pet peeves

Everyone has pet peeves, right? Something, usually trivial, that just irritates the hell out of you. Probably because it's something that happens frequently and is just annoying enough to build up an 'annoyance reserve'. One of my pet peeves was just activated. Someone paged me, and then was not there when I called back. That wouldn't bother me if I called back more than 15 minutes later, but I called back right away. And no one could find the person who paged me. Fine. I don't mind sitting on hold for extended periods of time. Of course I don't. Finally I hung up and called them back. They couldn't find her. Two minutes later I got another page from the same person to the same phone, which says "can you page Krystle at 62020?" (which by the way activated another pet peeve .... of course I CAN, but will I?) So I called her back and she wasn't there! And I was on hold again. Really a bad idea, since she was calling to ask me for something. Needless to say when she finally got to the phone, I was less than friendly.

I wonder why certain actions by people are more irritating than others, and why everyone's pet peeves are different? A person I know cannot stand kids misbehaving in restaurants. This doesn't bother me at all. I simply tune it out. She's been known to grab a kid running by and tell him to sit down. Another pet peeve of mine is people in the service industry who are too busy conversing with their co-worker(s) to wait on the customer (me). This includes waitresses, sales clerks, anyone serving the public. Maybe it's simply a matter of frequency. The first several thousand times someone was too into their private conversation to do their job, I just blew it off. But the 7001 time, my 'annoyance reserve' overflowed.

Actually that's probably the case. I would say it's a combination of frequency and magnitude. I can't imagine something that happened to you only once, or even a few times, would cause you to want to remove someone's vocal cords or rattle their brains. But by the thousand+ time, enough is enough. And they're small things because the big things cause you to react immediately. Small things you're fairly successful at blowing off, as long as they don't happen a lot.

I think this is the same forces at work as when you don't really know someone until you live with them. Tiny habits that you don't like can be blown off if the person is just visiting, but day after day of that particular habit wears at you and adds to your 'annoyance reserve'. Eventually it's going to overflow, and if something else is adding to the 'reserve' also, you're probably going to explode in multiple directions.

Hmmmmmm. I knew there's a reason I'm single. Maybe that's also why older people (including me) tend to be crankier. Our "annoyance reserve" is always right below the overflow line.

*laughing* Or maybe I'm simply searching for an excuse for being a bitch. Yeah. Could be.

I have another going away party to attend this evening. No not another person leaving, another party for the same person. Luckily I'm over my hang-over from last night. Last night I did an attitude adjustment in a hot-tub with beer and mexican food. Tanoshii. My attitude was great when I got home. And I slept until 8:00 this morning! That's like a miracle for me. I get up at 4:30 on weekdays and 6:30 is about my limit for weekends. Of course I was a little hung-over this morning, but coffee pretty much solved it.

I need to try to figure out what to wear this evening. Hmmmm. I also need to try not to drink to much. It's a fairly good drive home (30-45 minutes depending on traffic), and I don't want to strain kami-sama tachi's abilities too much. I should be fine with one or two drinks.

It's supposed to drop below freezing here tonight. I hope that's the last time this year. Everything is beginning to bud out now. I guess I trimmed my rose bck a little early because it has a lot of new groth on it. I'm sure it will be damaged by the frost tonight .... although hopefully not too badly.