I love this picture of the bowling ball, cuz that is how I look when I bowl a strike or end up in the gutter! This was suppose to be a funny blog about me joining our work's Bowling League. But of course in my life there always seems to be so many other things intertwined through the main story. Work for the past few weeks has been a real struggle for me. I tried to be assertive at work, but it ended up biting me in you know where. I won't go into the whole long drawn out story, it is really still exhausting for me to tell to many times. But bottom line I was met with some real ugliness. It still floors me when I get a first hand glimpse at what people are capable of. I more than made the VP of Human Resources angry with me because I tried to get something done that his department wasn't. He blew up at me through a mass email. It was awful. I can't even describe it except to say there was hatred in his words. That really took me by surprise. I have always thought of myself as someone easy to work with and get along with, and up until this point I thought I had a good working relationship with this man. But there was hatred behind his words. When I had to confront him about it, I was met with even more venom. He did not care to listen to me. He decided I was out to get him, and that was it. Our CEO was out of town that week, but I knew I would have to talk to her when she came back. She is a piece of work also. You don't want to be on her bad side. And usually she takes the side of the people she directly supervises, which is this guy. When I did meet with her, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought, although she did tell me she talked him out of resigning. She apologized for him, should have been him, but oh well. But she also defended him to some degree. The talk itself went fine, but then she went and talked to my boss. The next day, bowling day by the way, my boss told me that Noreen-CEO thought that I had rolled my eyes at her during a passed meeting, not the meeting I just had with her. I was really upset about that. One she did not address that with me when she had the chance, and two I would not ever do that! So, I had a sour taste in my mouth, and feeling pretty defeated in my job. I was really looking forward to this wacky bowling night. A chance to blow off some steam. Take a guess who was on the opposing team next to us. Noreen. There went that. I had to be on my guard the whole night and act like I was having fun. I did learn some things from all this though. I am not good at playing the politics game at work. And when I get a little confident, I can get a little big for my britches in a way. I need to humble myself a little more at work, trust God more. And remember more harm comes from gossiping and perpetuating the negative feelings. Anyway, I am hoping the next bowling game will be more fun. And I am wondering if God put Noreen there to remind me that it would have been more harmful if I would have spent my night gossiping about her. God is both funny and wise.