Why is there always "one of those people" in a group? (Well, not always, but too often...)

Day three was a better day, at least after the morning bit when I was trapped with two other people, one of whom is incessantly nasty. I don't like being talked down to, I don't like being interrupted, and I certainly don't like combative people who won't stay on task. The other woman, with her doctorate, has never taught short stories. As in, never. Yeeps. But I digress. The bitchy woman just kept denigrating the things I was offering up for consideration, even to the point of bitch-splaining what a cliche is to me. (I certainly do know what one is...she is so dang rude.)

So, I spoke sharply.

So, she stopped talking at me after a bit. I'm okay with that. 

I'm at this conference to work, to learn, to do the tasks to improve my skill set. I'm not there to go all philosophical and meta and deal with the intentionally unanswerable things (ex. She: Why does a story need conflict? Me: Um, unless something happens, there's no story. She countered: But why do we care if there's a story? Why do we have stories? ....shaddup, lady)

I just wanted to do the assignment and report back with the larger group. Call me compliant, but duhhh we didn't really finish the work because she kept wandering into the meta weeds. I swear, this misdirection and provocative behavior is so annoying. 

The rest of the day went well and was even pretty fun. I have hopes for day four. 

On the home front, I made dinner, finished Bohjalian's The Jackal's Mistress (highly recommend), baked a blueberry/raspberry pie, and took the evening off. 

It's called Balance. 

C