Pet Peeves

Pet peeves, we all got them. It’s important to get them out of our system each once in a while so they don’t pile up like dirty laundry. Here are a few randomly chosen bits that make me crazy.

Bad Timing
I swear this happens all the time and always infuriates me. I can be home ALL day and leave the house for ten minutes and when I come back, there is a blinking light on my answering machine telling me that once again I missed a call. This is followed by several minutes of high decibel swearing. People ask “Why do you let this bother you so much?” The reason it upsets me is because it’s a reminder that I’m never in the right place at the right time.

Bad timing follows me like a dark cloud. I leave the house and that’s when it starts raining, I miss the phone call from a potential employer and the UPS delivery man - who happens to be the man of my dreams- was delivering a package I have been waiting for days to arrive but -oops, too bad, I wasn’t there. No doubt my funeral will be ruined with some timing miscue.

Political Bickering
Man am I tired of Democrats and Republicans flinging mud and insults at each other like kids at a playground. Has everyone in politics regressed to a 10 year old? There are good ideas from Republicans and Democrats but one can’t take a little from each. Oh no. One must staunchly toe the party line with no variations allowed. How immature. The public has become just as polarized. If you are Republican you are ultra conservative and if you’re Democrat you must be a radical left winger. Meanwhile those of us in the middle are left to throw our hands up and say the hell with both sides.

Remember the sniping after America lose the Olympic bid? Andrew Sullivan had it right.

“Criticizing a president is one thing - and important. Hoping he fails - even to the point of celebrating a national loss - is a sign of partisanship that has become pathologically blind to any sense of perspective or patriotism.” He’s conservative and I’m liberal but we agree on this.

Hypocrisy
Say what you really mean instead of something that is patently asinine and false. Stop saying “We must protect children from ( fill in the blank)”. What they really mean is “I’m offended and want this (fill in the blank) stopped immediately.” Yeah well no one gives a shit you’re offended. I’m offended every day but you don’t see me writing to the local newspaper to bitch.

Whenever a elected official is caught with his pants down don’t say “They need to set a better example for society.” they were elected to office, not sainthood. Frankly if a mayor, senator or school principal acted like a saint it would just be creepy. let them have a few personality flaws like the rest of us and let’s be real about it ok?

Foreigners on American TV.
Rachel Griffins ( Brothers and Sisters)- Tim Roth ( Lie to Me), Joseph Fiennes ( Flash Forward) and Hugh Laurie (House) are all British. Simon Baker (The Mentalist ) and Anthony LaPaglia are Australian. LaPaglia does an American accent better than nature speakers but should we be getting elocution lessons from an Australian? Meanwhile these well trained actors are taking jobs away from inexperienced American actors who have no clue what an accent is. The nerve.

Then there are people on cell phones, bread crumbs on the counter ( it’s a weird genetic thing I got from my dad, go figure) Leaf blowers and objects placed on the wall in even numbers instead of artistically correct odd numbers. The list is endless.