I don’t like mistakes. I like everything to be correct and in order otherwise I feel unsettled at best and furious at worst. People often say sorry to me. I reply, ” Don’t be sorry, be accurate.” This requirement from accuracy stems from being well-educated and naturally intelligent. It was always drummed into me as a child that I needed to be top of the class and to always strive for 100%. That was a good grounding that has stood me in good stead. I often berate shop keepers on their signage when they add unnecessary apostrophes thinking them necessary for plurality or they omit them when denoting possession. I have lost count of my forays on Facebook and internet forums to point out the incorrect use of “their” , “there” and “they’re”. I get little thanks but what does one expect from the uneducated. Some people just refuse to better themselves.
All of that is irritating. I am infuriated when people are mistaken about me. That makes me especially angry. The mistakes always take the form of some ad hominem attack and are based on at best a misconception or at worst a blatant lie. Any assault on my character makes me so angry and I lose my temper very easily when this happens. What do they expect though? That I should sit quietly as they assassinate my character? Not a chance. I often have to point out that they are wrong and they have recalled the conversation they are relying on to attack me, incorrectly. That happens a lot. They always twist what has been said or agreed and then try to make me look bad. I will not stand for it. One of my ex-girlfriends, Trish, she said to me once, “You are constantly putting me down and correcting me. It is belittling.” I was sick of hearing this and erupted in a fury. Shouting however was the only way I could be sure she was listening to me. I explained to her that I was not constantly putting her down and correcting her because if I was doing it constantly, I would be doing it every second of every hour of every day. I explained that one constantly breathes or the earth constantly turns. I advised her that the word she should have used was repeatedly. She started crying and screaming. Her hypersensitivity and over reaction to my only trying to help would amuse me. Repeatedly.