Over the Hill? How about Congratulations?

I’m a professional government wonk. I might have said that before. What that means is that, aside from feeling like a hypocrite (or undercover spy!) on some of my political views, I work in an office environment. Like, I can’t watch Office Space because too much of it comes off as a documentary and it depresses the shit out of me.

Anyway, one of the things about office environments are the non-work related bullshit that you occasionally have to put up with. I’m talking about the congratulatory stuff that you get together and ‘celebrate’, like the people you work with would be anything close to friends if you weren’t forced to work together in a professional environment.

We have a woman in our office who is celebrating her 60th birthday. That stuff I just wrote about being forced to be nice to the douches you work because of the environment, I don’t apply that to her. She’s been nothing but nice to me since I started her. Beyond that, she gets my sympathy vote too, because she’s turning out to be a breeding ground for cancer.

She’s been in and out of chemo twice since I started here. She often can’t come in or has to leave early because of the frequent doctor appointments or nauseousness that comes with her particular flavor of cancer treatment. Once, she was put in the emergency room during a routine (as ‘routine’ as it can be with fucking cancer anyway) because the medical people discovered a hole in her skin that gave open access to her insides! Holy Fuck, right? Through it all, she’s been a very nice person and strikingly upbeat and positive.

So it pisses my shit off to see how this fucking office is celebrating. The admin staff decorated her desk and office area with shit that calls her ‘Over the Hill’. Not, ‘Congratulations for Making It’, but ragging on her for being old.

I’m taking it too personally, I know, but it’s tacky and stupid. Don’t call the cancer fighter ‘Over the Hill’, like she’s about to be sent out to pasture. Call her a fucking awesome person that has not yet begun to fight and ask her who she’ll celebrate her fucking 70th birthday!

I’m taking this too personally because cancer has been a theme in my family history. The latest close encounter is my mother, who recently passed the one year mark as free and clear from breast cancer.

If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, things you’d like to see me comment on, or something you would like to discuss, you can contact me at angryhappytruth@gmail.com.