Do I Have A Big Mouth? Whatever

OK, so from time to time throughout my life I've gotten the impression that I've been loud and obnoxious enough to, well, make a bad impression.  Hey, I may give off the perception that I'm quiet, but I'm really not.  When I think the time calls for it, I'll pipe up.  In particular, I'll say something when I either need to get something straightened out or if I believe I'm right and want everyone to know it.  I love being loud when I know I'm right.  Love.  It.

So it happened today at work.  I was not particularly clear about this rule they had when scoring answers.  I thought it was one way, and then the director, in my opinion, shaded it when he talked about another question.  So I piped up as I revisited a question we had just went through.  And I did so with, um, some accusation that the director told us this, so why is it now that.

Not to sound vague, but I have to make sure that I don't reveal anything about the project.  Let's just say that instead of the director, most of the entire room answered my question for me.  Part of it felt as if the answer was so obvious they were shocked I didn't get it.  Part of it, however, was in response to the, uh, provocative tone I took in asking the question.  At this point, I was kind of stubborn about defending my viewpoint which led me to asking the question in a way that might have rubbed some people wrong.

I will say that I answered the group's answer with, "Oh, we need numbers now!"  And then I kind of told the director, "You didn't specify!" loud enough that someone from the row ahead of me said I was being mean.  Oh, shit.  I didn't mean that; I just wanted to show everyone I was right.

So I apologized for popping off to the director, as well as my direct supervisor and the woman who said I was being mean.  I didn't, uh, mean to be mean, but the question has rules to answering that I didn't think were consistently applied to the sample papers and I was getting frustrated that I didn't understand.  (And by the way, we started answering papers today and, just as I feared, it's kind of a nightmare so far.)  Nevertheless I'm sure the damage has been done; there are probably fellow co-workers who, after I left the room for break, muttered to themselves, if not said to each other: "Boy, what a dick."