These are people I have always avoided--you know, people that trudge around like a cloud of doom, dragging you down with them as they "woe, woe, woe".

However. Sometimes I get equally frustrated when I'm surrounded by the other extreme.

I'm not talkin' about those wonderful souls who manage to stay upbeat and maintain an attitude of grace despite their afflictions.

I'm talking about (dare I say it?) the martyrs. The guy who just HAS to mention that, although he is 80 years old and crippled with arthritis, SOMEBODY has to get up there and fix the roof.

The woman who has two migraines per day and is still wearing a walking cast, but she's managed to bake and decorate seven hundred halloween cupcakes for school and hand-wash all of her curtains. "Oh, I'll be fine, I'm getting used to it."

The person who has been up since 4 a.m. and worked a twelve hour shift, but wouldn't DREAM of missing the meeting! "I'll just have to do the laundry and vacuuming when I get home! You're going, aren't you?"

I look at these people and I think, How can I say I'm too tired to do whatever-it-is?

While they're going on about how they just can't let stuff get them down and they just have to keep working through it, blah blah blah, I want to say "Well, isn't that SPECIAL."

They can be heroes if they want. I'll get in my recliner and read a book.

Sometimes I just want to whine and wimp and siss.