's not Southeastern Louisiana, but our name is related to those in that none of us have gratuitous capitalization in the middle of our names. We are NOT NorthWestern, or NorthEastern, or SouthEastern, or, well, you get the idea.

But people WANT to capitalize that middle letter. Oh, how they want to do that, even though there is NO REASON WHATSOEVER TO DO SO,and it drives me crazy. So when our fancy-pants consultant e-mailed to ask "Do you want these postcards to go to Smallcollege or SmallCollege?" I was a little, uh, vehement in my response.

"If, for some reason, SmallCollege were used," I replied, "I would burn every one of those postcards in a fiery furnace and we would reprint."

Wow. Apparently it's haaaaard to be kind.



2 comments:

  1. LOL!!!! I'm guessing the message was heard loud and clear! Does having four boys make the comebacks so witty? I'm always at a loss for a good comeback.

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  2. Now I don't see that as an unkind response at all. I think you made yourself very clear, making his job easier now that he knows exactly what not to do. You saved him time and frustration, right? Right! :)

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