People and Other People's Kids

I am not a people person. I am more so than Husband is (he prides himself on not being a people person) but it takes me a long time to really get to know someone and I have a hard time getting close to people...I like to keep them at a distance. I like to have a few different conversations with someone before I decide if they are someone I will want to have as a friend or not. Sometimes my first impression of someone is accurate, sometimes it's way off base, so to protect myself, I put up walls. I am shy by nature and therefore I can only imagine what I must come across to people as.

Last Sunday, Husband and I went and looked at a rental house for E! and his family. The house they will eventually be living in will not be available until July or so, so we need something short-term for them. My first impression of the house was that it was rather dumpy with very small rooms. The kitchen and bathrooms were in pretty bad shape and I just wanted to shiver when I saw it. For some reason, the woman who owns the house doesn't like me and it's really bothering me. I was pleasant and smiling...didn't talk too much; I let Husband do most of the talking as he had set up the meeting. E! and his family arrived in town on Friday (after 50+ hours of driving) and went and saw the house today. They didn't take it. They didn't like the woman. Apparantly she started saying some things about me...I don't know what...but E! came to my defence and told her how hard I work on the farm. Too weird. It's really bothering me and yet it shouldn't because I've spent a total of 15 minutes with this woman and I'll probably never see her again. Still.

So last night we took E! and his family out for supper. We thought we'd try Kelsey's since it just opened in our nothing little town in December. We got there and it was busy - 45 minute wait, so we decided to go to the steak house instead. Sitting at Kelsey's waiting for a table was Bim. He frowned at me and gave me a look like he should know me from somewhere; I smiled and waved as we left but I don't think he clued in as to who I was. This is bothering me too.

On Friday I volunteered in TJ's class for the morning because his teacher was away and I was helping the substitute teacher. I worked on marking books in an effort to help the kids not have homework over spring break. Didn't work for TJ, he still came home with homework. So there's this one little kid there who is loud and obnoxious; he has to be the best at everything and the winner of all the games, and if someone beats him, then this kid gets quite jealous and goes on about how it wasn't fair; he's also quite the little tattler. Back to my story about TJ's class...they were learning something new in Math; Math isn't TJ's strongest subject but he does pretty well in it. This other little kid says, It's so easy even TJ can get it! He looked at me after he said it and I just gave him a frown. I wanted to grap him by his shirt collar and tell him to stop being so mean to the other kids, but I didn't think that would be setting a very good example. TJ is so easy-going that what the kid said didn't phase him. This is bothering me as well. Not that TJ is easy-going, but that kids say mean things.