This is my first blog post here and that is because I am very on edge here and cannot complain anywhere else as all my other blogs are linked to my life and people that know me. So, allow me to paint a picture for you -- one of an insensitive, rude, obnoxious character who has for some reason decided that we are friends. We'll call him Nettles for a code name to represent how annoying he is.

I cannot explain how much I am not friends with Nettles. I do not speak to him unless spoken to. We are not Facebook friends. I do not have his phone number. He just happens to be in my program. We. Are. Not. Friends. 

A Brief List of Infractions:

(1) On the first day of class, the professor handed out handouts for us to take notes on that follow along with his powerpoint. As this is graduate studies, this is above and beyond the call of duty for him to do. Nettles immediately asked if he could also pre-three-hole-punch these handouts for us. (Spoiler: Professor cannot, and will not, do that.)

(2) Nettles has a tendency to hijack office hours and prevents anybody but himself from getting help due to his endless questions.

(3) We are more than 3 days behind in class because he also asks many useless questions. They may be about something Professor has just said 5 seconds ago, or they may be about something that is physically impossible, or they may be weird personal questions for Professor about his life and, oddly, spelling preferences.

(4) Professor is colorblind. Nettles has asked, "If we draw diagrams, can we do them in two colors or just one color?" Professor gave exasperated sigh and said, "I...don't...care" because he probably won't notice the color difference anyway and if it's color coded he can just borrow one of his own grad students to read it. Nettles does not seem to understand how colorblindness works.

(5) Nettles lives with my three friends. He borrows their food without asking.

(6) Friend Berry brought beer over one night for movie night with the other three friends in Nettle's apartment. Nettle's was not invited, but since he lives there, we can't really stop him. He, however, invited himself to Berry's beer, coming out of his room by saying, "Oh I'll have some beer" and pouring himself a glass.

(7) A second guest had food there for himself which Nettles simply started eating off the counter without asking.

(8) Nettles consistently brags about having lost his job.

(9) Nettles continually interrupts other students working on group projects and asks things like "WHEN IS THAT DUE?" when he isn't even in that class.

(10) The worst infraction, by far. This is the reason I am writing this and not my paper. I cannot focus. I am still upset. Today, we were sitting in our classroom before the arrival of our professor. 

It is known to my closer friends and co-workers that my grandmother has very advanced dementia, likely Alzheimers, and she is in a nursing home not far from my program. My friends, being my friends, asked how my Thanksgiving was and I explained to them, privately, that it was strange and macabre and quite honestly depressing to make a centerpiece in a conference room of a nursing home and try to ignore the fact that Grandma keeps trying to eat the cloth napkins. Nettles hears me say, "Yeah, Thanksgiving was kind of weird..."

so Nettles says, very loudly, loud enough for the entire class and Professor who has now shown up to teach, "OH ANTIMONY I HEARD YOU HAD SOME FAMILY STUFF GOING ON FOR THE HOLIDAYS DID THAT GO OKAY???"

a) I don't know how he heard that because I never would have told him this private information because We. Are. Not. Friends.
b ) now all of my peers know this...thanks.
c) oh and my professor. great.

My first reaction to this is to freeze and not respond...so he goes,

"OH DID IT GO BADLY?"

forcing me to say between clenched teeth, "It was fine." because now that Professor is in the room, I can't say things like, "Don't speak to me."

I was so upset after this incident that I spent the rest of the lecture short of breath and increasingly dizzy. 

That is all.