diggity

The other evening at work we were discussing cole slaw. I was reminiscing about how my mom sometimes would put raisins and cut-up apple in hers. The "new guy" comments that he usually had the red cabbage variety, and I say I liked that kind but with a little vinegar in it. I go on to comment that it was dangerous to start discussing the relative tastiness of red versus green cole slaw since we were really talking about western versus eastern style NC barbeque. The "new guy" then says, "There's no debate...I can't believe people eat eastern style. Why would you ruin barbeque with all that vinegar?" And then he walked off to do something...leaving me dumbfounded. I was confused about what to say - I don't eat meat anymore so my opinion is pretty qualified, I really wanted to give him a lecture on the different preparation methods of the two styles, say something snarky about western style being equivalent to spaghetti, and pour vinegar down his ignorant gullet...all at once. What I did was let it go, because we were supposed to be working.

Later that evening, the "new guy" asks me if that was my copy of The Sacrements Today sitting on a file cabinet. We had had a conversation about me being a religious studies major a week earlier. I told him that I thought it was our supervisor's, he being catholic and having a new born baby. The "new guy" says that he didn't know our supervisor was catholic, as if one can tell by looking. To vanquish my growing annoyance with the "new guy" I say, "Well, his family is from up north, Buffalo, and that does increase the chances of one being Catholic...over say being from rural North Carolina," and the "new guy" says, "Oh, he's from up North. That must be why he voted democrat."

I'm a patient sort of person. And I'm pretty darn nonjudgemental. I could blame the white searing anger I felt at that moment on any number of things. For example: 1)sour grapes; 2)the knowledge that our supervisor actually voted for Bush and not Kerry; 3)the nonprofessionalism of discussing politics at work in a partisan sort of way; 4)the insinuation that people from the South would only vote for Republicans and the inverse; 5) knowing that this guy travels 2 hours to get to work at a nonprofit that staffs group homes for developmentally, physically, and cognitively disabled adults - a company that has had to cut back on its staffing because of medicare revamping - and that he voted republican; or 6) that I will be working with this guy twice a week until one of us moves on.

But I think I was really mad because of that garbage he said about barbeque. western style my ass.

diggity