I’m a paralegal at a law office. We have to send a bunch of letters out for a case we are working on. All the information is put together on Excel sheets, and we just have to copy that information and format it into each letter.

One day, a letter gets sent back as it had the wrong address. Since another lawyer working there on a trial basis did all these letters with me, our boss comes and lets us know.

Boss: “Hey, this letter had the wrong address, so if we could just send a new one out, that would be great. I’m not mad; accidents happen. That spreadsheet was long and it was probably easy to mix things up.”

IMMEDIATELY, [Lawyer] starts throwing me under the bus.

Lawyer: “Well, I know I did everything right, so it wasn’t me. It was probably [My Name] or [Other New Lawyer], but I double-checked everything, so it couldn’t have been me.”

Me: “[Other New Lawyer] only worked on one letter since he couldn’t access the computers that day. Relax. It’s a little mistake — no big deal.”

Lawyer: “Yeah, but it wasn’t me. You remember that Shaggy song from the 2000s? That’s me right now because it wasn’t me.”

I bit my tongue. I saw that I was the one who did that letter, but it wasn’t my fault, either, as the actual address was incorrect on the sheet.

What’s worse is that while reviewing [Lawyer]’s letters before we sent them out, he completely f***ed up some of the addresses, and I fixed them. It pissed me off so much how willing and ready he was to blame me for a problem when it more than likely would have been his fault.

I am expecting my first child and am at my baby shower. One of the gifts I receive is cloth diapers. I am in the middle of thanking the person who gifted them when my mother-in-law interrupts.

Mother-In-Law: *Making a face and tutting* “You’re cloth diapering?”

Me: “I’m going to try.”

She frowns and crosses her arms.

Mother-In-Law: “I won’t babysit if you do.”

Now, if she had phrased this in a different way like, “I’m not sure I’ll be comfortable using them when babysitting,” I would have happily let her know that the original plan was to cloth diaper at home and use disposables when leaving the baby with grandparents.

Me: “That’s fine. My mom said she’s okay using them, so I guess we’ll just ask her instead when we need a babysitter.”

Based on [Mother-In-Law]’s expression, I don’t think that’s the answer she expected.

My friends and I love getting together and doing different social things. However, we are not really party people and prefer low-key and relaxed stuff. At one point, [Friend #1] makes a new acquaintance through some other social group he is involved with. Quickly, this guy becomes entangled in our friendship group and always seems to be coming along to stuff.

He is an okay guy, but we notice that he always wants to control any social events we have. Whether it is always changing the music or trying to dictate different things we do, it gradually grates on us. Also, he is always trying to push us into either going clubbing or playing drinking games, which none of the group particularly likes.

One weekend, it is my birthday, and to celebrate, I have a games night around my place. My friends and I frequently hold these, and we try to come with all kinds of different games to keep it interesting. We start with “Cards Against Humanity” and then have a game of “Cluedo”. After that, we move on to playing some classic first-person shooter video games like “Left For Dead” and “Goldeneye”.

After a couple of hours, I hear a knock at the door, which is surprising as all the people invited are already there. [Acquaintance] has turned up completely uninvited, and he proceeds to walk in as if he owns the place. Immediately, I am irked by this because I don’t particularly want him there on my birthday. Sure enough, he immediately tries to take over, demanding that we turn off “Goldeneye” and start playing card games like poker.

From what I understand, [Friend #1] mentioned it was my birthday, and [Acquaintance] immediately assumed he was invited. [Friend #1] looks very annoyed but neither of us makes a scene as it isn’t worth it.

Soon after, we get “Mario Kart” started. All the while [Acquaintance] is whining and complaining to try to get us to do what he wants. At one point, several of my buddies and I are locked in a pretty close race… and then the TV is randomly turned off!

Me: “WHAT THE H***?! WHAT HAPPENED?!”

I look up and see [Acquaintance] holding the TV remote.

Acquaintance: “Right. Boring s*** is over! Now the real party begins.”

He slams down a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cards. Internally, I groan because I know exactly where this is heading.

Me: “WE WERE PLAYING ON THAT!”

Friend: “[Acquaintance], that was really f****** rude!! Why did you do that?”

Acquaintance: “Right. We’re gonna start with ‘Ring Of Fire’…”

Me: “We don’t like drinking games, [Acquaintance], and I sure as h*** don’t want to play them at my party!”

Acquaintance: “Look… You need to let go of whatever OCD stuff you have going on and accept that there is a big group of us and you only get so much say in what we do!”

Friend #1: “Err… It’s his birthday; he gets 100% say in what we do or don’t do! We were enjoying playing that game. You don’t just turn it off without asking first!”

Acquaintance: “Look, [My Name], everyone is clearly bored off their a** with these dumb old games. I’m just trying to liven things up a bit! How about we play ‘I Have Never’? I’ll go first… I have never performed [sex act] on another person!”

Friend #2: “We are definitely not playing that one. Besides, the only reason you seem to want to play is to brag about how much sex or alcohol you have! That’s way more boring!”

Acquaintance: “Well, these are the games I want to play…”

Me: “[Acquaintance], clearly no one else wants to play, so either join in or go home!”

Acquaintance: “Well, that’s a nice way to treat your guests!”

Me: “May I remind you that I didn’t actually invite you to this thing? You just turned up, didn’t even wish me happy birthday, and you’ve acted like a d**k the whole time! This isn’t your party, so either join in or leave!”

Friend #1: “[Acquaintance]. None of us like drinking games. Stop trying to take over every single thing. It’s really annoying! [My Name] is being incredibly nice to even let you stay after all this! So, I suggest grabbing a controller and participating; everyone else here is!”

With that, we went back to our game. [Acquaintance] sat in a chair necking whiskey from the bottle and sulking. An hour or so later, we noticed that he had gotten up and quietly left. He hasn’t hung out with us since, and our games nights continue to this day!

CONTENT WARNING: Infertility, Suicidal Ideation

My husband and I have been trying for a child for about ten years now. This has resulted in one miscarriage and nothing else. We try to get medical help, but then the global health crisis hits and my husband needs two surgeries, which causes a delay. However, I am still below my forties, so the doctor assures me there’s plenty of time.

After the surgeries and the health crisis, I finally get an appointment with a fertility clinic. We go over the basics: allergies (I have two cats) and work (next to work, I volunteer at a sports club, working with kids twice a week). Nothing seems off in my daily life, so the tests begin. 

Meanwhile, the specialist goes through the options with us. Adoption is impossible because of my age. The process for qualification and the waiting list is so long that by the time I get approved, I will be considered “too old”. Fostering is the same. At the end of the list, IVF is the only option left, so all we need to do is wait for the results, and then we get going. 

The results come in and… my values are not good. The specialist tells me I have the same chance of natural conceiving as with IVF, and the values point at a very early menopause.

The conclusion: I am considered infertile. 

I break down crying, and in my sorrow, I call out:

Me: “Why am I still here, then? What do I have left to live for?”

Her response: 

Specialist: “Then why don’t you get a pet? Or do some volunteer work; that is very fulfilling.”

Never before have I had such an urge to yell at someone or cuss them out. I managed to keep it inside and left quickly. Thanks for remembering my file, lady!

A guy came in to buy about $5 worth of items. We have a sale on brownie mixes for $1 each. One rang up at the full price. It was slow, so I walked with the customer to the display. The one that rang up at the full price was excluded from the sale, but it was with the dollar ones.

Customer: “See?! They all say a dollar!”

Me: “Well, the ones at the bottom like the one you have don’t have the dollar tag.”

Customer: “Don’t f****** argue with me.”

Okay. No problem.

Me: “Sorry, sir, I wasn’t arguing, just pointing out the sale.”

Customer: “You were arguing! Just f****** take it off.”

I led him back to the register, and he was swearing the whole time. 

Me: “Look, do you want me to just cancel the transaction?”

He swore a bit more and declared that he wanted me to just cancel it all.

Me: *Smiling* “Okay! You have a great night, sir!”

And then he paced back and forth for a few seconds, huffed, and stormed out.

I’m not sure if he wanted me to argue with him or concede and just make it a dollar. Had he not been confrontational, I honestly would’ve just adjusted the price to $1 since the signs were misleading. Instead, he decided to throw a big boy tantrum over what came to thirty-five cents.