I never knew you grew balls when you had the DS...

Good for you, Julie.  And each time you find the power within yourself to say something that needs to be said right to somebody's face, it strengthens you to do it again.  I'm not sure it's the DS, it may also have something to do with our age.  Sometimes all the **** life piles on us just becomes too much to bear, and we finally lose our inhibitions/shyness/weakness and say what we want to say.

I can feel this in myself, too.  A small example is, me heading for a line in a grocery store when a lady ZOOMS past me to get in front of me, and as I stood in line behind her, she turned slightly toward me and I calmly said, "That was rude of you, wasn't it?"  She couldn't respond.

And, if my husband's children dare turn up at his funeral after he dies, probably due to complications of his Parkinson's, in the probably not too distant future, and them not bothering to call or visit him for months and years on end, oh, I will absolutely have something to say directly to their faces, and in front of as many people as possible.

3p

 I think it's a combination of weight loss and *ahem* maturity.   I still haven't gotten the guts to say anything to my whacked out inlaws or stepdaughters, but they are just itching for  me to say something so that they can tell the world "Seeee!  She's really a ***** after all!!" and I don't want to give them the satisfaction of doing so.    I guess I try to tailor my response to the cir****tances.    I learned a long while ago that it just doesn't pay to "go off" on someone.   I could have said SO much more to this woman.   What I wanted to say is "You're a **** and the entire world knows it," but that would have brought me down to her level.

That was a good response to the woman who cut ahead of you!

I think when we can say something calmly to someone's face, not go off in anger or a rant, we have about a million times more effect.  Let's make a pact to Absolutely Be  A Tremendous, Powerful ***** to anyone who thinks we're one anyway.

 I really learned that in teaching, Nan.   With my students (and their families and actually lots of folks) they are so accustomed to yelling, screaming, fighting, and people "going off" on people in their personal lives, that they have become trained to "go off" right back into response.   That way, they can justify their reaction because you did it first.    When I speak to them calmly and directly, they don't know how to react.   It's an extremely powerful tool.   If I would have gone off on this woman, and just started yelling and screaming and calling her a **** and a ***** a la "Jerry Springer show style," she could have then turned to her friends and said "See?  Can you see why I fired her husband?  He's just as crazy as she is!"   I love knocking people off their square.

Good for you!  I find it hard to keep my cool in situations like that. 

I think you were judicious in your response!

 Julie,

Two thumbs way up for the way you handled this "human".  What goes around, comes around!  She will get hers soon enough.  

I can't picture your petite self doing that Julie!!

I'd sure have liked to seen it though!!

Sheer ****waffle, that's all I got to say thanks to Tracy Buse!  I believe she'll get hers in due time, and the reputation to follow her!