The Nemesis

Jodi and I sometimes talk about how it would be cool to have our very own enemies, and today, I think I found mine. Let's call her The Vicious Venter. Her poison, if you will, is bitching at length about things she cannot, or will not, attempt to fix, i.e. "The kids suck. The administrators suck. And thank god for all of you that I am here to tell it like it is for once."

While many of her kind come out during beginning of the year staff meetings, I am not sure I've ever been so weakened by the likes of such kryptonite. Even worse, she was taking other teachers down with her, two of them new to our building. Wanting to save the innocent from her sourpussiness, I, The Passive Aggressor, reached into my own bag of tricks and shot back with, "Perhaps the two new teachers have some questions for us. Despite what it seems, we do like to do more than vent at these meetings."

Ooooh. Her glare could have melted me. Little did she know that the optimism and hope that I had been storing up during my sabbatical was just the necessary antidote to her optical spears. Pow! Blam! Take that!

Later, in the hallway, I'm pretty sure I heard her talking about me to another teacher. Even though the middle schoolers don't arrive until next week, an aura of immaturity is already in the air.