Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tales from the Trenches: Irritation day

Maybe it is hormones speaking, but I have a laundry list of irritation. To preface, I'm not generally a crankensteiner, but things get under my skin. Oh, allow me to share.

1. People who won't let people in. -- Seriously. Is it that difficult to let a car or two in? If we all let a car or two in, the traffic jam will let up. Amazing concept, I know.
2. To the guy who swerved around the line of traffic I was in, rode the suicide lane (shoulder) then proceeded to flick the guy off ahead of me after he cut all of us off-- get a grip guy. Some counseling and perhaps a happy pill may help you to have a better day.
3. Abandoning carts in the middle of aisles to travel off to other aisles to shop. --Just skinny it on over to the shelf. I promise that nothing on the shelf is going to hop into your cart without your permission. Oh! A bonus? When said cart abandoner comes back and actually gets mad at you moving their abandoned buggy o' food so that you could get around it. Ugh.
4. To the lady that was at the Wal, pulled her purchases out of her cart and abandoned her cart right in front of the door completely blocking my way-- though I don't think it was the case, I understand if you have energy issues. If that is the case, just give it a little extra push so that it could free roll out of the way. Honestly though, she just dumped it there because she felt like it.
5. To the lady who had a cart of purchases at the thrift store, was finished with her cart and left the cart in the checkout lane with no other way for me to get out other than coraling her cart for her-- If you need the help, I'm happy to give it. Just don't abandon your cart right there for me to take care of it.
6. People who smoke in front of the door of retail establishments. -- You can't do this in Ohio, yet people do it anyhow. There are many of us who choose not to smoke. Not only are you forcing me to smoke your secondhand leftovers, you are also forcing my child to do so, as well. When K- is exposed to smoke, she gets bronchitis. Please move 20 + feet away from the door as the law specifies. Thank you.
7. Diapers abandoned in the parking lot. -- The used variety, that is. Truly. You have a child. Presumably this child is too young to use a toilet. That's okay. We've all been there. You've come prepared to clean up the child, but you are skipping that last 5% of actually dispensing of the matter in a garbage can or taking it home and tossing it there. You know those nasty thin grocery sacks that take 500 years to break down in the landfill? That would be perfect for you to use to bundle up your toxic waste and dispose of it. Leaving it in the parking lot is a health hazard. Cars drive over that. It rains on it, the diaper swells and explodes. It's disgusting. You don't want your kid to play in the poop and I don't want mine to either.
8. Gum. -- I had to explain to K- this week what all of the dots in the parking lot were. After we had the discussion of it being discarded gum, we found a Hubba Bubba sized wad on the parking line right next to our car. If you have the energy to put it into your mouth and chew it, either swallow it (no, it won't take 7 years to digest) or toss it into the garbage. Oh, and if you smack or make funky noises as you chew it, please refrain. I am not a good gum chewer and I know it. I refrain for a reason. I'm obnoxious and blow bubbles. See, aren't you glad that I save you from hearing me?
9. Entering an expressway or interstate. -- It isn't generally a difficult task, but please know that you are to yield to on-coming traffic, not the other way around. I realize that you may think that you'll just keep driving and someone will either be forcibly swerved by you to make them let you in or you'll just drive for miles in the suicide lane until a space opens up. This is not acceptable. That is a driving hazard. Don't do that. Yield as the sign says, please.
10. Walking your dog and leaving waste behind. -- Okay, obviously pee needs to stay, but I don't have a dog and I don't enjoy having to pick up piles of dog waste from my yard. That is disgusting. Carry a little bag with you. Remember the 500 year break down plastic bags from the grocery I mentioned above? Oh, it would be grand if you would use them, too.
11. Public dissatisfaction with free items. -- At the gallery that I work at, there is a small gift to all customers attending our annual Holiday Openhouse. The gift has ranged from commercially crafted ornaments, artist crafted ornaments and this past year, an artist designed button. A customer was displeased. (Well several actually.) The customer announced that if that was going to be our giveaway, she wouldn't be shopping at our store anymore. Hmmm. Okay. My other love is being dissatisfied with free gift wrap. Come on people! We do a beautiful job! Do you really need to waste time and resources in getting the item wrapped in a different color?
12. Young girls dressed up like adults. -- At K-'s graduation from preschool, there was a young lady (same age of 5) dressed in heels and panty hose. She was having a difficult time on the risers with the heels, actually bobbled and almost fell over while wearing them. All the other little girls were wearing flat sandals. I have issues regarding clothing with words stamped to the butt. As an adult, I don't want to call attention to the back behind and I certainly don't want people reading my child's butt. My mother-in-law has commented that since K- has moved into 7/8 clothing, they aren't as "cute" anymore. They are more grown up. I don't want K- looking like the cult kids, but still I find it extremely important that all of her appropriate parts are covered.

On a happier and completely unrelated note, the crows didn't eat my beans! They are up!!! :)

4 comments:

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

I hear ya on all of those. The yielding one really gets me. And if YOU try to yield, the people behind you get mad. I actually had someone pass me as I yielded and almost cause an accident because he just barreled into traffic. Fools! We've lost courtesy in driving, shopping, eating out, going to church, being neighbors, taking/picking our kids up from school and all around just being people. It's a ME, ME, ME society.
Oh and don't get me started on hoochie clothes for little girls. It's a darn shame what they put on the racks and call little girls clothes. I'm glad I have boys (and boys clothes are just plain ugly).

Jamie said...

Let it out sister!

Don't get me started on dogs, you know how I feel about that subject.

People that smoke in public annoy me period because they are almost always disrespectful and disgruntled about the laws. Not my problem.

I have honestly never seen a dirty diaper in a parking lot! Boxes and other garbage, yes. Still a sad shame when folks are that lazy.

We have a rule about butt writing, too. The clothing thing is very touchy in my house because my girls have a clear idea of what they want/like and we have a clear idea of what we allow them to have. Finding a happy medium is hard.

Jamie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rach said...

Again I say, amen, sister. The driving ones, the smoking one, the clothing one.

Trying to find non-hoochie clothing for children over five is darn near IMPOSSIBLE. I've found Gymboree doesn't do too shabby a job but boy are they PRICEY!

The other day, I had a very interesting thing happen with the smoking. I was sitting outside a restaurant waiting for carry-out items and on two separate occasions, two gentlemen came out to smoke. Each time, they saw me sitting there, and they moved as far from me as possible to smoke. Now, I suppose this could have been because I looked like some sort of freaky stalker chick, but I doubt it. I think they were truly being as thoughtful as possible under the circumstances. Smoking is such a horrible, addicting habit. I get irritated with young folk who do it because they KNOW all the risks and do it anyway.