Eating my words

I have heard the phrase "You pick your battles"
but always thought it was a bit of a cop-out excuse....
until:
this past week.

I admit I was wrong,
so very, very, very wrong!

I had the "pleasure" of working up in Crookston with one of the most difficult personalities I have EVER encountered! I have been working with this person all summer so I was aware of her passive-aggressive personality and thought I was mentally prepared to handle it.

hahaha

There are no words to describe how horrible it got. I have never in my life encountered someone who was so sure they were right, that they argued with me that a printed map must be wrong....
Somone that thought they were god's gift to plant species identification and if she didn't know a plant then there was no way I was correctly identifying it. It didn't matter that I spent many summers growing up changing sprinkler lines in fields of alfalfa, and many hot summer days spent hoeing knap weed out of fields.....
Said individual questioned and argued every procedure, rule, and guideline possible. She also loved to ask innocent-sounding questions (that she full well knew the answers to) just so she could argue your answer.

I quickly learned to pick my battles and became rather quiet as the week progressed. I argued only when it involved procedure and protocol, or something that could be quickly proven with a resource book.

A tremendous learning experience, in many ways.
And I officially eat my words: you do, occasionally, have to pick your battles!