My Nemesis Has Second Thoughts

Everyone needs a nemesis. There's a line from "Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe"--great movie by the way, where the Italian cop, at least I think it was the cop says in refrence to who baked the Italian chef in the deck oven that it couldn't be the chef's rival. He says somethng like, "It's just as important to Italians to have someone to hate as it is to have someone to love,"--   I agree.  And, no it wasn't the rival chef who baked the Italian chef--watch the movie it's so good!

I have a nemesis.  Johnny the butcher. He's awful.  And  we don't fight openly.  In fact, when we do talk it's quite professional and polite.  But, he's mad at me, because I threw away his yogurts on day when I cleaned the breakroom fridge.  I gave a fair two day warning that I would be throwing out everything I found there.  He didn't believe me, left his yogurts unattended and got mad at me and stopped talking to me.

Other peole told me he was mad.  And I said I didn't care.  and thus, a nemesis was born.

I cna't tell you how happy I was to have him. IT had been a few years since I had a good nemesis and it wasn't for lack of trying, belive me. The last one was Bob from PRoduce.  Bob was a crochity old guy who had bad knees.  He was stubborn and mean.  and I took something from his department and he yelled at me, and I told him off and he said, "Screw you"

being a self important diva, I created a lot of drama, and thus a grudge that lasted for years was created.  Then one day, I coudn't even muster up a reason to be mad anymore and I walked over to him--years since our last conversation, stuck out my hand and told him I was sorry for not talking to him all this time. (I wasn't sorry for taking the cabbage from the pile--hell no.) but I wasn't mad and I wanted to tell him so.  He was so shocked, he told people that didn't even work at our store when it happened.  Two days later he died.

Nah!  Im kidding!  I get you every time! I dont' know what happened to him.  Moved to florida or something like that.

But now with Johnny and yogurt fight I had a new found reasons to go to work!

We were both determined to win. he enjoyed talking crap on me, I enjoyed talking crap on him, and the whole work place enjoyed the gossip and tension created by a few low calorie yogurts.  But recently, Johnny is waivering because he mentioned how long I was going to be mad at him.

"he's mad at me," I said, "remember?  I threw away his yogurts--I'm just reacting to that.  I can do this forever, doens't he know? It's how it works."

There's nothing personal in my healthy rivalry with him.  I even signed the card for him when his dad died last month.  He is my nemesis after all, that's not un-important to me.

See, it might seem wrong to openly dislike a guy--but, I know a lot of people who tend to go around complaining about "those people" or "them" or basic generalizations of humanity or habits that they "hate"-- Rather than make blanket statements, that can belike sprinkling holy water on the congregation--I essentially baptize one guy and focus all my animosity toward him.

Now, I didn't just pick a guy to hate.  Oh, no, that's not fair.  I had to wait.  I was really looking for the right Nemesis.  There has to be something to pin it on.  And I admit when Johnny declared in  a meeting that I should be "written up" for cleaning the fridge--I said to my self, "auditions are over. we found our guy."

and the hating began.  and iti went back and forth, and he really liked the job too.  He even took an uncomfortable interest in befriending  my assistant. (however, I let it through the grapevine that he was at risk for losing his job if he kept it up. I didn't want him to get fired for making a bad decision in his grudge match.)

Things were progressing well.  We were reallly not talking ever . and he would block the walk way when I came by forcing me to acknowlege him and ask him to move.  IT was terrible!  and it was fun at the same time.

Then one day,  there was a series of "X" marks on my white board.

"What are we tallying?" I asked my boss.

"Oh, JOhnny did that," my boss said.

"really?  Johnny?  He came this far into the bakery?  Past my table?  He doesn't even eat cookies anymore if I'm here.  He's lost 10 pounds since he became my nemesis."

"This X is Lacey, she's working.  THis one is me," He said, "and this one is you" and he pointed to an X down at the bottom of the board,

"Waht are all these X's around me?"I asked.

"The old guys that hang around the bakery fliritng with you," he said.

I laughed.  "Really!  Johnny is so jealous!  Good."

"He asked how long you were gonna be mad at him," my boss said.

"What?  I'm not mad at him, He is Mad at ME!  There's a difference.   I"m just not talking to him."

and I was sad.  Because if he's wondering when it will end, then I have no choice but to end it and find a new Nemesis.  You can't have a nemesis that isn't interested in holding a grudge evenly.  Pity.  He  was doing so well.  But, I guess I have to let him go.