People you love to hate

So I'm reading a book review a few days ago, and there's a mention of this ongoing character in a series that the reviewer described as both the character you love to hate and hate to love. I can't think of anyone in my life whom I hate to love, but there's definitely one or two of the love-to-hate variety.

Years ago I became friends with this woman -- for public consumption, I call her TB, or The Bitch. Privately, I've got other, more fitting names for her, but they are incredibly tacky and rude and petty, so they'll stay private.

Anyway, TB turned out to be a mega-phony who lied, was devisive and manipulative and just plain not nice, so we kicked her to the curb. (Leah, Liz and DL were, sadly, exposed to her, too, because of me.)

TB is still around, of course; she didn't disappear off the face of the earth the way I wished. I still run into her, still get news of her, and still think of her too often with greath loathing.

So Leah, Liz and I were browsing through an antique store on our foray into McAlester the other day -- the kind of antique store that's got mostly junk -- and I came across this terrifically ugly ceramic pig. Let's face it, pigs are not adorable creatures to start with, and this ceramic multiplied the grossness of their features tenfold. My first thought was "The Bitch." (Yep, pigs remind me of her for various reasons, none of which I'll go into here.) My second thought was what in the world possessed someone to make something so ugly in the first place, and who in their right mind had bought it so that it could eventually wind up for sale here in this junk store.

Then my mind wandered back to The Bitch. You'd think, considering how much time has passed since I met the real Bitch and not the persona she presented to us, I would have gotten over it all and forgotten her. I have gotten over it, but come on, how do you forget someone you treated like a best friend, who then turned around and stabbed you in the back? How do you forget someone who made a fool of you? (Honestly, I think that bothered me more than finding out this woman thought "friendship" was just another word for "manipulation.")

But after thinking about it, I realized that not only can I not forget -- (what is they say -- she who forgets is destined to repeat?) -- but I don't want to. I have had a lot of fun hating The Bitch. It's entertaining. It's funny. It's refreshing. It's an outlet. I don't even wish for her to disappear off the face of the earth anymore, because then who would I hate? Who would provide me with such evil pleasure?

Who would make me get the giggles in the middle of an antique store over a grotesquely ugly ceramic pig?

So stick around, Bitch. You're now officially the person I love to hate. And you're lots more entertaining this way. Rachel8:49 AM