I became a little bitch

Time to get serious for a moment.

Here's something that happened at work a couple weeks ago: I became a little bitch. I don't think I was totally in the wrong, though, but I feel that I might have over-reacted, so I want to share the story and get some opinions.

I'll start off by saying that I'm an atheist. I used to be Catholic, but then I discovered this thing called sin, which is a lot of fun, so I gave up on my faith and became a cat burglar. I quit when the price of cats dropped so low that there was no profit in it anymore, but that's another story for another post.

Anyways, I was just sitting in my cubicle, doing some work* and stuff, when co-worker A began talking to the person in the cubicle next to mine(co-worker B). She(co-worker A) asked B if he smoked, and when he said yes, she asked if he wanted to quit. He said it was hard to quit, so A said that she knew someone who could help. That person, of course, was Jesus.

I've had this same exact talk with her. She asked me if I smoked and all, same order of questioning, but I was also asked if I was Jewish. Can you get more WASP-ish than "Vanderbilt" ? I think not.

Well, A and B began to discuss religion. A loves God and shit(meaning she loves God and all that Christian stuff, not that she loves God AND loves shit), B decided to provoke her with stupid questions like "How do you know God exists? Really, how? I could be God!" She would then say, "Of course God exists. See that tree? That's proof." Idiot-talk. It was like she was trying for a conversion. This went on for like an hour. And I felt pretty uncomfortable. I don't know why, I guess the rules in my head just tell me that religion is an inappropriate discussion topic at work. Plus, I was constantly thinking of how I would argue every statement she made. But I let it go.

They finally ended the conversation, and I was relieved. Until it started up a couple hours later. This time, there were about 4 people standing and sitting around. It got worse, though, when co-worker A decided to show everyone how much she loved God by singing hymns. Right behind me. My gut reaction was to turn around and look her in the eyes. I have to state: I did not think this through; it just happened. She just smiled and said "What?" Everyone looked at me, and I don't blame them, since I had just abruptly swivelled around in my chair. I was on auto-pilot, though, and said in a plain voice...

"I don't think that's appropriate."

I saw co-worker A's eyes kind of go sad. I was asked to repeat what I said, and did, and then turned around to hide the heat radiating off of my red face. I had successfully killed the conversation, and I just had to be an asshole to do it.

But was I an asshole? I really feel it was an inappropriate subject considering the setting, and I was feeling uncomfortable. One hypothesis has been presented that I was trying to deflect the attention to the hymn-singer. I kind of see that, because my actions dictated that I had to say something in the moment, since my chair-twist turned all eyes on me. Could I have handled this another way?

This is all coming up now, because I have a new co-worker behind me who is playing a CD of trite gospel songs. Either that or she's a pothead, because I keep hearing the word "higher," over and over again. Now, I don't mind this as much as a person actually proselytizing and singing hymns, it just brought the prior incident to mind. Obviously, people have certain freedoms, like hanging bible quotes on their walls. I can't argue with that. One guy has a couple of construction paper things up that look like tablets, obviously made by his kid in bible school or something. One of them says, "What is it about 'thou shalt not' don't you understand? -- God". I'm glad someone finally found the Gospel of Rupaul, where God is all sassy and in your face. I think the other tablet said, "Thou shalt be fabulous -- God". This is also the book in the bible where God signs his quotes, like it's a high school yearbook.

I won't be an asshole this time. When she's at lunch, though, I might just have to steal the CD and turn it into a sandwich. And, if anyone's keeping track, this might be my first post that has more than 50% truth to it.

*Sudoku