Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me!

So, throughout my life I have been accused of being stuck up or snobby.  For people who actually know me, this couldn’t be further from the truth.  In fact, I am quite shy when it comes to meeting people and starting up conversations with perfect strangers (Unless of course, I’ve had a little social lubrication – and in that case, you can’t shut me up and by the end of the night I will be your BFF and you’ll end up telling me all of your secrets!  Like that you’ve had a boob job and you really don’t know who the daddy is – true story!)

As I’ve aged, I find that I am more open to people, which has in turn helped me to create many valuable and close relationships that I absolutely cherish. 

However, I still cannot get away from being judged – simply because have not made an effort to go out of my way to meet absolute strangers (neighbors count, right?)

Case in point:

My neighbor, we shall call him “Mark”… wait, that IS his name.  Totally blew that one. 

Anyway, Mark came over to the house last weekend, as he typically does, to bum beers off me and my husband.

Side story:  One Sunday morning, Mark came over to the house, knocked on the door and asked my husband if he could have a few beers.  Now this was like, the fourth or fifth time Mark had done this in the past few weeks.  So my husband politely asked.. “Mark, why don’t you drive down to the store and buy your own beer?” to which Mark replied “Well I would, but the store doesn’t start selling beer until noon on Sunday.”

Strategic and calculated, Mark.  Nice.

So back to the story…  As Mark is sipping on the third or fourth beer he’d bummed, he says to me – unprompted, mind you – “I don’t know why the people in the neighborhood think you’re stuck up.  You’re the nicest lady I’ve ever met!  I just love y’all!”

Wait… what?  WTF did you just say?  So what you’re saying is the people in the neighborhood think I’m a snob? Why, because I didn’t bring them cookies and cakes or walk around the neighborhood knocking on doors, bothering people and interrupting their family time to introduce myself?  Or because I don’t want to get wrapped up in their baby momma drama, I like to sleep with my wife’s cousin bullshit? Give me that beer back! (snatches beer out of hand in mid-sip)

Well, I didn’t actually say that to him or snatch his beer, but I thought about it!

So it was clear to me at that moment that it doesn’t matter what I say or do, whether I wave to my neighbors or not, I will always be perceived as a snob until people actually put aside their preconceived notions about me and actually take the time to get to know who I am.

Because according to Mark...

I’M THE NICEST LADY YOU’LL EVER MEET, DAMN IT!