some of you want to do me a favor and not

[Carrie]

I've already done the long mentoring speech thing, so the only thing left to add is this - before getting defensive, stop and ask yourself if someone might just be joking in general rather than poking fun *at you*.

A perfect example would be the way you reacted to my "bitchin' camaro" quote versus my "blingmobile" picture. The second was much more fun, wasn't it?
I honestly wasn't attempting to insult you when I did the bitchin' camaro thing. It's what *always* pops into my head whenever I see a camaro or the word "camaro". (A curse of the 80's, I know.) Hence the reason I wrote "(sorry, it's the first thing that popped into my head.)"
When you got all defensive about that it pissed me off, because I was just joking around; but you were already in defensive mode about it and couldn't see it.

Don't leave your sense of humor at the door. Learn to laugh with people, and especially laugh at yourself. It makes life much easier to deal with.