What a cute pet peeve you have!

Here is a list of my pet peeves. A lot of these won’t be surprises, but I feel I need to write them down. Interestingly enough, a lot are based on things that happen to me at work every day.

1. Assuming I know I’m being talked to.

I don’t mean when we are the only 2 people in the room and it’s obvious you are talking to me, or if I’m sitting by you and we were already engaged in conversation. I mean if someone, say in an office setting, just starts talking. Doesn’t say my name first. Just “Did you call that guy?” And then when I don’t answer, they get mad. I’m sorry, I need to know that you are talking to me before I answer you. I thought maybe you were on the phone, or talking to someone else that is within your line of sight.

2. Assuming I know what you are talking about.

Even if you do address me so that I know you are talking to me, you need to give me a background story. There is a chance I will know what “Did you call that guy” means, but “So I walked by and asked him if he had any more, and he did” means nothing to me. Who is he? What did he have more of? Why do I need to know this?

*note: There are some people that do #1 and #2 at the same time, and then I have to kill them.

3. Cashiers not talking to me at all.

I’m not asking for your life story, or even small talk. I want the bare minimum acknowledgement: Greeting. Total. Thank you. When you say absolutely nothing, it makes me think you are too stupid to be capable of speech, and so you will probably mess up my transaction. Or, you think you are better than me and I don’t deserve the effort of being spoken to. Then when I do ask for the total, you are making it clear how much I am inconveniencing you by making you do your job. If you don’t give me a total, how am I supposed to know how much money to give you? Should I just give you a wad of cash and let you take what you want? Homey don’t play that.

4. Trying to prod me into conversation.

This happens mostly with coworkers. We are working, and a loud “huh” or “wow” or some other exclamation comes over. But that’s all. No follow up. You want me to ask what has captivated you so, urging you to make a verbal utterance. Then you will tell me all about your uncle’s email or a news story or something. It could be a worthwhile thing, but you just need to just come right out and tell me about it; don’t try to trick me into starting the conversation. By the way, I don’t fall for it. You can utter all you want and I will go about my merry little way, ignoring you all the while. It kind of ties in with #1.

5. Making everything a contest.

There’s no need to one-up me. Life is not a competition. If I do something, it doesn’t matter if you did it first or you did it better. I just did it. “I ate at the best restaurant yesterday” does not need to be followed by “Well I ate there last week” or “I ate at this other restaurant which is better.” There is a difference between conversing and competing. You could say “Oh, I ate there last week! Don’t you love it?” or “Have you eaten at this other place? You might like it.” You can share your knowledge with me, as long as you’re not bragging or boasting.

6. Not believing me.

Sometimes I lie. Like this one time I saw a cow. It’s ok to not to believe me then. But when you ask me if I have a paperclip, and I say no, why would you proceed in looking for one? Or if you ask me directions and I give them to you, why would you continue standing there expecting me to change my answer? What possible benefit would there be from these tiny insignificant lies? And if you think I’m going to lie, why would you even ask me?

7. Going through my stuff.

Maybe you are in #6 and are looking for that paperclip. However, I have my stuff highly organized and if I had something there, I would know. You going through it only results in me having to re-organize it because you messed it up. It especially bugs me when I’m gone, and I come back and can tell you have been here. I don’t know who you are or what you were doing, but I still have to fix it.

8. Not putting things where they go.

My DVDs are alphabetized. When you remove one, there is an empty spot. So when you go to “put it back” why do you set it next to where it very obviously goes? At work, I have several in-boxes. They are all clearly marked with what should go in them. I guess it takes too much brain power to discern what category something is in, so you leave stuff just anywhere on my desk. Then once you do it, other people think that’s acceptable behaviour, so I end up with 3 empty boxes and a jumbled pile of crap in the middle of my desk that I have to sort and put away before I can even do anything else because the pile is in my way. You’ll notice the in-boxes are out of the way.

Ok, I’m going to stop now. I could honestly go on forever about the things that I hate. But you all get the idea. AND you know what happens when you disobey.

Frying pan.