You won’t like me when I’m angry …

I’m a pretty chill person. Just last night, a fellow board member on the local arts council said she thinks E is such an easy-going baby because I’m a relaxed person.

I loved that compliment, particularly because I have struggled my whole life with contentment. I am learning, slowly but surely, to live and let live.

So anymore, it takes a lot to get me truly angry. The Captain is probably the only person in recent years to hear me raise my voice. (And even then I think he can count the times on one hand.)

This is my round-about way of leading up to ….

Hulk SMASH!

The backstory: Part of my job is to make posters and informational booklets for local events. We save the files from year to year, so when the committees ask for last year’s poster or program to make changes, it’s a fairly routine request.

At the end of this month, there’s a livestock show in our community. The newspaper has printed all its materials for 30-plus years and it’s been a good relationship.

So when the committee chairperson asked for PDFs of the 2010 poster and book, I had no qualms e-mailing them to her.

A few weeks later, I checked in with her. She told me the committee had decided to go with another company. OK, fine, kind of disappointing, but whatever. I responded that I wished they had let us know they were dissatisfied with the price, but to keep us in mind for next year.

Another week goes by and the chairperson sends us the poster for the current year’s show.

It’s EXACTLY THE SAME poster I e-mailed her, just with dates changed. Same goes with the book.

I was livid.

I still am livid.

It’s one thing to not go with a local business. It’s a completely different beast to steal their original work and profit from it.

And what’s especially disappointing is that I sent her those materials in good faith, never anticipating that she would be so unethical. I had liked this person, trusted her, even, but that’s done.

(Also, because a PDF can’t really be edited, the changes they made look pretty amateurish. It annoys me more than a little that people will see those posters and assume I did them.)

It reminds me how naïve I must be, to think the people in my community would behave decently.