Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[Maharincess]

I have a pet peeve. When my Spanish neighbors have a huge outdoor party and make the entire hill smell like the most delicious food I'v ever smelled in my life and they don't bring me any!!!

No fair to make me smell it and not give me some. They live way at the bottom of the hill I live on and that smell drifted up to my house all day today.

Man did it smell good.

[applecrisp]

Thanks. The doc gave me only about three days' worth of pain meds. I know they have to C their A's because of addicts, and it sucks for those of us who actually need meds. I have an acquaintance who abuses opiates, and I thought of her today as I'm in pain. I don't belittle addiction at all; we all have our demons. I've never done an illegal drug or abused RX meds. I've been medicated for depression half my life, so if one ever had the leaning toward that route (substance abuse), it would be me. I just never have. My self-hatred was abuse enough, I guess!

I have that problem with my meds. The thing is I looked up an the Mayo website and I am not even on the highest dose.  Frustrating.  You do get treated suspiciously-IF they don't know you.

 

Yet I do feel for them because of the whole sudafed situation.  It takes time out of their day.  I was talking to the older pharmacist and mentioned Breaking Bad-I didn't watch, he was quite mad they made a TV show about it.

[Whimsy]

I will only eat real butter. My friend has the nerve to call Country Crock butter and I always give her crap for it. That nastiness is not butter.

Bubbls, the extremely loud fire bomb things are illegal here but it doesn't stop the idiots. My poor dog had finally calmed down last night when some idiot who lives in the neighborhood above me started letting those loud ones off. I was so mad. Scared my dog all over again.

I wish I could find out exactly who was doing it. I'd get myself the loudest one I could find and set it off outside their bedroom window at 3 a.m.

Mountainair, DH means your husband right?

 

 

Most fireworks are illegal here, and certainly the pyrotechnics being set off.  My cat is recovering from pancreatitis, and Friday night had been her first good sleep in a week (can you imagine a cat having trouble sleeping?!).  I was so pissed when Saturday night's attempts were thwarted by what sounded like a damn war zone for hours.  Then we had a lesser version last night.  I'm hoping tonight we can both conk out.

 

There are numerous sanctioned local fireworks displays, all of which are either free or low cost.  I really enjoyed fireworks in the backyard when I was a kid, but being in a suburban area we didn't get crazy with what we were setting off - and, being considerate human beings, we didn't continue this shit until 2:00 in the morning.  At some point, it's just too much.

 

 

They're going off somewhere near me right now and I expect to hear them every night until next Monday. I just don't understand the concept of people who can't or won't think of other people. Especially for something so stupid as fireworks. I hate fireworks in the normal context. Idiots burning fingers off just to watch something go BOOM in a residential neighborhood just makes me want to learn to shoot and get a paintball gun.

Super,super late to comment on this, but I got into a Facebook war with this dumb ass over this very issue.  She basically told me I shouldn’t have a pet if I can’t “handle” her anxiety and fear over loud noises and that I was being selfish.  My post commented on not just my pet being scared, but children and vets with PTSD.  Long story short, come to find out that SHE was the person just a few houses away from me setting off the fireworks!  The next night when she did it again, I called the cops.  They are illegal here.

[DeLurker]

The hardest drug I've done is weed. I still smoke it. I get it medically now because I'll be on pain meds for the foreseeable future and they ruin my appetite. I'm already underweight so the weed helps my appetite a lot. It really helps my depression since my accident.

I have nothing at all against those who responsibly drink but for me personally marijuana is less harmful. I had a bad drinking problem and have been sober since December of '89.

The phrase "Instant Asshole: Just add alcohol was meant for me.

I couldn't handle my liquor. But I must say I enjoy sitting on my porch at night and smoking a joint.

 

 

While the majority of people don't appear to find pot addictive, my ex was and it was brutal to deal with.  He spent major $ on pot and it was a priority to him over things like paying bills or having milk and diapers for the kids.  As such, I've always talked to my kids about the potential that they may have a higher likelihood for addiction and they need to consider that if/when they drink or do any form of drugs.

 

From what I have read, the marijuana available now is of much higher (no pun intended) potency than what was available when I was trying it back in the dark ages.

 

Not universally opposed to its use - medically or recreationally, but as with alcohol, people need to use it responsibly and be aware that they may develop an addiction to it.

 

Bilgistic - Sorry to hear about your your foot!  Hoping you are feeling better soon.

[Maharincess]

I couldn't care less if people know when I'm high. I don't try to hide anything from anybody. I have no shame in smoking it so I don't hide it.

I'm not a sneaky person.

I consider it a medication not a drug.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Maharincess

[Quof]

Today is a holiday - yay - and we've had 3 straight days of nice weather for the first time all summer - yay!!

So I went to Dairy Queen drive thru for a Blizzard.   The car in front of me had some complicated order (how do you do that at DQ?).  She paid, then waited at the window for more than 5 minutes for them to hand her the order. In the meantime, they had apparently made my Blizzard, because when they handed it to me, it was basically a milkshake.   I told the employee it would have to be made again.  When she gave me the new one, it was less than 3/4 full. Since I ordered the mini size, it was about 4 bites.  The service at the DQ near my house sucks - they regularly give me the wrong change, they don't give you napkins unless you ask (I'm eating a cone of ice cream while driving a car, at least one napkin should be presumed). 

Is this a sign from god that I need to lay off the ice cream?

[NinjaPenguins]

If pet peeves were pennies, I'd be rich.

 

When using a drive-through, please stop leaving an entire car length between you and the next vehicle. I don't know why this annoys me, but it really does. Even more annoying is the person right in front of me who smokes with their window open. Thanks, I enjoy the feeling of my lips burning and hives forming on my face right before I drink my coffee.

 

Person who texts and talks on their cell while driving, you are not a superhero. You do not have superhuman reflexes. You're not special. I hope that LOL you just had to thumb into your phone is worth the accident you inevitably cause.

 

People who think they have superior character and special snowflake status because:

1. They're morning people. Big hairy deal. Congratulations on having a different sleep cycle than me, I guess. Getting up at the ass crack of dawn doesn't make you an American hero.

2. They're such bad ass hot food eaters that they throw back scotch bonnets like chips. I like spicy stuff. It doesn't make me amazing. People who don't eat spicy stuff aren't wimps; they just like different flavors or they get heartburn or whatever.

3. They eat meat so raw that they can hear their steak mooing. Ha ha ha, that one never gets old. You're the Indiana Jones of carnivores. We get it. I'm just too soft to eat food that bleeds on me, I guess.

4. They don't watch TV or better yet, they have no TV in their house. It's not enough to make their choice, however, they just have to imply you're rotting out your brain by having it on in the background or worse yet, purposely watching a show.

 

-The use of supermarket aisles for family reunions, conferences, and other assorted social events.

-people who tell you in explicit detail about their Facebook exchanges. If I wanted to know what you were doing on Facebook, I'd be on it. The only thing more boring than reading someone's lame drama on Facebook is hearing a secondhand account of it.

- Mullets. I just can't with that hairstyle.

-People who, while driving along the road, throw garbage out their windows. I had no idea that the whole world was a dump. I'm talking pizza boxes, diapers, and fast food detritus just landing in the woods that line the road.

[bilgistic]

People who think they have superior character and special snowflake status because:

1. They're morning people. Big hairy deal. Congratulations on having a different sleep cycle than me, I guess. Getting up at the ass crack of dawn doesn't make you an American hero.

YES. My boss gets up at 5:whatever to work out (after, like, six hours of sleep) and therefore is a superior human being. Great job with that; may you get an extra jewel in your crown. I've always had a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep, then getting up.

 

I'm getting tested for sleep apnea this week, so we'll see if I have a legit reason for being a grumpy bitch all the time. (As if I need a reason. Boom.)

[Maharincess]

I get annoyed by morning people too. Ive always been a night owl. I live up in the woods and my favorite thing is to go lay on my porch bench and watch the sky about 2 in the morning. I've had raccoon families, skunk families, foxes and coyotes walk right by me as I'm sitting there.

Night time is my favorite time of the day. I hate mornings.

[Bastet]

Amen to morning people who think they're superior because of that.  If I have to be in court, I'm up early, there on time, and quite productive -- but it was something close to misery getting up that early.  So, otherwise, I sleep in - I start later and end later, because what matters is the work is done well and by deadline, not what time of day it's done.  I am so ever-loving sick of this notion that getting up at 8 or 9 is laziness compared to getting up at 5 or 6, rather than just a different schedule. 

[Maharincess]

I just saw one of my biggest pet peeves on another thread. I hate when people incorporate their user name when talking about their spouse or kids. For example it would be like if I called my husband "Maharince". Just say husband!! I just saw one that made my eyes roll so hard that my head still hurts.

It's not cute or clever its annoying.

In that same vein I hate the DH, DD stuff, especially DS, one more letter and you can spell the word son.

What's wrong with writing husband, daughter or son?

[harrie]

I get annoyed by morning people too. Ive always been a night owl. I live up in the woods and my favorite thing is to go lay on my porch bench and watch the sky about 2 in the morning. I've had raccoon families, skunk families, foxes and coyotes walk right by me as I'm sitting there.

Night time is my favorite time of the day. I hate mornings.

 

That sounds heavenly.  

I just saw the early morning people posts after I posted. 

 

 

I don't think it's the being a morning person itself that's an irritant, but more the ones who lord it over others.  It sounds like you have the Martha Stewart gene - she gets by on a couple hours of sleep because it's just the way she's built. 

[Maharincess]

It's the best. It's so peaceful, the only sounds are nature sounds. I've fallen asleep on my porch many times. I made big fluffy cushions for my bench and I can lay there for hours watching the clouds pass in front of the moon.

[auntlada]

I just saw the early morning people posts after I posted. I hope I am not a peeve. I sleep very little. I stay up till 2 or 3 most nights and get up at 7. If I have to I get up earlier, when my turkeys are coming in or something I still stay up late the night before. When I worked I would get up at 6:30 or when my youngest was taking an early class I would get up with him at 6 to cook his breakfast. But it doesn't matter how early I get up, I can't go to sleep at night. I don't have insomnia, I just stay up puttering around or my favorite thing, reading. I can get all my laundry washed folded and put away at night better than I ever can during the day. And organizing? It's a night thing. 

 

But people who get up early don't bother me. Sometimes I wish I would go to bed at 11 and wake up at 5. I have tried to do that thing you do to babies or toddlers, to get them to get the sleep pattern you want, but it doesn't work on me. If I go to bed early and wake up early I feel sleepy all day. If I stay up late, after 2 or 3 and get up at 7, I feel refreshed. I don't understand it.

 

As long as you don't think I should be happy in the morning. I'd rather stay up late and get up late, but a 3-year-old and a job won't let me. My husband does let me sleep in until 8 on weekends. I sigh when I remember when that was early. By the time I can sleep later than that, I probably won't be able to.

[applecrisp]

Ninjapenguins, you had quite a list.  The spicy food thing is so true.  People without televisions, here let me give you a medal.  You are quite special.  I am quite sure you are using your time to make the world a better place.  Oh, you don't know(any popular actor)  and you've never seen( any popular show).  That is wonderful, I am sure you are most accomplished.

 

I think I have apologized all my life for enjoying TV and watching it a lot.  Right now I don't have a job.  I don't want to feel bad because it is something I enjoy.  And people can be so coy "Oh, I don't know what you are talking about, I don't watch TV".  Then they know what I am talking about.  I think, they think it somehow makes them look smarter. 

 

I was a night person for many years and now I am in the early morning group.  It is what i got used to.  Again, It says nothing about you has a person.  How could it.  We need people to work later shifts etc.  I like the very early morning when few are up.  Even in winter.  I like the christmas lights.  Either way you are up when others are not and it makes the world peaceful and you notice little things.

[backformore]

Yes, morning people only bother us night owls when they act like their schedule is superior.  

When I was in high school and college, I could agonize over a term paper all day, but around 11 PM, suddenly my brain kicked in and I could WRITE like a maniac!  I'd stay up all night, finish studying or writing around 5AM,  The papers i write that way always got better grades.   

 

My kids are the same way.   They were taught in school to do papers a certain way - an outline, a rough draft, edit, etc.  Work on a paper a bit at a time, turn in what you've done at every step.   That's what they teach in school.   BUT -  by college, my kids both realized that doing an all-night session with the computer worked best for them.  My son once marveled at a paper he had written, said he couldn't believe he actually wrote it, it was so good.   

(Some of us can only be brilliant in the middle of the night. ) 

 

I've always worked late shifts, I am spacey and groggy in the mornings, but lively and focused by night.  My kids are like that too.   (not my husband) 

 

I mentioned to  a family member that I was on my way to work one day.  she said "must be nice to have a job where you don't show up till 11 in the morning!"  

It really pissed me off, since I often work until 9 or 10 at night!   It's my schedule, it might be different than yours, but yours isn't more virtuous because you show up at 8! 

[backformore]

4. They don't watch TV or better yet, they have no TV in their house. It's not enough to make their choice, however, they just have to imply you're rotting out your brain by having it on in the background or worse yet, purposely watching a show.

 

This one kills me.   I have a brother who always said "we don't have TV".    And they don't, exactly.  They have a TV SET, no antennae, no cable or satellite.  It's hooked up to a DVD player.  And they have  a bookshelf filled with DVD's - of TV SHOWS!  

 

The next time he said in that snooty superior way that they "don't have TV", i laughed, and called him out on watching the exact same shows the rest of us watch,  just a year later. 

[Bastet]

I wrote pretty much all my college papers in marathon overnight sessions, too.  Such "procrastination" is another way of doing things that gets unfairly derided. 

[NinjaPenguins]

No worries, stewed. I have no quarrel with anyone getting up early. People should absolutely adhere to the sleep schedule that works for them. My peeve is with early birds who live to lord it over others, as if there's something inherently virtuous about being an early riser or there's something wrong with people who get up later.

[Maharincess]

NinjaPenguins, not only do I love you name, I agree with your list, especially the no TV people. They're so smug and you know they're just watching TV online instead.

Stewedsquash, I agree with you about people knowing when somebody is drinking or on drugs even though the user thinks they're fooling everybody.

My dad was a bad alcoholic and after witnessing him stumbling drunk for my entire childhood I decided I didn't want my kids seeing him like that so I told him he couldn't drink at my house. After many trips to my bathroom he'd be visibly drunk but thinking nobody knew. When my son was 4 he asked grandpa why he always had a flat bottle of water in his pocket. It was a vodka bottle.

It reminds me of Kim Richards blaming her sister for outing Kim as an alcoholic. Apparently Kim thought nobody would have known if her sister hadn't said anything. I could tell she was a drinker and/or drug user from her very first Housewives scene.

They aren't fooling anybody.

I don't smoke my weed all day every day like people seem to think when they hear I'm a smoker. Like I said I like to lay on my porch at 2 am and smoke a joint. It also helps my appetite and the anxiety I feel sometimes due to my accident. I'll bypass the Valium and smoke a joint. Its a lot more effective for me.

[bilgistic]

stewedsquash, I will let y'all know about the sleep study. I am getting a home kit (technology!) on Friday, and after I use it, I turn it in and they take the readings. I was referred to the sleep doc by the neurologist (by way of my GP) because I have a headache (that sometimes becomes a migraine) most days. Migraines run in my family, and my mother has apnea. I probably have it. I snore terribly and wake myself snoring. I have the craziest dreams and very occasional sleep paralysis, too.

BTW, stewedsquash, I'm in Charlotte. Hi, NC neighbor!

[Bastet]

I only snore when I'm sick and stuffed up, but under those circumstances I wake myself snoring, too.  It's an odd experience.

 

I guess snoring would count as a pet peeve.  I know people can't help it, so it's unfair for me to react as I do, but I cannot abide snoring.  If you snore, you have to sleep elsewhere.  Another room, another house, I don't care - but not next to me.  I can sleep through many things, but not the sound of snoring.  I once slept on the sand with a beach towel for a blanket because of snoring.  My best friend, her brother, and I had gone down to visit their sister and several friends at a beach house they rented for a long weekend every summer and wound up needing to spend the night.  It was my best friend and I on an air mattress on the living room floor and her brother on the couch, and both of them were snoring to wake the dead.  It was either sleep outside or kill them, and since they're family to me I opted to let them live ... after some deliberation.

[bilgistic]

My mother's snoring sounds like a freight train unless she's using her CPAP apnea machine. Fortunately for her, she sleeps well wearing it and couldn't hear me snoring when we were on vacation. My sister and niece could hear me from two rooms over. I can't help it, and I apologized! At least my cats don't care. My boy snores--cute little kitty snores.

[Maharincess]

My husband does the snore, stop breathing, long snore. He doesn't snore as much since he lost some weight. He wasn't super overweight but driving for a living and eating on the road takes its toll after a few years.

I just posted great news in Chit-Chat!!

[auntlada]

I wrote pretty much all my college papers in marathon overnight sessions, too.  Such "procrastination" is another way of doing things that gets unfairly derided. 

 

In some circles, they call these people journalists. I do my best writing on deadline. That worked well at the newspaper, not so good in other jobs.

[applecrisp]

I used to write papers that way and I always thought it helped me when we had essay tests which I preferred. 

[DeLurker]

Never was a night owl - in fact, in college I had to take an extra nap if I was planning on going out in the evening.  Yes, I did say and mean "extra" nap.  I was usuall asleep by 11 PM.  But I wasn't a morning person either - I slept as late as possible, need a cup of coffee first thing and it really is best if no one talks for at least the first hour.  I had a roomie once who greeted me every freaking morning with "Morning Glory!". I loved her at any other point in the day, but in those minutes I loathed her with the burning heat of a thousand nuns.

 

As I have gotten older, my body has conspired against me so I wake up earlier every year but I don't sleep well.

 

I'm glad I slept and napped so much when I was younger - I figure lifetime averaging.

 

Semi-peeve:  Just got back from dropping my car off for servicing.  Pretty busy so I had to wait at the dealership for about 40 minutes for the courtesy van.  A woman was in the unoccuppied children's play enclosure on her cell phone.  I figure she went in to that area to be considerate - it has those clear partition walls and the waiting area is chock full of people.  Well, despite her best intentions, the semi-enclosed space and general acoustics amplified her voice so for 30+ minutes the res of us were unwilling eavesdroppers.  I know her lawn is brown and patchy and her husband's efforts have been so ineffectual, her daughter's boyfriend is really beneath her, but her niece has no standards whatsoever, that she can't wait for the kids to go back to school, can you believe the cost of kids clothes....All I could think of was "first world problems" (I get the irony that I dropped my car off for servicing, was given a ride home, they'll pick me up when my car is done, sitting at my laptop (one of 2 in the house plus tablets and smartphones...complaining about someone else's "first world problems").

[backformore]

DeLurker  - I always think that if people are going to chat on their cell phone so loudly in a public place, that I am hearing it - they should at least be entertaining!  I want to know about affairs, arrests, drunken rampages, drug overdoses.  Or at least, making fun of all your friends and co-workers for the way they dress.  SOMETHING that doesn't waste my time.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

I have a HUUUUGE peeve, which I have been holding inside me and letting it fester inside me, but today was the last straw. I have to vent my spleen, as it were.

 

First, it's not all lawyers, just the new one my firm hired. I like lawyers. I've worked with a number of them who aren't as idiotic, superior or just plain stupid as the one I'm about to use as an example.

 

So, as I said, new lawyer joined the firm a few months ago. She used to be partner in her own little firm which she left, or it dissolved or whatever.  Our firm is small. I am the only paralegal. So I'm also the office manager (bleah!), which means I do the billing, pay our vendors, and am also HR.  And I've been here almost five years, so here goes:

 

I am not new lawyer's personal secretary. It is not my job to constantly go through my emails to find the emails I fucking SENT to HER that include codes for the copier, her log in credentials for teleconferencing, etc., each time she has to use the copier or makes a conference call. The first couple of times, I said, "Well I emailed them to you when I got them."  And her response is "I don't care. That was so long ago, and I don't feel like looking for it" or the more used "No you didn't, I don't remember getting it."  Or when she tells me she knows "everything" about file storage or how a program for electronic files work, only for her to delete ALL the documents I'd uploaded, and then say to me "I've never used this before", making herself a liar. or stupid. So I tell her, I'll do the uploading; you just email me the documents.

 

Or how she didn't know why I needed her passport/SSN card when completing an I-9 Form. And refused to provide it. I had to go to my boss and tell him. I eventually got the passport, since she was never issued a SSN card, she says.

 

I can't tell you guys, that I am starting to wish she would stay at home and just work from there, so I can do my job, because there are four other lawyers that I support, who don't give me such hassles. And everything that is IT related? I tell her to call our IT guy. Her response? "I don't want to bother him."  My response?

 

"That's what he's there for. I am not IT. I don't know the intricacies of [insert tech issue]. That's a conversation you need to have with IT guy. Do you want me to call him for you?"

 

And she loses the fob keys to the office and parking garage and blames me as if it were my fault. And how soon can I get a new one? Like tomorrow? I tell her she has to wait. I have to report it, and then the company will issue a new one.

 

I have printed, emailed, forwarded (multiple times) the crap she needs and she doesn't make a note of it, I don't know HOW many times, and still she comes to me when I'm working on something, demanding I give it to her. And maybe it would be a good idea if I kept a note of it, since I didn't provide it within one second this morning, while she's standing over my shoulder, while I am searching my fucking emails for said shit.  And yes, I realize that was a run-on sentence.

 

And I can't go to my boss, because I know what he'll say. God, I need to get out of here and get another job at a larger firm. My boss doesn't pay me enough to put up with this and his shit.

 

I don't know if that helped.

[harrie]

Or how she didn't know why I needed her passport/SSN card when completing an I-9 Form. And refused to provide it. I had to go to my boss and tell him. I eventually got the passport, since she was never issued a SSN card, she says.

 

I don't know if that helped.

 

So, she doesn't get paid then?  I can't stand people who do this shit.   I hope the vent helped a little. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

So, she doesn't get paid then?  I can't stand people who do this shit.   I hope the vent helped a little. 

 

Hah. If only I had the hutzpah to have asked her that! She didn't want me to make an electronic copy of her passport ID, either. Didn't want it "floating out there." Well, in this day and age, having electronic copies, so we can email them to the company that does our payroll, is the way to go. This attitude that she knows everything, and has done everything, yet questioned why I needed two forms of identification when she was completing her W-4 and other forms, is mind boggling.

 

She doesn't use the templates we have, but does her own wacky formatting, which my boss doesn't like, which leaves ME to fix said formatting, and she gets pissy when I make changes. Thank goodness boss sent out a firm-wide email saying how he wants the documents to look like.

[NinjaPenguins]

You're driving along in light traffic when suddenly a car bolts out of a side street/driveway/store parking lot at high velocity just to get in front of you...and slows down to five, ten miles per hour below the speed limit. Why? The road isn't busy. What compelled you to dart out right in front of me and slow down? This vexes me greatly.

[glowlights]

DeLurker  - I always think that if people are going to chat on their cell phone so loudly in a public place, that I am hearing it - they should at least be entertaining!  I want to know about affairs, arrests, drunken rampages, drug overdoses.  Or at least, making fun of all your friends and co-workers for the way they dress.  SOMETHING that doesn't waste my time.  

 

I've made a habit of putting down whatever it is I'm reading/doing in order to stare at whoever is having a loud cell phone conversation in public. They clearly want attention, so I'm happy to oblige. :)

 

eta: oh my god, I've almost hit "report" instead of "like" TWICE in less than a minute;  you guys,  if anyone gets reported by me please know that I didn't mean it, I love you all, and it's only because of my innate derpy-ness, sorry in advance!!! jeez

Edited August 4, 2015 by glowlights

[backformore]

eta: oh my god, I've almost hit "report" instead of "like" TWICE in less than a minute;  you guys,  if anyone gets reported by me please know that I didn't mean it, I love you all, and it's only because of my innate derpy-ness, sorry in advance!!! jeez

 

I do that all the time.  I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually "report"  unless you put a comment in as to why you're reporting it, and then hit "submit"  on the report form.  

 

And I like your idea of staring at someone having a loud conversation on their phone.  

[Quof]

Hey, parent: When your toddler darts out into the parking lot of a shopping centre, it is not the time to have a philosophical discussion about choices "You can either hold mummy's hand, or have mummy carry you."  It's the time to be the damned parent and pick the child up.

[glowlights]

I do that all the time.  I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually "report"  unless you put a comment in as to why you're reporting it, and then hit "submit"  on the report form.   

 

Good to know, thanks! I haven't been around here lately and now I see there's this new little button for me to accidentally push...

 

 

Hey, parent: When your toddler darts out into the parking lot of a shopping centre, it is not the time to have a philosophical discussion about choices "You can either hold mummy's hand, or have mummy carry you."  It's the time to be the damned parent and pick the child up.

 

Can I add an AMEN to this?

[P2C2E]

Hey, parent: When your toddler darts out into the parking lot of a shopping centre, it is not the time to have a philosophical discussion about choices "You can either hold mummy's hand, or have mummy carry you."  It's the time to be the damned parent and pick the child up.

This last weekend I had to take a ferry. It was a busy weekend with lots of events so the ferries were full (I got there an hour before the ferry I wanted to catch, and still had to catch the one after). First of all, I see a young boy maybe 6ish? (I don't know, I'm terrible at guessing - but clearly old enough to be a person) run up to a stranger's dog and start petting it. The owner politely informed the boy that his dog was friendly but in the future, ask first. The child stared at him and then began hitting the dog in the face (not punching, just lightly whacking - but STILL!) At this point, dog owner said to the mother of said child, "Ma'am, please secure your child!" I wanted to high-five the owner, but since I was sitting in my car I settled for eye-contact and a mutual eye-roll. 

 

Not 15 minutes later, I see said child running down the lanes of cars (all parked since we'd been waiting a long time). His parents, both chatting away completely oblivious. After a little bit they look around and the dad begins whistling for his child, like you would a dog!! Mom starts calling his name. They have to go searching for him as he's having way too much fun to listen to parents. 

 

Let alone the fact that this child was running around alone between cars full of strangers, there were railroad tracks near by and of course, the water!! I know that you can't watch kids every single second, but for god's sake I would think you cared about your child a little bit!! Feral children are one of my biggest pet peeves. 

[LJonEarth]

Night Owls Unite!

 

I have always been a night owl, and now that I'm taking care of three adults with varying degrees of mobility challenges, it comes in handy. I rarely get to bed before midnight and it can take up to two hours before I get to sleep. If I had to hold down an away-from-home job, I'd have trouble getting up for it but I'm self employed. I have an understanding with a guy I work with -- he doesn't call me before 9 a.m. and I don't expect him to answer e-mails after 9 p.m.

 

I used to work with a woman who came to work before 7 a.m., often getting up at 4. I came in at 8:30, and by 11, I was just finishing my coffee and she was ready to go to lunch.

 

I was listening to a podcast the other day that made me feel vindicated. For some of us, our later (or earlier) sleep patterns are genetic. If left alone, I'll wake up naturally at almost 9 and have always stayed up past midnight. I'll admit to questioning early risers about all of the nighttime activities they're missing, but this world is set up for the morning crew. We night owls are being punished for something we really can't help.

 

 

On another note: My pet peeve for the month is parents who let their kids play with dog squeaky toys in stores. There are a million other distractions you could pick up and use to occupy your child, why make a beeline for the most annoying thing on the premises. I have very sensitive hearing. It's like a knife to the head. How is that not driving them crazy too?

Edited August 5, 2015 by LJonEarth

[Sun-Bun]

You're driving along in light traffic when suddenly a car bolts out of a side street/driveway/store parking lot at high velocity just to get in front of you...and slows down to five, ten miles per hour below the speed limit. Why? The road isn't busy. What compelled you to dart out right in front of me and slow down? This vexes me greatly.

Happens around my neighborhood ALL.THE.TIME.

Burns me up on such insane levels to the point that I honk my horn as a warning before revving up around these inconsiderate drivers while displaying the finger and/or the stinkeye. There's just no excuse for such blatant rudeness to other drivers---and I hate to say it, but it's typically two specific types of folks I notice who seem to do this most often.

[Sandman87]

On the subject of night owls - It bugs me that I used to have normal sleep patterns until I worked a graveyard shift for 2 years. Ever since then I have had to maintain strictly consistant sleep habits, because otherwise my body will take any excuse to revert to being nocturnal.

Here's a couple of my old TWoP motivators on the subject, from the anime show Is This a Zombie?:
Night Owls
Morning People

Edited August 5, 2015 by Sandman87

[applecrisp]

I was listening to a podcast the other day that made me feel vindicated. For some of us, our later (or earlier) sleep patterns are genetic. If left alone, I'll wake up naturally at almost 9 and have always stayed up past midnight. I'll admit to questioning early risers about all of the nighttime activities they're missing, but this world is set up for the morning crew. We night owls are being punished for something we really can't help.

 

 

On another note: My pet peeve for the month is parents who let their kids play with dog squeaky toys in stores. There are a million other distractions you could pick up and use to occupy your child, why make a beeline for the most annoying thing on the premises. I have very sensitive hearing. It's like a knife to the head. How is that not driving them crazy too?

Early risers do miss out on stuff especially in the summer.  My husband and I don't go to a lot of the outdoor concerts and festivals and things.  I wish I could stay up for some of these. There is so much daylight and I do enjoy sitting around a fire at night and we have a really nice outdoor fireplace. 

 

My husband always had to get up early and I felt bad never going to bed at the same time so I adjusted my schedule.  And also had jobs where I got up really early.

 

The catch is if you deviate too much your sleep patterns get messed up and I like my sleep.  My pet peeve is that i can't switch back and forth.  Not a peeve i know it.

[Mick Lady]

Going off on my own little pet peeve.

 

I am, at this very instant, planning a slow painful death to whomever invented shrink wrap!!!!

[BW Manilowe]

Going off on my own little pet peeve.

I am, at this very instant, planning a slow painful death to whomever invented shrink wrap!!!!

I don't tend to have a problem with shrink wrap (but *cling* wrap is another thing entirely--I always end up with that irreversibly clinging to itself). Who I'd like to "kill" (I wanna, but wouldn't really do it, ultimately) is the person who created the molded plastic packaging that not only thwarts anyone from taking items/the item from the packaging while it's in the store, but also keeps the legal purchaser from removing the item(s) from the packaging, once the item is bought & at the purchaser's home, without having to use the strongest implements to open it & without perhaps incurring personal injury like a (possibly nasty) cut when package opening is attempted with scissors or a knife of some type.

[JTMacc99]

You're driving along in light traffic when suddenly a car bolts out of a side street/driveway/store parking lot at high velocity just to get in front of you...and slows down to five, ten miles per hour below the speed limit. Why? The road isn't busy. What compelled you to dart out right in front of me and slow down? This vexes me greatly.

Heh. Yep.

 

I drive back and forth on a country road that is 55 MPH for most of the way, but it has stretches that drop down to 40 through some busy intersections and even to 30 in some residential areas.

 

I find that the same people who pull that move are also the people who drive 40-45 the entire stretch, regardless of the posted speed limit. I'm pretty sure they get up to 40 coming out of the driveway and just keep it there. (BTW, there is a strong correlation between this behavior and old people.)

[Bastet]

Who I'd like to "kill" (I wanna, but wouldn't really do it, ultimately) is the person who created the molded plastic packaging that not only thwarts anyone from taking items/the item from the packaging while it's in the store, but also keeps the legal purchaser from removing the item(s) from the packaging, once the item is bought & at the purchaser's home, without having to use the strongest implements to open it & without perhaps incurring personal injury like a (possibly nasty) cut when package opening is attempted with scissors or a knife of some type.

 

This allowed someone to market a tool specifically designed to cut such plastic … which, you guessed it, itself comes packaged that way.  You need the tool to get to the tool.

 

(I’ve never used one – I just use a box cutter – but I’ve seen it, and cracked up at the packaging.)

[BooksRule]

Here's a new one for me to report:  I work with a woman who just bought some new shoes.   What did she buy?  Those backless 'mule'-type shoes.  Now, all I hear is a loud 'whap! whap! whap!' every time she walks around.  And it is LOUD!  'Whap! Whap! Whap!'  I never really liked hearing people walk in those types of shoes every since I would see Blanche on 'The Golden Girls' whap around in them, but I never really realized that I hated it until I had to listen to it day after day.  One small good thing about the whole situation is that we work on different floors, so I only have to listen to it when we happen to be working in the same area, which is usually an hour or so each day. 

 

I've never worn that type of shoe.  Are they really that comfortable (these particular ones have a fairly high wedge to the back part) and is there a way to walk 'quieter' in them?

[DeLurker]

Ha!  Back in the dark ages I had a high school class in a portable.  One of the students was fond of clogs and of asking the teacher questions when we were supposed to be working independently.  She'd clunk clunk clunk up to the teacher's desk and back at least 3x per class.  One day the teacher lost it and finally yelled "Take your damn shoes off!". 

 

And there was much rejoicing.

[harrie]

Clogs were the shoes to wear when I was in high school.  (Well, clogs and cowboy boots, which were coming into hotness in the late '70s.)   My New England high school was made up of nine buildings and was undergoing a multi-year renovation while I attended.  Short story long, on a mucky day during the January thaw, I lost a clog to a mud puddle that must have had quicksand at its base.  This happened to others, too, I am sure.  Over the years, the school has morphed into one huge building, and I have wondered whether, years later when additional excavation was done, if the construction crew ended up with a pile of clogs (and other shoes, like Dr. Scholl's, etc.) off to the side of the job.  

 

In the job I just left, an office mate wore the mule-type shoes, but with less of a heel - and she'd clump up and down the hall, kind of sliding along instead of picking up her feet.  Love the person, hate the way she walked in those shoes.

Edited August 6, 2015 by harrie

[potatoradio]

I rejoiced when a woman in my office FINALLY got a pair of shoes with a heel strap. She didn't wear mules, but regular flats and still: whap, whap, whap, whap, whap. How about you buy shoes that fit, k?

 

On occasion, when I've been waiting to turn forever, I've been one to give in to frustration and pull out with just barely enough room between me and the oncoming traffic. But I sure as heck don't pull out and then slow down. WTF? Also, if you're going to merge on a highway, f*cking merge. Don't come speeding down the onramp, see my car, and the slow down to drive beside me. Pull ahead, fall behind, I don't care, but don't hover next to me for cryin' out loud.

 

 

[Maharincess]

Pet peeve that just happened.

I was looking for a Michael Symon recipe that I've made before but wasn't sure of a few steps. I find the recipe and can't read it because there is an ad for a college that takes up the whole damn page!

There was no X to click to get rid of the ad, every time I tried to get rid of it I would get redirected to the page for the college.

Why the hell do they do that? Do they think it will make people want to click that link or visit that website again? Not me. I left the site and found anothe site with the recipe.

It's so annoying!!

The food is in the oven and smells awesome no thanks to the site I went to.