Listen To What You're Saying

I've never made a secret of the fact that I'm a slut for the beach, and will do anything to spend time on the sand under the sun, which I do a lot of during the summer and early fall. One consequence of this is that I spend a fair amount of time sitting with other people, the same group of people, every weekend, people that She's known all Her life, and that I've known since before the Boy was born.
And sometimes their masks fall down.
Last Saturday, I listened to a long story about how a friend of theirs had opened a store in a predominantly Jewish village, and found himself blackballed by the locals because he was an outsider. Yes, it is a predominantly Jewish village, and yes, he probably was the only Christian shopkeeper on the main drag, and yes, the local citizens probably continued to shop where they always had, and yes he probably did go out of business because the circumstances were wrong and he didn't do enough market research into where he was opening his store. But the woman who told this story needed to remember that the "they" in this tale of woe included me, and she should have been more sensitive to the fact that I was the main audience.
Later on in the day, She was talking about my penchant for buying multiple suntan creams, soaps and shampoos...it's something that I've always enjoyed, and so does She. The same person asked "Are you gay or something?" Normally, I suffer from New York Quickmouth, and would've chewed her up, but I just made a polite rejoinder and let it go...I should've said "Yes, I'm gay, and I've always been gay. Didn't you know?" The one time my mouth moved slower than my brain...
You can't self edit all the time, but ya do need to think about what you're saying....

Earworm-Average White Band, Got The Love