I used to work with this guy who clearly had a crush on me. He would go out of his way to bring little presents to my desk or make trips across the office that were absolutely unnecessary except to pass by me. I was upfront with him and told him nothing would happen and that he should stop going out of his way for me. He agreed and reassured me that he wasn’t doing these things because of me; they just happened to involve me because he saw these things and knew I liked them.

Right. I almost believed him until he cornered me near the coffee at work one day. 

Guy: “Hey, I’m going on a trip to New York City next week. You wanna go along? We can see a musical or something.”

Me: “No, thanks. [Husband] can’t take off that soon, and neither can I.”

Guy: “No, I mean you and me.”

Me: “Uh… no. I’m not taking any solo trips with you.”

Guy: “Why? It could be fun!”

Me: “Because I’m married?”

I tried to step by him but he stepped in my way

Guy: “So? Just tell him you’re going on a work trip. It’s not a lie.”

Me: *Stunned* “It definitely is.”

Guy: “No, it’s not. It’s just not your work trip.”

Me: “I’m not going.”

I pushed past him.

Guy: “You’re missing out!”

Me: *Sarcastic tone* “How will I live?!”

I went to Human Resources and his manager about his behavior. The manager confirmed that [Guy] did not have a work trip to New York City. My guess is that he just wanted to take a little vacation with an uninterested, married woman and see where it went. I don’t know what HR said to him, but he was transferred to another branch shortly after my complaint.

One of my distant cousins is, for lack of a better word, a bit of a sourpuss by all appearances. She’s very closed off and standoffish and is generally emotionless, but I’ve always chalked it up to her just being a private person. She also has Lyme Disease and was diagnosed while she was pregnant with twins. Both kids ended up having symptoms, and one of them had to get a cochlear implant.

On one of the rare occasions we get together, I try talking to her.

Me: “So, how are you doing?”

My cousin positively lit up and started talking like we were old friends. As it turns out, the entire six years she’s had Lyme Disease, not one person has asked how she was handling it, just the twins. I’m a little shocked that no one has asked, not even within the family, but I suppose they were too focused on the babies to realize.

I also found out that the reason she never smiles or shows much emotion is because the Lyme Disease gave her Bell’s Palsy on and off, and she’s self-conscious about it becoming apparent and someone pointing it out.

I was driving home from work when I made the mistake of cutting another car off. Or, more precisely, I made the mistake of merging over into the lane ahead of another car, with a good four or five car lengths separating us, which led to them suddenly speeding up after I’d completely merged over, moving up to tailgate me, and pounding on their horn.

They carried on like that up until we reached the next intersection, where the light had just turned red. They then jumped over into the left lane that I’d just merged over from, moving up alongside me. I glanced over and saw that the girl in the passenger seat and a guy in the backseat both had their phones out and pointed at me.

Great, someone’s hoping for a new TikTok or something.

I stared up at the light, listening to my music, while peripherally aware of the passenger in the car shouting things that I couldn’t quite make out over my music. As the red light continued to be red, I gave in to my morbid curiosity and turned the volume down on my music just a tad until I could make out what she was saying.

Passenger: “—see you glancing. We can see you look at us. What? You like my t*ts? Huh? You like to—”

Aaand back up goes the volume.

Right as the turn lanes got the green light, I spotted a sudden motion out of the corner of my eye. I foolishly looked over on instinct and spotted the passenger swinging her arm to apparently try and hit my window. She’d evidently underestimated just how far apart our vehicles were, and so she’d missed, but as I watched, she hauled herself up like a lunging seal, shoving herself up onto the edge of the window, still clutching her phone in one hand while balling up her fist in the other to try and give my window a punch.

Before she actually could, however, the light turned green. I immediately stepped on the gas, accelerating forward, and as I did, I heard a short scream from her, audible over a lull in my music.

Passenger: “MY PHONE!”

A glance in my side mirror showed her now jackknifed over the edge of the car window, trying to reach something on the ground. I’m guessing that my sudden movement startled her enough to lose her grip on her phone, or maybe her contortions to try and wiggle out of the window loosened her grip.

Either way, I don’t think they were going to be able to post whatever “viral hits video” they were hoping for.

I am a new customer service rep at a popular hardware store chain. I’ve just been allowed to start processing returns on my own without supervision when this happens. It is a very hot summer day.

Me: “Welcome to [Hardware Store]! How may I help you today?”

Scammer: “I’d like to return some paint.” *Gestures to a flat cart with four five-gallon buckets of paint.*

Me: *Starting to feel a little overwhelmed.* “Um, I think I can do that for you as store credit, as long as that hasn’t been tinted. Let me see what I can do.”

I glance around, but as there is no manager nearby, I go ahead and start processing the return. It comes out to over $700 in store credit.

Manager: *Walks up after the customer has left.* “Who returned this?”

Me: “Um, I did.”

Manager: “He never bought it. He just grabbed some paint off the shelf and pretended to forget his receipt. Feel this.” *She lays her hand on the paint bucket.* “It’s cool. If he really bought it, it would be hot from bringing in from outside.”

Me: “Oh no…”

Manager: “Don’t worry, people like him try to scam the new cashiers all the time. Just be more careful when processing such a large return!”

I had been worried of losing my job, but thankfully my manager is a wonderful person!

When I was in high school, my family moved from Oregon to Washington. Oregonians are very proud of the history of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Oregon itself. Therefore, I had been taught a lot about that history all throughout school. Much of it was regional since the whole area had once been the Oregon territory. I already knew a lot about Washington state history, as well. My new school still required me to take a Washington state history class, though.

My first frustration with the class happened on the first day when the teacher said that he preferred to teach the history of the entire Pacific Northwest. This entire class was basically a review for me, but I figured it would be an easy A.

The thing that broke me was when the teacher said he wasn’t from the Pacific Northwest, so he was pretty much learning right along with us. The following conversation took place about a week later.

Teacher: “We’re going to be going over the geography of the Pacific Northwest, but I have to warn you that I don’t know how to pronounce a lot of the words.”

He starts going over the rivers.

Teacher: “This one is the Willamette.”

He pronounced it “Will-uh-met-ee.”

Me: “That’s Will-AM-et.”

Teacher: “Are you sure?”

Me: “Yep, I grew up near it. I’ve canoed and swam in it.”

Teacher: “Oh, okay. Thanks!”

Variations of that interaction happened frequently for the next couple of weeks. This happened after yet another correction on my part.

Teacher: “Why are you in this class? You obviously know all of this.”

Me: “I don’t know! They said I had to be here!”