I love that you are crunchy! That’s one of my favorite things. I enjoy being crunchy and I know a lot of people think I am weird. I figure as long as my hubby and I are happy, who cares, right?

I keep telling them that knitting is making a comeback. I’m trying to learn to not let their comments get to me any more. When they see that I really don’t care what they think then it’s not bad. It’s hurtful and I’m a sensitive person, which makes it worse I think. I need to work on my confidence!

Being responsible and NOT in debt up to my eyeballs is about as cool as it gets. Most often, though, it’s my crunchy parenting choices that people want to criticize. I am working on being more confident as I interact with people in person; it’s easier on my blog. Sometimes I am too worried that I’ll offend someone to stand up for myself, but I need to get over that. I’ve noticed that the people who seem so confident and above bullying are not like that because all their choices are mainstream, but because they enjoy being different, almost daring people to say anything. I love the quote from The Family Stone: “You have a freak flag–you just don’t fly it.” Everyone is different and we should be celebrating that. It’s a shame that some people get out of middle school (or high school for that matter) without learning this!

And geez, they make fun of you for knitting and quilting? How stupid! Around here, crafty people are “popular,” in a sense. They are resourceful and can make you stuff, or help you learn how to make stuff. Creativity deserves respect. I hope things get better for you.

Thanks so much for your kind words!

I am confident and bold because for the most part, I know what I want in life (living progressively more simply and naturally) and I make changes to get there! I have the success in many areas that they are struggling and wishing for.

I do what I can by directing them to my website and offering soft words of encouragement and skills to handle certain issues, but taking the steps are up to them. My biggest defense of my lifestyle is… RESULTS!

You say you love the people you’re working with 99 percent of the time. That’s a pretty high satisfaction ratio. Most people, I’ll bet, enjoy their coworkers much less than that. If you move, you run the risk of finding yourself in a job where you love your coworkers and customers, say, 60 percent of the time.

There’s the possibility, too, that OCW may move. This is an unhappy woman. Maybe she’s as unhappy with her position as you are with her presence. It might be wise to wait and see what she does. Meanwhile, if I were in your situation, I’d stay away from her and have as little to say to her as possible. If she aggressively made a critical remark, I’d look her in the eye and say “What’s it to you?” or “Why do you care?”