The Rat

Thanks you guys, for all your words of encouragment.

This is a familiar road. One that I am intimate with.

Not that I like this path, just, I seem to travel it every couple of weeks.

I want to be a strong person. I want to be happy. I want to be a good wife, mother, daughter, friend.

Too often I don't feel like I am.

I have been very stressed at work.

See, there is this guy, I'll just call him "The Rat" because to me, that's what he is, looks, personality, the whole nine yards. He is a rat.

I hate the rat. If that man died, I would shed no tears, nor feel any kind of remorse. Only relief. I know that this is not a good way to feel about people, and it is not very often that I do, but this man drives me crazy.

I am calm, cool, collected when I am at work. I handle all kinds of emergencies. Everything from our entire systems crashing, all the way down to handling a dead body, and I always, always, keep my cool.

This man has made me cry though. Not in front of him mind you, because I won't give this prick the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

He is rude, billegerant, insubordinant, unreliable. He shows up whenever he wants. He says horrible things to me, he refuses to follow my orders.

Two nights ago, I told him to take his lunch break, it was 2am.

He told me he would "in a minute".

Thirty minutes later, I asked him again.

Rat: "Why do I have to take my lunch right now?

Me: "Because it's been half an hour since I asked you"

Rat: "Well I am not going to take it now"

Me: "Why is that?"

Rat: "Because I'm not hungry"

Me: "Since when do we base our lunches around weither we are hungry or not? We are supposed to take them when business dictates"

Rat: "Well, there is no one in the store"

Me: >stares at him< "That's kind of the point, unless of course you are going to wait until it's busy to take your lunch"

Rat: "Well, no one else makes me do that"

Me: "Well that's because you don't work with anyone else that asks you to do anything. Is there a reason that you can't simply do what I ask? Do you have an issue with me? Would you talk to C or R like this?"

Rat: " No because they know better then to mess with me. THEY KNOW BETTER!" (and yes, by now the man is screaming at me"

He doesn't follow company policies, he has come in four hours late before.

Why don't they fire him?

Fuck if I know. I ask myself that all the time.

Things have gotten so bad that I have had to call my boss in the middle of the night because the man literally screams at me across the store, ignores customers in order to fight with me, amongst other things.

I hate this man.

I hate this man.

I hate this man.

It has made me hate my job as well. I don't want to go to work on the nights that I have to work with him.

I've tried talking to my boss.

He tells me to document it.

I do.

Nothing happens.

I talk to him some more. He tells me to continue documenting it. Tells me to get others to document it.

Well no one wants to go to R about it because when someone does, and R manages to get off his ass and question the Rat about it, the Rat knows who told on him and he goes off on them for it.

Other managers have seen this!

I want to call the corp office, but, I'm afraid that R will get pissed and fire me over it. He keeps saying that things will get better, he tells me that he wants to get rid of him, then, he FUCKING PROMOTES HIM!

The man who shows up on time once every two damn weeks.

I mean seriously, WTF???

I want to scream, ugh.

So, anyway, my darling husband is aware of all of this of course. He does his best to keep me sane through the days I have to work with the Rat.

But, something happened last night that has left me smiling even today.

See, I normally take my mp3 player to work so I have something to listen to on my lunch break. I am very careful about it since it was so expensive, but, out of my fury for the rat, I left without taking it out from under my register where I had placed it while working.

Well, one of the girls I work with had driven her sister's truck to work, and, the mechanic who fixed her car brought it by and dropped it off, leaving her a driver short. I offered to drive it to her house if she would bring me back.

Of course, I stopped at home to let the husband know, and, to change out of my stupid uniform. I asked him if he wanted to go with me and much to my delight he said yes.

So, off we go, the girl lives thirty minutes from work, so, for the first half hour, we were able to just sit and talk about how our nights had went. Second half hour, was spent with me sitting back watching him charm the pants off of her.

He can't help it. It's natural to him, he doesn't even realize he does it.

Anyway, so, I realize that I have left the mp3 player and after A drops us off at home, we decide to run up and get it (since I have the next to days off) and then grab something to eat.

We go in, I move over to get me a cup of hot chocolate and talk to B who was cleaning up the store while the hubby looked around.

The rat, apperantly, did not see us come in together.

He says to me "Where's our paperclips?"

I ignored him the first time.

I ignored him the second time.

Third time he raised his voice to me, I turned and replied "Upstairs I'm sure"

Well, mind you, I felt sort of bad because B had asked me to bring some down and I forgot. I was so anxious to get out of there and away from that little fucker, it totally spaced my mind.

He opened his mouth to say something and my husband turned and with a quickness that suprises most people because of his size, he appears nearly right in front of the man and clears his throat.

No, I'm not sure if it was the fact that my husband is nearly twice the rat's size, or, the fact that he carries himself so dominantly, so confidently, or exactly what it was, but, I saw the fear rush to the rat's face and he stepped back away from the counter and my husband casually leaned against it and looked at me with a little grin and said something along the lines of "I'll wait right here until your ready"

Of course, the rat snapped his lips together so tight I don't know how he continued breathing.

Maybe it won't seem as funny to you guys, but, to me, it was just hilarious. He was afraid of my husband, through and through.

I felt good about it. It was his way of telling this man that I am his, that he won't put up with his shit, making him shut up.

So, no, things haven't been the greatest, but, in my moment of darkness, my darling husband rode to my rescue like a knight in shining armor.

A small victory I'm sure. The man is going to make me even more miserable when I have to work with him next, but it was so worth it.

I am going to try to blog a bit more later on, I'm still pretty tired. I've been sick on top of my depression, so I am not sure which one is making me sleep.

I miss you all though and have been making sure I keep up with everyone.

BTW Amber, Dario is on vacation, he should be back in the next couple of days.