Petty Pet Peeves

You've been warned.

Sometimes I think I should (at least temporarily) retitle the blog "People Irritate Me." (Or maybe start a whole additional blog for that). Because periodically, people do.

Here are a couple of today's winners:

1. The young lady sitting in her car, parked at the curb, kind of blocking where I was going to have to pull out, who was *talking on her cell phone with her boyfriend who was standing on the porch of the house she was parked in front of*.

Okay, absent some kind of weird contagious disease (They don't hang up Quarantine signs any more, I guess) or some kind of bizarre Romeo and Juliet situation, that is just wrong. Park your damn car in his damn drive and go talk to him face to face. No, I do not care if you are having an argument. No, I do not care if you are breaking up with him - in fact, if you are, it is far, far more honorable to do it to his face rather than to sit there in your car and tell him whatever gentle lie you are using to let him down.

But the worst part? Chickie, I was CAREFULLY backing out. I saw you. I was making an extra-special effort to avoid bumping your car even though you were in a singularly inconvenient spot for that particular area of angle parking. And I had the added complication of someone sitting "behind" where I was pulling out, wanting my space.

So you WERE NOT JUSTIFIED in honking your horn at me. I saw you; you were in the way. I'm sorry if it makes your life so terribly inconvenient that I want to go home at 4 pm and lead my life and do not prefer to wait for you to get done talking to your Romeo. But sheesh.

2. I have a student in one of my classes who apparently wears a Bluetooth piece 24/7. Now, I know I'm really being petty here, because he seems like a nice guy and a decent student, but the earpiece bugs the crap out of me. It makes me think of one of those Borg implants that people on Star Trek got when they'd been assimilated. And it also makes me wonder - does he always have that thing turned on? Is what's being said in class being broadcast somewhere? For someone's amusement, maybe?

I don't know. I know I'm a cranky old technophobe but I really don't like those Bluetooth earpieces. (I've also nearly gotten run over more than once in the Wal-mart by people sprinting through the store, talking to their Invisible Friend and totally oblivious to the Visible People they are nearly plowing into. And I am not a small woman! It's pretty hard to miss me.)

3. The whole campaign mess. I'm just tired of it. Tired of hearing all the damn minutia about what John McCain ate for breakfast or where Barack Obama went jogging. Tired of all the opining, all the projecting, all the body-English, all the punditry - all of it. Wake me up when we're down to two candidates. (But please, God - don't let one of those be Huckabee. Just, please. I know he considers himself one of Yours and all, but please...don't make me have to consider him as a choice. Especially don't let it be an Edwards v. Huckabee ticket. Because, despite what I threatened, I really DON'T want to have to write in "Wilma Flintstone" this year. Thanks much.)

What I'd really like? For the writers' strike to end and for us to get some good, entertaining, non-"reality"-based television to watch for a while. We need something to take our minds off of Bill Clinton's hissy-fit meltdowns while campaigning for his wife or Romney's big big hair. And some kind of crazy sitcom or good drama would do just that.

4. Several people I know who are permanently aggrieved about everything (as opposed to me, who is temporarily aggrieved about human nature right now). I mean, seriously: you could comment that it was a nice day out, and you'd hear either an argument as to why it actually WASN'T, or a long diatribe about how global climate change is responsible and we really shouldn't be happy about it. Or you show off, say, a new pair of shoes you bought and think are cool, and they begin asking you if they were made by fair-trade labor and how much of the earth's resources you think they used, etc., etc. It's like they can't be happy about anything and can't stand to see another person happy.