Monday, January 26, 2009

Pet peeves or things that make me crazy

I got up this morning cranky and in pain. One way to get over that mood, I thought, would be to air some of my pet peeves - things that drive me nuts, aggravate me, or just plain make me crazy.
Before I start, let me say most of these things do not make me angry. They may frustrate me, disappoint me but I never dwell on them for very long. I am also not trying to put anyone down - any examples I give are solely for clarification of what I mean. (And remember I already admitted I feel cranky).
It all started early today. I have severe sleep apnea and use a machine when I sleep. Because of this it takes me a long time to get to sleep. When I get up at night, it can take up to 3 hours for me to get back to sleep. This leads to one of my pet peeves - when the alarm rings at some pre-dawn hour and no one gets up. The alarm gets shut off and the setter of the alarm returns to bed to sleep some more. My sleep is now done. I am not angry, I can certainly understand not wanting to get up for the day at that early hour. But I will no longer be able to get any sleep.
Have you ever been talking to someone on the phone and have them say, "Can you hold on for a minute, I have another call?" Call waiting is another of my pet peeves. It is basically saying this other call is more important than talking to you. TO me it is just rude.
When going out to eat, I do not like it when the wait staff either hovers close by always interrupting or else disappears for hours and cannot be found to refill water glasses or remove finished plates. Something in between would be nice.
Another pet peeve of mine is drivers who honk their horns constantly. The other day I was in traffic. The cars in front of me were all stopped, yet the car behind me kept honking its horn. Where did that person think I was going to go? Fly over the top of those stopped cars? Ram into them maybe, creating a path for him/her?
This leads me to my next pet peeve - impatience. I see this all the time. We live in an instant society. No one wants to wait over three seconds for anything. IF there is more than one person in the grocery line ahead of us, if the cashier is taking too long to ring up the order - everything is rush, rush, rush.
Have you ever seen a driver weaving around, or pull out not paying attention because they were holding their cell phone up to their ear or looking down texting on it? When I drive, my cell phone is off limits. I put it where I can hear it but cannot reach it. I have to pull over if I want to use it.
This next one is kind of unique. This pet peeve is being accused of taking a snapshot in time and getting stuck there. Here is a simple example. Two weeks ago my car was giving me a message that the tire pressure needed to be checked. I asked my husband if he got a chance over the weekend would he check it. The next day he said to me that our son Mike also knew how to do it because he checks his tire pressure all the time so I could ask him. I asked Mike and he pretty much said he was too busy for two days to do it. I was feeling pretty low, as I ask very little of anyone around here. I thought John did not want to do it as he told me to ask Mike, and that Mike was too busy. When I mentioned to John how I felt he said I took a snapshot of him telling me to ask Mike and got stuck there, not moving on to the place that he was still going to try and do it for me. But how was I supposed to know that? The last I heard from him was to ask Mike. It is hard to move on without new information. It seems like this accusation gets handed to me at times when responsibility is getting tossed onto me for something that should be on someone else.
People who do not follow through and do what they say is another pet peeve of mine. I usually give them a long period of time to do what has been promised, even remind them a time or two, then get so frustrated I end up doing it myself.
I used to administer a music copyright license for a non-profit organization I was administrator for. In that capacity I learned the copyright laws and requirements for when groups (including churches) publish or post the song lyrics for people to see when singing. Many groups/churches do not follow these rules, not giving credit to the people who wrote these beautiful songs. It also makes me wonder if they are paying the royalties that these artists deserve.
I could probably go on and on with my pet peeves, but I am going to list only one more. I am feeling better already having gotten all of this out of my system.
Intolerance is my final pet peeve of the day. Jesus said we are to love, not to judge. He said the world will know us as His by how we love one another and that He will do the judging. After all He is the only one qualified to judge.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you've decided to "get back on the horse"! We've missed you Ruthie.
Pet peeves....we all have them. Many that you list are probably on EVERYONE's list---driving & cell phones, the rush of life, the instant gratification of 21st century life, etc. As these frustrations mount, I need to remember where my strength comes from...God Himself. In His strength, I can do all things---even get over life's frustrations.
Hang in there! Love, Debbie

Anonymous said...

Hi Ruthie,

I agree that call waiting is annoying unless there is some kind of emergency. I also feel the same when people answer a cell phone when they are talking to me.

I hope that you are feeling better. I am glad that you are blogging again. I liked the part about patience. I know I need to work at that.

Pearl

Meg Sargent said...

I understand about asking someone to do something wait forever it seems like and end up doing it yourself. That is a common problem at my house. My husband's excuse well he works all day. On his day off he just wants to do nothing. Wow must be nice right? I may be at home most of the day but am taking care of the house and small children as well. So frustrating...

Anonymous said...

Ruthie I totally relate to your pet peeves blog and it made me laugh because I could see myself in the same predicament.
I have asked Rand to put 1/4 round up on our hallway steps. I bought it, I stained it the only thing I haven't done is finish it myself. I asked him to do this and many other things for over 5 years. I am still waiting. Maybe not too patiently but I am still waiting and trying not to be a nag. It is a tough row to hoe!