The new exclamation point?

My relative emotional stability at this job has backfired. I seem to have a lot of repressed irritation. Now that I am on my way out the door and nothing matters anyway, I am exploding with rage at every single little thing that could possibly annoy a person. And some things that really shouldn’t annoy anyone. This workplace has been far too pleasant for far too long.

The latest irritant is a dude, who, I’ll admit, has annoyed me from the beginning. He has the nerve to call me within seconds of receiving an e-mail from me. Hey, fella, I don’t actually want to speak to you. That’s why I sent an e-mail.

Today I was forwarded some information he sent my boss for a press release. The dude so far has failed to send me any information, despite the fact that I am the one writing said release. Does he think he’s gone over my head by sending it to my boss?

For some reason, his e-mail emphasized certain words with the asterisk, which, let’s be honest, is a pretty overused piece of punctuation anyway. Doesn’t even have an entry in the AP Stylebook. I’ll admit to using it in e-mails in lieu of italics or all caps, but this is a trifle excessive:

*Event*
**9-11 a.m.
*Program*
…featuring presenters from
**State** **University**
**City** **Community** **College**
**Esteemed** **Private** **University**

Although I have substituted the names of the parties involved, I exaggerate not the ridiculous use of the asterisk. Between the words in a proper name? What the hell?