“Today on Planet Spit Fire …”

When I am feeling insecure I often retort with greater heat on what may otherwise appear to be perfectly nonchalant, casual comments.  For instance, people really ought not to speak to me about “good jobs out there” for a while and how “being single [I] should be making lots of money and having the time of my life”.

I can also quite easily break arms and legs over “oh so-and-so has such talent for painting/writing”.  That’s like saying, “No hun, you really didn’t need to waste time at university to do what you did, because really that’s all that it was – wasting time.”

Last but not least, should anyone come up to me and say something implying, however vaguely, that my having studied abroad and having a pierced brow and nose have any correlation to my current single status, will most certainly bear the worst of my ire.

All that said, yes, I know all this intense negativity is a function of my own insecurities.  Yes, I know, I know they’re all offering friendly advice only on the basis of their own limited frames of reference and it is up to me to not make much of what they say.  Yes, I do agree with you there.  Uh-huh.  Yep. *Nods her head vehemently.*

Back in the warp as the counter-diatribe ensues.