A kind of person I don’t like:

The person who is oh-so-nice at work, super-polite to store clerks and strangers on the street, and just plain friendly and amiable to everyone in the world. Except his/her own family. This person is bitchy or nasty to their spouse, and rags on their children. Never anything nice to say to (or about) the people they live with.

I was this person yesterday. Everyone’s pal at work, Mrs. Yes-yes-yes, and Please-Can-I-Work-A-Little-Harder-For-You? Making nice patter with the cashiers of the world, not complaining about slow lines, keeping a smile on my face. That’s fine, in and of itself. That’s who I am. I am a nice person. I like people. And I like working hard. I don’t even care that my job doesn’t pay that well. Part of why I love my job is because we work in teams, which combines all my favorite things: working hard and working TOGETHER. I love that kind of crap, I can’t help it. I am a born sap and I know it.

We have new people right now, and yesterday my teammate was someone who was there for his very first day. Our regular trainer wasn’t there, she’s on vacation, and so I had to put extra effort into doing a good job and being a good team mate, into preventing errors, and patiently providing learning opportunities for the new guy without jeopardizing our ability to finish the work on time. I enjoyed it. It was fun and challenging. The day flew by.

My husband needed the car that day so he picked me up from work. The minute I was with him, I was cranky. Not MEAN, but really, not nice. Not like I treated everyone else all day. Nothing was good enough. I found fault everywhere. I did not praise any of the good things which my husband had accomplished that day, I did not show the correct amount of gratitude for the kind things which he did just for ME to make my life easier–things he did out of love for me. I mean, from the first INSTANT, I should have said how awesome it was that he was on time and parked outside waiting for me after work, since it’s not easy to be on time given the nasty rush hour traffic, and when you have two little kids on your hands.

And it was all downhill from there.

Even this morning I’ve been less than sweet.

OK, it is my period, but that’s no excuse. That’s not really what’s happening.

If I can be nice all day to people I work with, and even to strangers I don’t even know, I certainly should be able to be nice to the people I love most in this world.