I have a bad memory about things that bother me. I tend to forget the specifics about why my friends really bother me and then later I feel like I am over reacting, they haven’t acted like this before! Even when it is a constant pattern. So I’m going to list some of the ways I’m feeling frustrated with Anna because otherwise I’ll wonder later if this is a pattern or not.

She is critical of everything–no really, everything. Noah was putting together a little table and she was sniping about him following the directions and then he wasn’t doing things how she would and… it was ridiculous.

She is one of the most materialistic people I know, but in some really idiotic ways. She spends $100/month on hair and skin products. She gets pedicures. She is spending thousands of dollars on her 12 year old cat because the cat is going down hill fast in health. She is crying because her iPod broke and she can’t buy another one. These things would be less glaring to me if she had a job. She is in grad school, but just like her BA took 6 years it is looking like her MA will take 4+ years and she can’t hold down a job on top of doing grad school because she has outrageous health issues and a severe drug addiction. She sleeps on a motorhome mattress on blocks in the house because she can’t afford a bed. She doesn’t have a running car so she shares her parents cars given that she goes to school an hour away from where they live. I… I just have no sympathy for her financial priorities.

She is incredibly self-absorbed and inconsiderate. What is up with throwing a temper tantrum because I don’t want to have her at the book store when it opens the morning of my wedding reception? She has spent a bunch of time talking on the phone with various friends, but when I play around on the computer because she is on the phone she expects me to stop being on the computer within about 30 seconds of when she wants to be entertained. She also bossily tells me that I have to stop at a store, instead of asking. When we are in a store she wanders off for long periods and then I can’t find her. This was very inconvenient in Ikea.

I used to think Anna was smart, I’m starting to wonder though. She argues with everything but can’t back up any of her claims. For example, we (Noah and I) were talking about medical insurance denying claims and under what circumstances they get away with it. One of the things that we specifically were talking about was in the case of very young children. She interjected that there is a federal law. Uhm, about what? If a baby is more than 1 pound, everything humanly possible has to be done to save the life of the child. Uhm… is this a law affecting hospitals? Doctors? Does it require insurance companies to pay for said extraordinary measures? She has no idea. She just knows there is a law. Well that’s bloody helpful in an discussion. Darling, I can say there is a law about almost every topic under the sun, but if I don’t know anything about what law in particular I want to reference I should keep my mouth shut about it.

Oh! And I love when she starts going off on how “relationships should work.” She has never had a serious partner at all. When I say that I mean she has never dated anyone for more than two weeks. She is 27. But she knows all there is to know about how relationships should work. The list of her rants would fill 5 pages and I’m not in the mood to rehash all of them.

The one part I found really funny was: she’s been set up a few times lately by friends to go out on “group dates” with people from her grad department. Her friends want to help her find someone interesting. She has only told them that she hasn’t had much dating experience because she has always been too focused on her school work. (Then why did it take you six years to get through a BA and you only got a 3.2?) But when the group goes out they mostly want to talk about what they have in common-namely grad school and their experiments because they are all science people. She thinks it is boring to talk about science, why don’t they have more diverse interests? . . . Wait, you tell people that you haven’t dated much because you are totally into school so they set you up with people who are really into school and you don’t want to talk about school because it isn’t very interesting? Uhm, mixed messages much?

I’m frustrated. I’m writing this down because I wonder if she has always been this way and I still have a friendship with her because I spend very little time with her so I forget that she has always been this way.