Manager retaliation? Received an award, which angered boss. Got written up, allegations are false, demanded acknowledgement. What do I do? [FL]

I received an award, an honor not a statue or whatever, from a local group. They want me to come to an event and be acknowledged and give a speech.

Last week they made an announcement about it. I was very honored and proud. But I don't like to make a big deal out of myself so I didn't really say anything to anybody.

A few days later my boss learned about it and got FURIOUS. I don't really understand why. But she wrote up this convoluted memo that I was overfocusing on myself not my job because how else could I get this and do a speech and still do my job.

I really don't get it. It's a personal award about me. Not about my company. Nothing I did to earn this affected my day job and nothing I do to receive this affects my day job.

My boss was also like you are really in trouble for agreeing to be a part of this without getting approval or permission from me first.

I panicked about that so I contacted our HR department and asked if I was in violation of anything because I didn't remember anything about that from the handbook. But the HR person I spoke to said there was absolutely nothing about that in the handbook because it wasn't relevant to the company or my job And I wasn't in violation of anything, and my boss was really out of line demanding I ask for permission or approval for something like this.

So I thought I was OK but then my boss spent the last week really going after me and finding any reason to tell me somethings wrong. Like telling me I didn't file something that's not due for another month and asking me so many questions all the time about every little tiny thing that I'm doing for my job.

I've kept very professional and positive in response and made sure to provide answers and information to every question.

But today I got a notification that my boss had written me up with all these accusations and allegations. The center of it was around this award, which my boss again officially alleged interfered with my job.

I don't see how because no part of this takes place during my workday. Anything I do for it will not happen during my workday. But then clearly my boss spent all week finding anything to come after me for and listed all this stuff, most of which was just listing things that aren't even on the work task list yet.

It really feels like for some reason my boss has some issue with this award and is taking any excuse to retaliate against me and go after all my work. The write up demands I acknowledge it. But a lot of it is not accurate or fair.

I don't know what to do.

Now I've got this terrible write up and I'm worried about my job and I don't know how to respond to this long list of kind of incomprehensible and not really accurate list of you're not that great and this award is ruining your job and here's all the things I don't like.

What do I do?

For context, I've always tried hard to do my best and be a good employee and my boss is awful to me all the time. This is someone who can be so mean and say the meanest things you've ever heard. And I just keep trying to do my job And focus on what needs to get done then just be good as an employee. I wish I could just go find another job but it is a terrible job market right now.

I am sorry this is so long but I'm really confused and don't really understand what's happening or what to do.

Adding the question: how do I handle the response to this write up? It's really harsh but also vague. The general things are not true or fair. I can refute a good amount of it and show some proof. Some is true but not fair because not due yet. I don't know if it's better to do that or not, that go through and address every point. That feels necessary but like it will agitate her worse. But I don't want to seem like I agree with any of it because that will probably land me in trouble. It feels like a lose-lose.