“i deal with retards enough at work”

here’s an especially nice detail about the coworker who is still trying to exact revenge on me, or whatever the hell it is she’s doing with the backhanded trying to blame things on me and talking about me behind my back.

that one time we went out drinking, we wound up in the back bar of a local lesbian club. (she’s straight, but no matter.) where there was a karaoke stage.

now, keep in mind, the house we work at is filled with people with severe mental and physical disabilities, all are non-verbal, except for one person, who has cerebral palsy and makes voice-sounds, but can’t actually communicate verbally, though he can hear, and can use a modified form of sign language. he gets about mostly, when out of his wheelchair at the home, by sliding along the floor, pulling himself with his hands. another client walks around the house hitting himself on his head. another has had his legs amputated, is non-verbal, another drools continually, has to wear a helmet, and mostly sits on a sofa and grunts & tears paper into shreds.

i’m citing these details to let you know what kind of work we do, and that to do this kind of work requires respect for human beings, no matter how different they are. that no matter how a person is shaped or formed, every human being deserves to be treated with decency & consideration.

so i’m with the (i’ll find out later) revenge-bully coworker, at the lesbian bar, in front of the karaoke stage, and a young woman with cerebral palsy comes in, in a wheelchair. she parks her wheelchair facing the stage, sort of near our table, but a respectful distance away. the entire time this person with cerebral palsy was there, blissed out smile on her face, rolling her head this way and that in time to the music, my coworker got an uncomfortable, unhappy look on her face. after maybe 10-15 minutes, she leaned over to me and said, “i deal with retards enough at work, i don’t want to have to deal with them when i’m out having a drink.” i just looked at her, and said, “i can’t believe you actually said that.”

she replied, “i can’t help it, when i’m out relaxing, i don’t want to have to deal with retards, i get enough of it as it is, they need to stay away from places like this, they make people uncomfortable.”

again, i just looked at her. “y’know,” i said, “that i’m technically ‘retarded’, being on the autistic spectrum?”

she didn’t say anything else about the person with cerebral palsy after that, got a bit quiet, but the entire rest of the time the woman with cerebral palsy was there, my uneducated, barely graduated from high school coworker kept glaring at her whenever her back was turned.

people, i swear.