t blinks in disbelief at Anne's leader.

Wow, Anne. That's...wow.

Timelies all!

Congrats to Jess and PMM!

Our workplace wellness program includes fun six-week long challenges like different exercise habits (one time it is exercise in three ten minute increments, another time it is a solid half hour; or eating 5 servings of fruits and veggies per day). I used to do those, but I quit attempting to collect points for the health insurance premium reduction when they changed some subtle rules when I was not paying attention which meant that I didn't get credit for some of the challenges I completed. The fact that there are only certain months a year when getting various preventative screenings can count toward your total which just so happens to exclude the time of year when I usually get my eye exam, added to my refusal to cooperate. And yeah, I know they would certainly try to get me to join Weight Watchers if I gave them enough information.

re BMI: I remember years ago reading an interview with a woman who was on "American Gladiators" (remember that?). Anyway, she was quite short and heavily muscled, with very little in the way of fat ... she's wanted to be a stewardess, but was too heavy for their height/weight chart.

tl:dr

Totally lost my cool (in a subdued way) with a coworker today (too obvious deep-calming-breaths).

She showed up thirty minutes before I was due to leave (and was in the middle of my creative zone) and wouldn't leave until she got answers, which would ideally mean that I could confer with my boss before we got back to her with a unified response, except she had him cornered too (and he's far more polite than me).

She sent the email requesting information on Monday. We were closed yesterday. I responded as best I could this morning and had sent an email to my boss when I realized we hadn't covered all the information and he had immediately taken off to deal with other work. And then when that was done, she proceeded to dump two other brand new topics on us that, again, we'd need to confer together about, but she wanted answers right then.

She's the kind of person that exhausts you to death with too much unnecessary information to set the scene, too much irrelevant background information, repetition, and refuses to understand "I don't know, can we get back to you?" She is circular to the point where even when you give her the answer and settle it, she begins to reiterate all the irrelevant information and gives more background information (that you already just heard, because you were a part of that conversation) that is now moot. ETA that she also talks so much and so fast that you have to be extremely rude and firm to interrupt her.

I fumed at my desk after she left for about five minutes, tried to resume what I'd been working on, then gave it up about twenty minutes past when I was supposed to clock out (I know, someone call the waaambulance) because I was so derailed.

I made the mistake of popping my head into her departments office to say goodnight to her and her boss, and she caught me again in reiterating what we'd discussed, realizing that I was stressed because our conversation, and said that she didn't want to make me stress and just wanted to get us all on the same page. I tried to explain that I felt ambushed, said yup, we're all on the same page now (she pulled a face), and I could tell that she was still aware that I was not happy and there really wasn't much more either of us could say without coming out with declarative things like "you really need to schedule a meeting time if you want to have a conversation that takes twenty minutes or more" and "your circularity sends my blood pressure skyrocketing" because as bad as she is when she's trying to be on top of her own shit, it deteriorates to pencil-breaking levels (on my part) when she knows you are angry with her because then she gets stressed. And she really is a sweet woman with a ton of integrity. And I wish I wasn't such a horrible person with a short temper. My boss made me feel ashamed with his genuine-sounding (not that I believe it actually is sincere, since he keeps pulling this shit where he reads an email, and then gives it no thought, and definitely no response, until Circular!Gal comes and ambushes us) "I apologize for not responding to you immediately" and "thank you for bringing this to my attention again". I can't even be good enough to sincerely apologize for being rude, or pretend to be sincere, because my apologies sound like "I'm sorry you piss me off".

And I'm not even the one stuck playing bumper cars with the rolling chairs with her in the world's tiniest office.

For more efficiency in the kitchen with less dread of leftovers, some of you might benefit from the "cook once, eat twice" school of thought. One day's meatloaf and baked potatoes can become another day's shepherd's pie with not a horrible amount of effort and a bit of oven time.

Oh yeah, that's how I was raised. I didn't get the whole "hating leftovers" thing until I realized we never had them! We might have roast chicken, then chicken pasta, then chicken soup, but not the same thing multiple nights. Of course, it turns out I don't really mind the same thing on multiple nights!

One of the main reasons (there were several) I stopped doing Weight Watchers was that my leader chided me for lifting weights because that would make me heavier.

Holy shit.

Even though muscle weighs more than fat? Do the leaders lose commissions if they have enough clients actually losing numbers rather than fat? Messed up.

When I came out of Basic Training, I weighed exactly the same as when I went in, even though I was skinnier and more fit.

Whew, it is good to have my phone back within arm's reach where it belongs.

Hey, Mrs. Conat, I just got an email about how I helped your room!

Did you write that?