sass and cappuccinos

there exists a fine line between friendly banter and outright rudeness. i tend to straddle the two worlds fairly seamlessly, reserving the bitching for behind closed doors. however, i would love to be able to tell jerks-asses to their faces just how awful they are.

the real sticky-wicket, however, is what i call "taming the shrew" (a.k.a. taming down my personality to better relate to more difficult customers). why do i find this problematic? well, first of all, i hate feeling like i have to stifle myself/hide my true colours just to appease others. second, i tend to come across then, as a push-over. third, repressing my personality tends to quickly become a major bad-mood inducer. which then turns me into a buzzkill bitch.

also, i believe i may have mentioned this before ( in fact--i have! see : quandry/ conuundrum of same-aged "regulars") but it's become a more technologically intertwined world since march 2009 and i am finding that more and more regulars are "friending" me on facebook. and i'm friends with my employers. and my co-workers. and trying to keep it all straight and neat and tidy and unoffensive is really fucking difficult. the solution i've come up with so far is aside from one or two exceptions, most have landed on a separate, stream-lined feed that prevents such tangles. but what about those few i truly like? and wish to get to know better?and find intelligent and intriguing and beguiling, amusing, etc.???