Have You Got Pets Too?

Today is Pet Peeve Dischargement Day here at the Circle. I have many but will try to limit myself to only three. But like Miss Emma Woodhouse told Miss Bates, that may be too difficult to only speak of three. Yet, I shall make the attempt.

Anyhooo, you know what I mean by Pet Peeves, right? Just regular things that after a bit really drive you nuts. On their own they aren't necessarily evil or demonic, but just annoying and usually a bit rude.

Pet Peeve Number One:
My biggest pet peeve is being late. I hate it because that is the most arrogant behavior someone can do meaninglessly. If you are late, you are wasting everyone else's time who has to wait for you. I try, a little too hard sometimes, to be on time wherever we go and it makes me crazy when I have cracked the whip at my place to have the meeting start ten minutes after the designated hour because people are not there on time. Argh. When I am running late, I am so embarrassed, and so apologetic. I know I wasted the time of other people. It is an awful feeling, but apparently just a few folks in the general population know that feeling as most continue to be late without feeling bad about it.

Pet Peeve Number Two:
I am a relative newcomer to this cell phone-connected planet, having only received mine for my birthday last summer, but it still chaps my hide when people won't get off their phone to talk to a real person right in front of them. (This goes for texting as well, though I am far less experienced in that realm.) You have been there. You are waiting to check out at your favorite neighborhood grocery store, and the lady in front of you in the checkout line yammers on and on to whomever is on the other end of the phone. It is bad enough you have had to listen to her end of the conversation but meanwhile the checker kindly, and with efforts to be friendly, rings up her groceries. This lady cannot even get off the phone for one minute to pay for her stuff, take her receipt and tell the checker thank you, or even receive the "Thank you for shopping with us today" from the checker. If you are all that important, sit in your car and talk--I don't want to hear your conversation, and the checker is not some mindless peon you can just completely disrespect. Arrrggghh.

Pet Peeve Number Three:
This may sound really lame, but it is bugging me more and more. Maybe it is because I spend a little time at the junior high and during the winter I have a shift in the Jr. High carpool. My peeve with this group is the language they use. This is not to say these kids are swearing and cussing. They just sound like Bozo the Clown most of the time. In fact, we have one carpool friend who regularly repeats "no, seriously" and "like" with every utterance. This is a book smart child who should know better. But instead, it sounds like someone who needs some help with a speech teacher or a Tourett's specialist.

I am quite sure the kids this age do it unconsciously, and maybe that is what bugs me with this pattern. They are not thinking about what they say. They are just talking to hear themselves talk. And they aren't even saying anything meaningful. My own kids began talking like this and as soon as I heard the pattern repeated I have forced them to change--at least in front of me. Perhaps they do it at school, where quite obviously, it is socially acceptable to sound moronic, but not at home.

I remember my high school speech teacher made us video tape ourselves before our first tournament and we had to watch and listen to these miserable recordings filled with meaningless movement and filler words such as "like" or "um" or "uhh". It was quite a lesson. I see that same things in today's kids with "so, OK" and "uh, yeah" and "like", still. It becomes a pattern taken from the movie Rainman after awhile.

So there you go. I have more, of course, but essentially they all can be boiled down to a lack of courtesy and respect--either for others or youself or, in the speech case, both. If I think long enough I could list more, but I think I will try today to spend my mental energy trying to not let things bug me so much. Maybe that is something I do that bugs you. Could be.