Cranky McCrankerton strikes again

When my friend Norm was pregnant with her daughter Morgan, she used to tell me "I just shouldn't be around people right now." I didn't quite understand how someone could get so irritated by things. In general, I have always been a well temperemented person. Very little bothers me-- with the exception of some teenager boys.... But, Norm, now I get it. Now I understand.

On a few occasions, I have found another personality come out in me that I will affecionately refer to as "Cranky McCrankerton." The first instance of McCrankerton coming out occurred on a Friday afterschool and was witnessed really only by Darren, my unknowing colleague, who I affectionately refer to as "Captain Oblivious." He and I were in the workroom afterschool. There is a table in the middle of the room that is used to eat lunch and over time, it gets loaded down with crap. Normally, I can handle this, but for some reason, that Friday, it was too much. It was all because of a plastic Old Navy bag. An empty plastic bag, just laying there on the table. Garbage just left behind. And so I turned into what Glenn likes to call "Hurricane Melissa", where I suddenly begin cleaning things at a rapid pace. I threw things away off the table and if something was there I knew had been there several weeks, away it went. For example a class set of something made for someone, complete with collating and staples-- left on the table for at least three weeks. Obviously it wasn't that important. And as I cleaned, I became aware of the incredible lack of organization in the workroom. There were stacks of forms here and there with no real home. There were boxes of spoons in three different places. I started to complain to Darren that there was no reason that we couldn't put in a very simple organizational system and just all use it. Twelve people or not, if we established one place for the forks, all the people could put them there! And so it went for about another ten minutes. Darren looked at me and said, "Melissa, go home. But let me call Glenn first and warn him." That night, after the workroom table incident, I was just incredibly irritated by absolutely everything. I was at home, trying my best to be polite to Glenn, who is the only person who didn't really bug me too much. But as I sat and realized that I needed to go to dance practice, that same thought that Norm had had crossed my mind. I really just shouldn't be around people right now. I should just be in a room on my own because I am going to snap at people and not mean to.

The other night, Cranky McCrankerton struck again. I was having an incredibly forgetful day, but I was managing. But then, all of sudden, I realized I had left my camera at Glenn's cousin's house, causing us to have to turn around midtrip and drive back to their place. And that was the last straw for McCrankerton. "I am tired of being stupid," I said in the car. After that, on the ride home, I just sat in silence, knowing it was much better for me just not to talk. Again came the thought, I should just not interact with other humands right now. Luckily, we were on a long car ride, so I just closed my eyes and waited until I fell asleep. I used the excuse that I was tired as for why I wasn't talking too much. In time, McCrankerton subsided and I felt like myself again.

This irrational irritation is another thing that is so out of my character-- much like the forgetfulness. I don't like to be rude to people, I don't like to snap, I don't like not talking to others. But pregnancy has turned me inside out and I find that for their own good, I sometimes need to just step back and be unsocial.

I am sorry to all those who have been or will be victims of a strike of McCrankerton. Really, it isn't you, it's me. And that isn't just some bad break-up line. It's true.