– by Anita
I’m mildly vexed that I am not autumning in New York at the Sniffa Fall Ball, it’s still a week to the World Percheron Congress so in the meantime Im’o be a bit Crabalicious! What’s the stuff that chaps our last cheese?? Let’s crab over morning coffee (or last night’s tea, depending upon your time zone).
Behold, some of My Crabs – YMMV. Please chime in with your own but the Ground Rules of Civility still apply: NO personal names and no real flaming, okay? Don’t make me come back there…
Unpacking merchandise on the shop floor during retail hours. If you’re a grocer or the Gap, yeah. I get it. I don’t want to have to wait ’til tomorrow to buy crackers, so stack away! and for some reason the sight of kids in headsets unloading sweaters from cardboard boxes seems to be part of that retail frenzy .
But!! if you are luxury boutique, selling 4-figure handbags, please don’t. Okay? Here’s the thing: I know the bag only cost you $250 to make, if that, and that a lot of what I’m paying for is the ‘experience’ – the gorgeous boutique, the gorgeous SA …. your Bentley er, the 2 or 3 accessories artfully arranged in gorgeously lit drawers that close with that soft ‘snick’ that just screams MONEY! – but that’s the point! I’M PAYING FOR THE EXPERIENCE! And a huuuge part of that experience is the fantasy that my $2000+ bag was made by artisanal French-Italian elves in a 13th Century monastery and it comes to the shop in a horse-drawn carriage and a sprinkling of gold dust. Watching you unpack 12 of them from a giant, battered cardboard box, pulling them out of those plastic shipping bags…well, it just throws a big ol’ poopy diaper in the punchbowl, y’know? And it makes me feel dumb. C’mon! at least gimme a kiss!
“Do you need change?” Stop. Please. Can we go back to the practice of quietly picking up the billfold, attending to the transaction and quietly replacing said billfold on the table. Unless I’m in a diner, in which case go Flo and slap that check down before the plate hits the table. We’re cool. Otherwise, see PAYING FOR THE EXPERIENCE above. I know some consultant started this. I’d like to meet up with him behind some restaurant…
No, you CAN’T have it! I accept the perfume ‘image’ concept – to a point. And I guess if you’ve got Big ConglomoBucks or you’re an indie with a Sugary Somebody you can do what you want – Sales be damned. Or hey, maybe I’m the dumbo here. Is the ‘extreme exclusive’ still a trigger for insane desire? Well, in 2010, I find I am Not That People. Folks is tired, honeys. Okay with waiting a bit, okay with shipping, to a certain extent. and I’ll even play along and call a store direct, because you won’t let my regular SA do it – but I’ll be damned if I’m going to fly to Mars to get your stuff. Or I can only get it in some extreme presentation or give a blood sample or join a club or?……….what ever happened to just making an excellent product and making it somewhat reasonable to attain?
Ooops! My bad. Forget the Preachy about not engaging Bad Manners…oddly, I just realized that it seems to me people are LESS bad-mannered than they were a decade ago. Maybe the Busted Bubbles? If you are taking the subway instead of a Town Car these days, you probably have ramped up your survival skilz – courtesy being one of them. You never know if the person on the strap next to you is that ‘donkey on the edge’! In the country? Don’t harsh the guy in the combine. Be patient – he will pull to the right just as soon as he can. Whipping around him in a fury will only get you creamed by the combine coming in the opposite direction.
The more you buy, the more you save. Yeah, yeah. I know. An OLD canard – but it’s still out there (just got one today). And it’s still stupid.
Pedicures. At home or at the salon, this is one thing that seems to grow ever more essential, as I grow ever-older. I don’t remember my toenails causing such drama back in the Mesozoic Era but now….man! Velociraptors! Jeebers! I’m turning into my Great-Aunt Edna! What’s next? Nose hairs?!
My fear of the cold. I live in Illinois. I need to get over myself. Or move to Miami.
I could go on but……nah! Your turn. What steps on your Very Last Nerve?!
photo: SNL – Mike Myers as Linda Richman
I don’t like SAs (or, really, people) who are so ignorant they don’t know they’re ignorant. For instance, saying that a perfume doesn’t exist when we perfumistas KNOW it does.
Also, cyclists on the sidewalk are utterly infuriating, especially when they ask pedestrians to move..!
#1. I was at a funeral home visitation for the father of a friend when a teen (this man was a high school principal)took out her cell phone and started talking to someone . . . 10 feet from the casket. I walked over to her and said “Take it outside. Now.”
#2. People who are unable to push a grocery cart down a grocery aisle without leaning/laying on their carts as if someone had just tried to break their ankles.
#3. Assclowns wearing hipster jeans, a blue tooth, artfully gelled hair who tuck their sunglasses in the back collar of their pseudo cowboy shirts.
#4. Women who give unsolicited medical advice for my 2 yr. old daughter’s condition. She has a hemangioma on one eye – benign tumor of blood vessels – so her left eyelid is red, very thick and covers half her eye. I cannot tell you how many woman have told me to get her “pink eye” checked out or asked why I brought her out in public with an infection.
Ruth!
I’m beyond curious. What on earth could that teen have been saying? ‘oh, hey! no, nothing much. just standing next to Principal X’s casket. Whazzup with you?”
😮
actually, I’m appalled. But curious.
The grocery cart lay-on scares me more than irritates – and it makes my back hurt to look at it. I find myself standing like a prima ballerina when I see that.
I’m jumping to #4 to say :o. People actually SAY that? And you, not in jail. ^:)^
xo >-)
Seriously, this little chickie was just naddering on with “Like, yeah I don’t get it . . . Uh, no I’m busy right now . . . Maybe, I gotta ask my mom later.” It was unreal.
As for #4, I just smile tightly and say “she has a benign tumor, it is not infectious and it is being treated.” Most people stop listening after “benign tumor” and I can tell they wished they’d kept their mouths shut.
Only two questioned me further, because it really “looked” infected to them and they were stunned their grocery checkout lane diagnosis was wrong. I just prayed for them . . . that a cop would stop them for speeding, they would gain massive amounts of weight without cause, only get bad haircuts, step in dog crap and find out the IRS screwed up their tax return.
now that’s some PRAYIN’! 😉
and I LIKE it!
xo >-)
This thread obviously struck a chord. :D And it was an entertaining way to spend a Friday night (adult single life is soooo glamorous!).
I can relate to a lot of the above, but I’ve really been trying to Zen out and not be so crankypants (which is my true nature). However, if you want to see smoke come out my ears, take me to the movies, where there is ALWAYS a couple sitting somewhere behind me who feels free to chit-chat. This is a movie theater, not your cockadoodie LIVING ROOM!!!!! If you don’t understand the plot, please to not ask your spouse for help. And please, even though this cheesy flick is the most predictable story ever told, I don’t need to hear you whisper, as the murderer is about to be revealed, “It’s the mother-in-law.” Just. Shut. Up. Seriously, I’m convinced most Americans have somehow forgotten how to stop chit-chatting for any period of time. Maybe it was better when everyone went to church and had to shut up for at least an hour a week? Ya think? (Oh, and yes, it’s even worse when it’s at a concert for which the ticket cost 50 bucks.) Whew! Feelz allz better now!
It’s not just Americans, Joe.
I like films, but hate film audiences, nowadays. Many people seem to forget they’re sharing the cinema. So I wait for the DVD more often than not. Keeps my bloodpressure lower!
^:)^
and Joe, you are not single any longer, remember? You have plighted your troth to me and El O!
Don’t forget, okay?
xo >-)
Thank you, Joe – I stopped going to movie theaters a decade or so ago because of this. I think you are absolutely right that people used to go to church or other occasions where everyone felt they had to behave in the right way for the occasion, and now most people act as though the world is their own personal living room.
The cel phones add a whole new level to this … the TEXTING IN THE MOVIES. My favorite theater is underground btw so the phones don’t work. I and other patrons am totally comfortable directly (and aggressively) confronting people about their phones but now it is the texting, those glowy screens, and (surprising to me) not teenagers doing this! Who refuse to turn it off! I am somewhat ashamed to admit that my ugliest public behavior recently was telling a 60-something-ish woman “I will take that phone away from you. Shut it off NOW.” I expected her to go complain to mgmt.
Have also done this to two girls at a flamenco show I’d spent $$$ for my ticket. “If you want to text, go out in the hall. RIGHT NOW.” One of those things I have absolutely no patience for, it’s rude on its face.
We don’t get the phone thing too much, thankfully — sometimes just a couple of final texts during the first minute of the film. But you’re right that it is NOT just a generational thing, this “whole world is my living room” attitude. It’s funny because I’m not really conservative, but I definitely have these issues with people not knowing how to “behave” in public. It’s official: I’ve turned into someone’s grandmother.
Joe, I prefer to think of it as turning into a time traveller – Kurt Anderson on studio360.org who pointed out that by the time you’ve turned 50 (or 40 or 60), you really HAVE time-traveled! ;-)
I love yah Anita-
I do, I don’t know you from Adam but I think your great.
You have always been kind to me and talked to me on here, you can have as many ever-lovin’ bags as you want baby! :P
I can’t stand rudeness, unkind people, littering in my forest(Gaaah drives me mad-WHY do people scoop up their doggy poop JUST to leave it out there in the damn bright blue bag?????????!) I am constantly stopping my run to pick up doggy poop bags and then I proceed to run holding it! Precarious yes-also really ridiculous. But I can’t just leave it!
Oh and smiling at people and them just staring back at me blankly.
<3 ~T
Oh, sweetie! Thank you!!! Back atcha. It’s always nice to see you commenting on the blog!
(though I really do not need any more bags – the interest comes and goes. And my present business iz huuuurd on handbags! )
I’m with you on the dog poop. We live next door to the park, heavily used by children, and I am always picking up dog poop that isn’t mine (uh, you know what I mean) – because of our high-profile Rottweilers if it’s dog poop, it’s gotta be ours, right? Wrong. But I just pick it up anyway.
On the smiling? Just keep smiling, honey. Sometimes I think people are so lost in their own thoughts that they just don’t comprehend.
..uh, you are smiling, right? Not just baring your teeth, as I was accused of doing once? Twice.:-?
;))
xo >-)
Wait staff, particularly women, who won’t address the woman I’m dining with and then ignore me(hispanic) when I am out with ‘white’ men. And when I am alone they want to know if “we” are ready to order. Mediocre hipsters. People who don’t know to text on public transportation. People who do text in their car.”I share the road” bumper stickers on cars that won’t share the green light. Sit there like a wet weekend until the light turns yellow.
Goes both ways…..most of my friends are Japanese and Mexican, I’m white; I get ignored more often than not when the wait staff are of either ethnicity, especially if we’re in those types of restaurants. I have never been offended by it. I didn’t even notice it til one of my friends pointed it out.
My husband occasionally orders on my behalf, and I’ve noticed lately that some people seem to find that offensive. I find it rather chivalrous and old-fashioned. But then some women are also offended when men open doors for them, while I find it lovely and polite.
In the words of the immortal Alice Roosevelt Longworth: “If you haven’t got anything nice to say, come sit next to me.” :d So let me join you in your crabbing.
#1. “Your call is important to us.” Then answer your damn phone!
#2. Political ads that use dramatic music, threatening voices, and photos that look like mugshots to tell you that Candidate A will raise your taxes and spend his free time running over puppy dogs when he’s not doing drugs with hookers.
#3. Grocery stores that don’t check perishables often enough. I don’t want to have to check every individual carton of yogurt to see whether it expired a month ago (Target Superstore, I’m looking at you).
And finally, to balance out my negativity and crabiness, I’ve been working part time at our local zoo’s Halloween event held on weekend nights. Such fun! Little kids showing off their costumes, middle schoolers trying to decide if they should brave the Haunted Trail, parents relaxing, having fun with the kids, and dancing to the band – it’s all been good.
oh yeah! that zoo event sounds lovely!
don’t worry – sometime down the line we’ll do a ‘grateful’ post.
xo >-)
I’m getting better about checking expiration dates, and it ticks me off to find expired cans at the front of the grocery shelf. I want to buy soup that I can eat when I’m too tired to cook, not soup that will send me to the hospital.
here’s what interests me about expiration dates: whatever happened to all that stuff our parents stockpiled during the Atomic Terror-Scares? I thought that was the whole point of canned goods – that, unless they were bulging at the seams (always a scary sight) they should be good until pretty much forever – right?
Now they have exp dates like milk!
8-|
xo >-)
Robo-answering machines at businesses: “Press 1 for the Dr., Press 2 for Rx refills, Press 3…” So many times the menu selections don’t adequately address the reason for my call, and I’m forced to guess on a choice or listen to the menu repeatedly. And the hours of my life I will never get back while working my way through to talk with an actual person :(( Is it really so much more expensive to provide good customer service by having a real live human being route phone inquiries??
God, yes, I HATE those menus!
Sometimes you can get around phone tree hell:
http://gethuman.com/
Oh, I love to kvetch! One of the benefits of aging is the permission to be a grumpy old lady!:d
Things that irk me at the moment… hmmm…
Ok. Noisy schoolkids. God help any adult who has the misfortune to be riding, or queuing for, a bus in my part of town when the kids are riding to/from school. The little darlings push and shove, yell and scream, play music out loud on their phones, and generally act up. Any adult who tells them off gets abused. I never dared behave like that in public when I was a kid (yes, I sound like muy mum! But it’s true.)
Also, I’ve recently added a half-hour walk to my commute, for exercise and to save the tube fare. So there’s a whole new list of annoyances to make me happy: :)
People who dawdle (I like to walk fast), broken pavestones and potholes, cyclists on the pavement and running red lights, the annoyingly plush and expensively-situated London Scientology centre I have to pass (religion, my arse….)
But my pet hate, totally irrational I’m sure, is walking behind smokers. There seem to be a lot more of them than there used to be, it’s like every fifth person is smoking. I know, it’s probably nothing compared to the traffic pollution, but at least traffic serves a purpose. And I hate the smell of cigarettes. Also, they drop their fag-ends everywhere.
Which brings me to another crab! People who drop litter. On train seats, on the street, on the garden wall of my apartment block. it seems nobody can be arsed to use a bin any more. What’s up with that?
*whew* I enjoyed that…. thanks! :d
Tania, I am SO with you on walking behind smokers. I don’t know why, but it irritates the hell out of me if I can get even just a whiff. Ridiculous, but no one said our peeves were rational.
Exactly! I decided years ago that my peeves were my peeves, don’t care if they make sense. :-)
An explanation (not an excuse) for the smokers — they’ve all been pushed outside out of buildings, bars etc., so I think way more people smoke on the street, and then they just drop their butts wherever. An unintended consequence of smoking bans.
True. Though lots of workplaces were smoke-free before the ban, along with public transport, so it seems to be happening more than can be explained by the additional ban on smoking in pubs. Unless all the smokers I’m walking behind on my commute used to spend the rush-hour in bars & restaurants… :-)
I had an online ‘discussion’ once with a woman who told me she smoked a lot more in the street because ‘you banned it in pubs, so I’m going to make you breath it everywhere else!’ I hope most smokers don’t share that attitude, but sometimes I wonder.
Hilarious, the kneelers, it’s bizarre! ‘I’m your friend, here to assist you choose your food.’ Even worse, ever had a server slide into your booth? Pad in hand? Get out of my space weirdo.
Shelley, I’m w ya, but …dawdling drivers in front of me all the way to town. I live in the mountains w only one pass zone, a logging/trucker/geriatric Sunday driver route, 25 miles of frustration to town. I try to go into Zen mode, turn the radio up, send peaceful thoughts to myself. Ya, right. The people behind me are ramming my back bumper, get off my a**! Times like these I wish I hadn’t had to give up my cell phone b/c of no service here. I think I’m the only person I know who is cell-less. Makes me all the more annoyed that people can’t drive without talking or texting! Don’t get me started. I want to make a big poster board: GET OFF YOUR *** PHONE!, lay it on my seat and when I see those repeat offenders hold it up…which could cause an accident, right? And I’d be doing what annoys me.
Ann N. Kudos to you!
Great post, Anita. I’m in agreement with all of these comments.
I don’t like it when they try to put my napkin on my lap for me. Granted, this only happens in very high-serivce places, so you don’t encounter it that much, but the lap area is very much an invitation-only zone, folks.
No!!! Into the booth?! I’d be looking around for the candid camera.
It happened at a Chinese restaurant a few years ago. My current affair at the time said it was
obvious she was making a move as she refused to get up, even when I nudged her out of
the booth! She just snuggled right up to me, giggling geisha! And when she took my napkin and wiped Moo Shu off my mouth? HA!
If ever someone put my napkin in my lap I would gently guide the offending hand away with that ‘what are you doing’ roll of the eye.
Emoticon Emoticon wherefore art thou?
I want a slurpy lipped emoti:0
wow! that must’ve been soom Moo Shu!
xo >-)
I’m like so many of you all… where do I start?
I agree with the unpacking during shopping hours. I went into a beauty supply company the other day and not only was little blonde girl unpacking, but while I was standing there looking, she pulled a step ladder so close I had to move out of the way. They lost a sale that day. And the really sad thing is that I really believe the girl was completely oblivious to what she did. The devil on my shoulder told me to kick the ladder out from under her, but thankfully I listened to the angel on the other shoulder. BUT, in defense of SAs who have to unpack their own merchandise (like I did all through college), the merchandise doesn’t always come from shipping in the most opportune time. And management is usually on your butt to get it unpacked and the boxes off the floor. For them it’s about the bottom dollar and not the illusion. I also would have to deal with customers trying to go through the boxes before I could even check them in. Like I was trying to hide something from them. REALLY? I try everyday to remember there’s 2 sides to every story, but sometimes that’s hard.
My other beef is about the new “extra cheesy” Mac-n-Cheese. Do you know why it’s EXTRA cheesy?
It’s because there are fewer noodles so TA-DA, more cheese. My husband paid more to try it and realized after cooking, the portion was smaller. We looked at the boxes and the new one is 5.5 oz. the regular is 7 oz. WTF! Just more proof that companies think we are ALL morons!!
And one more. I know the world is all about technology, but for heaven’s sake, please stop texting while you’re driving. It’s a phone, put it to your ear and talk. Or even better, get a hands free device that will let you put both hands on the wheel. I know, now I’m just talking crazy talk!!
As for perfume… with the internet and the flood of information, I see new/vintage things all the time that I get the wants for. Like the comment above, just try to get a hold of it. I sat the other day working on conversion rates and who did I know that knows someone in that country who can get me that. Aaaaa! I gave up and realized I wasn’t going to die without it, but “dog-gone-it”, I want what I want when I want it! Going to great, superhuman feats to get it just wears me down sometimes!!
That is all.
Oh, I totally understand when it’s a lower-end store (and I’m serious here) and I suspect there’s a lot of pressure to get the merch on the floor. And I admit to being guilty of vulturing a box as a hapless SA is trying to unpack it 🙂
But not at Hermes (it did NOT happen @ Hermes, btw – I just can’t think of another place where it would be less welcome. Graff, maybe? ).
Drives El O crazy, that I check all the boxes, etc, for misleading info (my first hub wanted to buy Big Brand blackberry tea because of the photo of blackberries on it, rather than another – until I taught him how to read the ingredients list…
xo >-)
Listen, if you want extra cheesy, buy two boxes of a mac mix, throw away the mac from one and use two packs of cheese. This is very popular with older men for some reason.
No, no, you must use three packs of cheese and two packs of noodles to get exactly the right level of cheesiness. My BF taught me that. :d
Wow, this has been fun!
Not living in a city and not having access to department stores and not eating out a lot seems to have also limited my exposure to terrible customer service. All I have to gripe about is the teenager at the pizza place who found it necessary to rearrange the sodas in the cooler BEFORE taking my order last week.
I do have other peeves:
Drivers who go “up” the “down” lane in the parking lot, and vice versa. It’s clearly marked, y’all, and you are not a special case.
Political ads.
Referring to the President as some variant of “that ape in the White House,” whether it’s “that idiot oil man in the White House,” or “that slimy skirt-chasing fool in the White House,” or whatever. Whether you voted for him or not, whether you approve of his politics or not, he holds the title of President and as such deserves the respect due the elected representative of the United States.
People who hold up the student drop-off line at school. Look, this is simple: pull up, stop, door opens, kid gets out, closes door, driver moves. Write that lunch money check before you leave the house, hmm? If you’ve got to bawl out your kid, do it when he gets home. Some of us have more than one school to visit before 8:30. (Sure, I could wake up my kids AN HOUR AND A HALF EARLIER to let them ride the bus, but I’m not going to do that when I have to go to work in the morning anyway.)
I apologize. I am the driver going up the down lane. In my case, it’s not entitlement, it’s just stupidity and extremely, extremely poor sense of spatial relations. 15 years of going to the same pediatrician with one way lanes in the parking lot, and I head the wrong way every time. Apparently, I have now “learned” the wrong way, much like what happens when I get lost going somewhere for the first time. The next time, I’m all “Hey this looks familiar! I am on the right road for sure!”
That’s okay. I’m with you on spatial relations, especially since my motorcycle crash – you don’t want to see me trying to figure out which way is ????? I’ll scoot over for you!
:)>-
xo >-)
Sorry but its my God given right to slam the president and call him names. Not the current president, you understand. :)
Legally speaking you may say anything you like unless it is libel or slander.
I was speaking of giving an elected official the title which is his by law and by courtesy. Manners, not rights.
“It’s all good.”
No, you craven, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, cultural zombie who apparently never reads a paper or watches a news broadcast because you are too busy developing Schwarzenegger-caliber thumb muscles by playing blood-soaked computerized soldier video games 14 hours a day, it is MOST CERTAINLY NOT ALL GOOD. This particular situation in which we are interacting may not be causing you any undue distress and for that I am grateful, but if you say that to me one. more. time? Believe me, it’s all going to be very, very bad.
=))
xo >-)
I couldn’t agree more, Style Spy. I hate these vebal fads, where everyone starts saying, “at the end of the day,” or “it is what it is,” or “it’s all good,” or “whatever.” Ugh!!! Have some originality, people! Be more articulate. And it’s not just teenagers who do this. The president of the hospital where I used to work was extremely guilty of this one. *insert another eye rolling emoticon here!* :-)
That “do you need change” thing reminds me…please, for the love of God, meal-serving person, do NOT kneel down at my table to take my order or tell me about the specials. Look, here (points to my eyes, points to your eyes, mine, yours) into my eyes. I have read the same article noting a study finding that restaurant diners tip more when you kneel at their table. I am not one of those people. Please, man, have a little self-respect.
Sometimes, this is restaraunt policy and the server reeally doesn’t want to do it.
Having worked nearly every possible service job one can think of, I tend to be very forgiving …and to tip well.
No! That is terrible. Okay, if I get a squatter again, I will nicely tell him (it’s usually a him) that they don’t need to do that. Will that give him a reprieve?
There is this weird ambivalence we (US) seem to have with ‘servers’. It’s as if we have both condescension and a fear of appearing condescending to those in service – a friend is adamant about not getting pedicures because she feels weird ‘having her kneel at my feet!’. Most pedicurists I know couldn’t care less. It’s their job, they do it and who’s above the ankle is of no interest to them. At the end of the day they take their money and go live their lives. I think the height of class is to accept that this person (waiter/pedicurist/trashguy/whomever) is doing a job, respect that and stop treating them as if they are somehow being exploited.
My friends were appalled when they found out I was building a machining business! One friend suggested that I should go run an opera company instead – as if putting on a hard hat was somehow demeaning! 8-|
xo >-)
It’s not that I feel weird or wrong having someone kneel at my table, but the knowledge that someone, somewhere, whether it’s the server or the server’s boss, knows about the “bigger tips for kneeling waiters” study that bothers me.
I DO feel weird having people having to take any sort of even remotely subservient position around me. I don’t get pedis for this very reason, nor massages or, God forbid, a Brazilian. I’d be mortified if a server knelt in front of me.
I get that they don’t care, it just makes me feel weird. I blushed the one time I got a pedicure!
And STILL with this awful, steaming-pile-o-crap gravatar. Would changing my email address help?
Hon, I hate to tell you this, but I think if you got a Brazilian, you would be the one in the subservient position. I’ve read these things! :D
LOL! I never thought of it that way, doll…but you’re right!
xo >-)
Yeah. I never get the impression that the server is actually *enjoying* having to grovel for tips, merely that he just really needs to do what it takes in order to, you know, survive. Ditto the “do you need change” tactic. As someone up there pointed out, it’s a reminder to tip, because so many people don’t. Does anyone really think servers do it just for the heck of it or that they don’t realize that it annoys the hell out of some people, but are willing to risk it in the long run it will probably help minimize the odds of getting stiffed?
I think it says more about us as customers (in general) than it does about the people serving. If restaurants actually paid a living wage so that tips were optional it wouldn’t happen, but if restaurants paid a living wage, the cost of the meal would go up and we’d all complain about that. Thomas Keller’s Per Se here in New York includes the tip in the price of the meal, that price being $250.
Or they could, like, give me a foot massage while they’re down there. I’d tip big for that, but they’d have to wash their hands after.
me, too! ;))
Dude, when I’m having my teeth cleaned now, there’s always this point where some woman comes around and the hygienist asks, “Do you want a foot massage,” and even though I’m kinda curious, I’m always like, “Uh, no, that’s okay,” because I feel weird enough that some blond gal has her hands all in my mouth and I don’t want some other person feeling my feet at the same time, plus I don’t know if the etiquette is that I’m supposed to tip when I’m all done, because, after all, I don’t tip the hygienist or anything (though I suppose someone is going to tell me I’m supposed to do that too, and I’ve been clueless all these years). It’s like, don’t be throwing these other services at me when I’m just there to get the tartar scraped off.
That seems … so wrong. I don’t want people messing with my feet (and I love foot massages) while the tech is digging at my tartar. 😕
I wonder if they’re attempting to reduce the stress so often associated with dentistry-thingamajigs? Even so, what if the foot-person hits a nerve whilst the tartar-person is on the gumline????? There Could Be Blood.
xo >-)
The top item on my pet peeve list is people who give children or their parents the judgy face for really small displays of childlike behavior. I watched a pair of women with 3 babies/toddlers who were clearly *mortified* when an older woman in the restaurant we were in craned her neck around glared at them because the children were laughing loudly. This was not a hushed temple of fine dining either- it was a large Mexican restaurant at lunchtime.
Second this! But I wouldn’t have been mortified…I would just glare back.
😮
I guess children are not allowed to enjoy themselves! Except in the basement, with the door locked and soundproofing on all the doors and windows. On alternate Tuesdays. In February.
So there. [-( :d
El O, who is becoming quite the curmudgeon, got pissed because the kids were running around the park screaming, as they played on the gym equipment. “they’re running around screaming!” he harrumphed, as we were raking leaves. “well, yeah” I said. “IN THE PARK @ 3PM ON A SATURDAY. imagine that!” He had the good grace to at least look somewhat abashed.
But he’s gonna be a Cranky Old Man. I can just tell…:-w
xo >-)
One of my kids probably would have spilled the milk on cue.
on the ladies! =))
xo >-)
I think I’ve stopped glaring – it only causes wrinkles. ;-) Nonetheless, I’m often stuck in crowded spaces like the Metro with children who are just shrieking at the top of their lungs – it’s amazing how many decibels tiny bodies can put out, and some voices are extremely shrill and very painful to uncallused (i.e., nonparent) ears. I’ve observed that children are NOT so loud in European cities where people strive to present a more polished self in public. I think the US is in transition from a wide-open frontier to very crowded urban areas, and hope the customs needed for survival in tighter spaces will emerge – SOON!
Laughter is the best medicine. You all have had me spewing tea this a.m.! Great post and comments. And Anita, I shouted an “Amen!” at the “do you need change?” That was the very first thing that popped into my head for my own comment even before I read your list. I hate presumption and that’s exactly what that question is!
I’ll add a second gripe of something that I’ve been noticing more and more of lately – usually large, new vehicles flying almost all the way through a stop sign or light and only at the last possible minute, slamming on their brakes practically in the intersection! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve slammed on my brakes driving down a road as one of these people came flying out of a side street and I thought they weren’t going to stop. AAAARRRRGGGG!! Rude and dangerous.
I had to lay my bike down to avoid one of those. I nearly tore the guy out of his SUV, I was so pissed.
xo >-)
I would so not want an angry you coming at me, I can’t even tell you. Did he wee himself? :-ss
No, he slid over to the other side of the seat, so I couldn’t get him! Luckily it was a small amount of damage to my bike and he was apologetic and after my ears stopped ringing (I hit my head (in helmet) on the curb. Sans helmet would’ve been the end of the >-)…well, I realized that killing him was probably uh, overkill. He paid for F’s repairs and I got away with just a little bruising.
I hope, though, he thought twice about racing through a stop sign, though. What say you?
Naaah.
xo >-)
Eh. I don’t generally enjoy kvetching. Because it becomes like the begets…the one leads to another leads to another….
…but now that you’ve started… ;)
Leaf blowers. I’ve not encountered a louder, less fuel efficient, more obnoxious form of NIMBY. Ever. I mean, I would suck up my “butterflies and wind through the tall grass” reverie for the sake of physically challenged persons who cannot attend to leaves any other way, and, like me, do their own yardwork. Hey, I’ve got my own cleaning peccadillos, too. But, finishing your clean up by blowing them OFF of your lawn? Really? I mean, so long as they’re not on your property, they’re somebody else’s problem? The blood starts to boil at audible decible levels…but of course is drowned out by said blowers. Yeah, yeah…quieter ones are now available…but tell that to the landscapers who are out on my neighbors lawn with older equipment.
mmmrrrrRRRRRCCCCKKKKRRRRRRRAAAWWWWWRRRRRAAAAAWWWWRRRRAAAAARRRRRR
I’d stop here, but as it happens, I Who Am Not Easily Ruffled was just irked yesterday by a chick who kept walking the Gap sales floor conducting a cell phone conversation while I was there waiting for my son to pick some jeans and was treating the place like her personal lounge. I guess if folks need to get out, they don’t go to the library to read; they go to the store to yack. I should be grateful she wasn’t in the movie theater. Which, by the way, brings me to **stop your texting I can see your little blue light ARGH!!**
See? I begetted.
That “do you need change” thing? Ditto. To me, you might as well ask “Will my tip be the amount of this change, or less?” Which is what grates my cheese double time, on top of the lack of grace to just take it, do it, return it. Really?
Leaf blowers. I want them all to burn in hell. With the spitting, howling, blinding-bright fury of a thousand nuclear explosions do I loathe leaf blowers.
When they ask if you need change, just say yes. Because you do. Even if you plan to leave all of it as a tip. make them bring it back to you.
I have one for you – out in the country folks BURN their leaves. Why? You have 1/2 acre of property. Can you not compost them? I put ours on the compost pile and you would think I’d run nekkid through the yard. I even wet down the top layer, so they don’t blow away. Our neighbor nearly burned down the house next door to him – we live in a windy county with fire-alerts (though you don’t really need that, now do you? It’s blowing 40mph. whywhyWHY? would you think it’s a good day to burn your leaves?).
But I’m the crazy! Go figure.
Don’t let us get on your nerves with the ‘change’ kevtching. It’s not a diss of the serving folks themselves, just that practice.
xo >-)
I let my leaves lie where they fall. Might crunch ’em up with the lawnmower so they don’t kill the grass, but them there’s nutrients, they need to go back into the ground.
I don’t know from leaf blowers (mostly we just have horn blowers) but those jerks on cell phones drive me insane. Truly. Deeply. Utterly. Insane.
But I hear you with the kvetching. I’m reading these comments and scratching my head over all these rules for living. In NYC I guess there are just so many people packed onto such a tiny island that we tune much of it out simply as a survival mechanism. I don’t even notice half of this stuff…
Oh, thank you, Shelley, how could I have forgotten leaf blowers – nothing makes me crabbier! The waste, the inefficiency, the noise pollution, the underhanded appeal to men’s love of tools – and a clear sign of the decline of the empire – better stop before I hyperventilate!
This week’s New Yorker is for you, baby! I thought of you all the way through the article!
xo >-)
Heh. Enjoyed reading all these gripes — yours and others. I forgot about “do you need change,” that one slays me. Having never worked as a server, though, maybe they’re trying to save time? I dunno. (I mean, I get asked often enough when they have zero idea what’s in there.)
I know I told you this aleady, but I loathe the self-checkers at the grocery and the CVS with the power of a thousand fiery suns. What the hell is next — we gonna be meeting out on the loading dock, unpacking the bread truck? (Tom and I, apparently.)
In theory, I don’t object to the self-check, if it saves me time. We have it at the library. But it simply doesn’t work very well; what’s the code for apples, half the stuff scans wrong, the bag-weight thing they have to make sure you’re not shoplifting goes berserk when I use my canvas bags… they pay almost as many people to stand there and watch me struggle as they would if they hired actual checkers. On this issue I have voted with my feet, after telling the manager why I won’t be back.
I hear you, March!! Let’s all vote with our feet!!
As a server, I can tell you that “Do you need change?” is waiter-speak for “Please don’t forget to tip me, because they pay me about 2 bucks an hour here and I live on my tips.” I agree that it’s a bit tacky, but having made my living on tips for most of my adult life I’m a little more forgiving.
I don’t mind the self-check so much because I am almost invariably in the checkout line behind the slowest person on the planet. I also prefer them because of one of my biggest peeves – the incredibly inept bagging of groceries by the grocery store “associates.” (Which is another one. “Associates?” What are they, lawyers???) Whyohwhy, if I buy four one-liter bottles of sparkling water and a box of kleenex, do they ALWAYS put all four bottles in one bag and the kleenex in another? DOOD! I have to carry those bags!!! UP STAIRS!!! I usually wind up hip-checking whatever nimrod they have perched at the end of my checkout aisle out of the way and bagging stuff myself.
SS –
I understand the motivation but there really is a time and place for it. A white-table restaurant isn’t it. Especially if you have to interrupt the diners to ask. If people are not tipping, especially with good service, then they are going to hell. That’s all there is to it.
I’m okay with it, if folks are rushing around in a sports bar or a diner but not in a place where the bill is going to top 3 figs.
And folks who don’t tip? 8-x If the service is bad, you can voice your irritation in lots of ways (I have tipped the backwaiter directly and not the front guy, if it’s been lousy re one and not the other). But cheap folks? Like I said…8-x
(my mother used to leave a quarter. No matter what. I would always have to wait until she got up and went to the ladies’, then slip the correct tip into the billfold.)
xo >-)
No, I’m totally with you. I don’t like it either, it’s just that I understand the motivation. As I told Shelley below, I always just say yes. I tip like mad, but I make them bring me my change. Standards, people.
Wait, wait! I’ve got one, you service professional! I ask about the specials in a reasonably nice place and I get the eyeroll and the curl of the lip along with, “I don’t really know, I don’t eat (x).” I can’t tell you how much that irritates me. I used to eat in a particular Italian restaurant every week just because their severs sampled everything and could talk knowledgeably about the menu.
I think that’s referred to as I could give a rip about this job. I’d want to sample
everything I served. I wouldn’t be a good server. Could I just have a tiny
bite to make sure it’s ok? :-)
Style Spy, my daughter has served for years.
She’s a great mimic so her server stories are hilarious. She’s always laughed about
servers going into knee mode.
Love your story about the quarter! I had an elderly great-uncle who grew up one of 8 kids during the Depression, and no matter what the bill total was, he always left 50 cents for the tip. On several occasions, I found myself “forgetting” my scarf or umbrella or whatever, and sneaking back to the table to make things right. But in his (and your mom’s) defense, I think it was just a product of their times.
Oh, totally.
But it’s still funny!
One time I got there just as the server was picking up the billfold. I was mortified. She was amused. “I get that a lot – it’s okay” she said, meaning the elderly. Bless her. I doubled my original tip!!
xo >-)
Agree with the “time and place” idea, Musette. On the rare occasions when I don’t need change, I preempt the question with that statement. And yes, non-tippers deserve eternal damnation.
The worst tipping experience I’ve ever encountered was one morning at a nice restaurant where I was enjoying breakfast. I was 18 or so, and at the next table was a group of 3 well-dressed just-past-middle-age women who rode the waitress over the coals after receiving their check because the menu prices had increased. The waitress was not much older than me, was providing very good service, and certainly was not responsible for the price increases. [Mind you, these women (NOT “ladies”) did not look to be on fixed incomes where an extra dollar or two overall would hurt.] The waitress looked crushed after enduring this diatribe. I’ve always been a good tipper anyway, but this time I tipped at least double what I would have otherwise, to make up for the probable lack of tipping by these other patrons.
LOL on the slowest line, do not EVER get behind me. I guarantee you that as soon as I show up the register tape goes or the guy decides he’s paying in pennies or etc. I do most of my own bagging since I shop at TJs, but I hear you. You can actually tell when/where clerks (sorry, associates) have been trained to pack bags. Some of them are awesome. ^:)^ You know what, though? Packing crap into those flimsy plastic bags would kill a little piece of me every day.
Cheap tippers suck. I have been known to complain at restaurants, but I know what’s not the server’s fault and I don’t stiff them except under extreme duress. I save my ire for management. In general I’m so glad to be not the one cooking I tend to be a cheerful, forgiving patron.
Yes, me too…saving the ire for management. Same thing with sales associates. The buck stops at least one level up…I just have this thing about kicking the minimum wage dog who has no power and didn’t make the stupid rules.
I always reply to “Do you need change?” with, well, I voted for change, but Im still waiting.
Bwaahahahaaha, March! I feel your pain, I do, even though I find myself using that self-checker thing pretty often. However, another blog I frequent complained that the local CVS now only has the self-check and it results in a FUBAR situation.
The writer summed up his frustration thus, and it had me rolling because I’ve been there before I fully got the hang of the things (which took months by the way):
“Place your scanned item in the bagging area.”
“Place your scanned item in the bagging area.”
“Place your scanned item in the bagging area.”
… My mother****ing scanned item IS in the mother****ing bagging area!!!
LOL that’s the CVS I abandoned, the nice one near my house. They have 4 self-checkers and that’s it. Usually only 2 of them are working. They have very sensitive scales, so I have to pack my items into the plastic and then repack into my canvas bag, otherwise the machine thinks you’re stealing and cancels the order.
PS Again in theory, I don’t mind. As I said, I bag my own groceries anyway. But I (big family) am generally buying a lot of crap, not 1 or 2 items. If I have to spend a few minutes each transaction getting a price check, or giving up on the bag of oranges, it’s not a great system, at least for those of us doing volume shops. But yeah, if I’m grabbing laundry detergent and running out the door, self-check is great.
I embarrassed myself mightily early on by ANSWERING the damn thing, minus the ‘mf’ (but only ‘just’)! Interestingly, all I got were ‘you go!’ looks – it’s just insane.
xo >-)
Self-checkers have never saved time for me. They ALWAYS screw up and I ALWAYS have to call a clerk, which takes even more time than standing on line. At Kroger, if there are backups at the registers, a clerk will begin “checking out” people at the self-checkers. Which always screw up and then the CLERK has to call someone else . . . and so on, and so on. Just let me stand on line and get it over. And while I’m at it, HIRE ENOUGH CLERKS. If I have to stand on line for 30 minutes, I’m not going to be in a good mood.
I am finding myself in agreement with every gripe above, so I’ll fuel the fire and add mine:
I have lived in France for 3 years now. I love living in France, I do. I have wonderful access to new perfumes and delicious wines and cheese and Hermes and, OK I’ll stop. It’s charming and lovely and fantastic, but this week has tried my patience.
The high school kids started marching against the change of retirement age last week (the gov’t is trying to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62). These kids won’t start working for another 5 to 10 years and they’re in the street screaming, overturning garbage cans and yelling “Capitaliste!” at my beloved café owner downstairs. I’m all for freedom of expression, but I really don’t feel children who have never worked a day in their lives have any business complaining so violently. There, I said it.
Well, duh!
That’s gonna cut into their texting time, those extra 2 years! Don’t you know ANYTHING, you old, workingyourassoff geezer? :-w
xoxoxo >-)
LOL, kids these days! I feel like standing at the window shaking my fist yelling, “Get back to school you miscreants!” (Is there an old geezer shaking their fist icon?)
SA pet peeve – Maybe I’m a bit harsh with this one, but drives me nuts when they say, “If there’s anything I can help you with, just let me know.” Uh, isn’t that why you’re there????
Having said these very words myself many times, I know it’s just a way of letting someone know you are ready to jump in and help them but that you won’t be hovering over them trying to sell them stuff they don’t really want. I don’t like a hovering SA. Sometimes you just want to look at something and think.
And that’s always how I take it. I’m glad when they make an effort to acknowledge me and then leave me be unless or until I ask for help.
I agree. But there’s also that ‘weird’ version: where they say that – and then go FAR away.
It’s tough striking the right tone, I fear. Each customer is SO different. Some want ongoing attendance, most of ‘us’ don’t. My SA from Heaven Above has to really watch, like she’s in a ring with tigers (dry tigers)!
xo >-)
You have your own personal sales associate on your payroll? Cool!
I suppose I like to be greeted – hello, how are you – there’s the acknowledgement. A straight question, “Is there anything I can help you with?” is OK, too. I can say yes or not at the moment. But there’s no need to remind me to ask. If I need help, I’ll definitely ask for it! Just annoys me.
Oh, don’t get me started on the crankypants stuff, we could be here all night! :-D
Being on public transit and being forced to listen to one half of an excruciatingly personal cell phone conversation that’s nuthin’ but Too. Much. Information. People say things at the top of their leather lungs that I would hesitate to disclose to my doctor, my attorney or even my own personal waterboarder. The flip side of that is when they get on the phone and give blow-by-blow accounts of how close they are to wherever they are going; “I’m at 20th Avenue, bus is just pulling away from the stop, I should be there in 3.2 minutes. No, wait, the light just turned red, make that 4.3 minutes… AARRGHH! Whatever happened to just quietly reading your newspaper or book until you get to your stop, mmmkay?
Perfume/SA peeve: The ones who will NOT make up a sample for you even when it’s something that they are trying really hard to sell or something you had to ask for because the unloved tester was hidden in a drawer. If you were a Lauder rep, would you not be thrilled if somebody asked about one of the back catalog ‘fumes like Aliage or Azuree and actually might buy it? No samples, really? (And sometimes not even a tester for the ones they are not pushing hard? Sorry, not dropping full retail bucks without a test drive.)
Hi Anita, great post. Looks like the floodgates have really opened. Deep breath, here goes. My first pet peeve kind of echoes Flora’s above (and apologies to the really nice salespeople out there). If you’re a SA pushing a $$$$ fragrance, please don’t tell me snottily that you don’t have a sample when I ask nicely, when I’ve just seen you give one to a prior customer (who didn’t make a purchase). Or if you really don’t have any more (and I understand, companies are cutting back), then couldn’t you make me one? Or if you don’t want to get your fingers smelly, just let me make it myself (I carry mini bottles and baggies for just such emergencies). Three or four little spritzes, that’s all I’m asking. I’m not dropping what little money I have without, as Flora said, a full “test-drive.”
Second pet peeve (waves at Madea above): Don’t judge me because I don’t look like I stepped out of Vogue magazine. I might have (I don’t, but you don’t know that) 40 Chanel handbags at home and a couple million dollars buried in my back yard. On one occasion, ages ago as a college student, I had a good bit of money to spend at a very high-end store’s cosmetic counter and the sales lady refused to assist me (I was dressed OK but guess I looked young). A few years ago, same woman walked up to me and asked if she could help me and I told her, no, she could not. I explained why and told her never to judge a book by its cover. She looked quite stricken, and I kinda felt bad about it, but she needed to know. OK, end of sermon. BTW, that was highly unlike me — I’m usually an extremely polite person, but I had just had enough. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest :d
And that, my friend, is called Poetic Justice. I’m a big fan of it. It’s like the twist ending of an Aesop’s Fable, or something like that. I can remember so vividly being a young kid or teen with money to spend, and standing at a counter waiting and waiting while all the adults got served before me, who had been there longest.
I totally agree about the high-end perfume SAs who don’t make samples, too. Don’t these people remember that we’re in a tight economy right now? *eye rolling emoticon here*
Exactly, Dina! A woman after my own heart. And those SAs need to remember that that’s why the testers are there, for goodness’ sake! One tiny little spritz on my wrist isn’t going to cut it. I’m not buying any big-bucks scent without wearing it for a full day (at least).
Hee. One of my relatives has such a pet peeve about the inevitable cell phone announcement of “I’m on the train!” that I make a point of shouting that whenever she calls, no matter where I actually am.
Also, my husband really dislikes “whatever” so I use that when I’m annoyed with him.
I’m a bad person.
“My personal waterboarder”! That’s it, no more coffee when I’m reading the Posse.
ditto that. I’m so glad I was dry-mouthed when I read that!
Ruanne. You are >:)
And I think it’s Grand!
;))
xo >-)
I’m thinking of getting one of those medical face masks while reading comments.
I wish this computer had Etchersketch capability so I wouldn’t even care anymore
about those dumb emoticons.
Y’ know, it would not surprise me to see the consumer zeitgeist changing; the buying frenzy stimulated by the dog-eat-dog behaviour apparently caused by overcrowded anonymity (my theory anyway), suddenly and irrevocably losing its cool.
Look out Gucci…
I think it’s fine if folks want to frenzy, if they have the money, etc…but I, too, wonder if mindless consumption might be on the downturn. I was just reading an article about the youngest adult generation in Japan – and how their approach to consumerism is a near 180o to the freewheeling 90s.
Myself, I find less and less drooling over giant stones. More focus on simpler things – it’s quite strange…:-?
xo >-)
Musette, I don’t think it’s strange, there is a huge and growing subculture of people moving into the simple life. There’s been much written about it. How much can you accumulate before you hit some point where you’re asking yourself ‘do I really need this?’ Now as for perfume, well perfume is different.
Oh, but I have no doubt that one day you’ll finally get yourself one of those Hermes bags you’re so obsessed with. Or do they qualify as “simpler things?”
The Japanese economy is in the tank, even worse than ours. Not so sure the new approach to consumerism is entirely by choice in either case.
And frankly I don’t agree that it’s okay for folks who have the money should feel free to frenzy, because ultimately we all pay the price for their greed and waste. The planet does not benefit from trickle-down economics.
No, but I don’t want to tell folks what they can or can’t do with their money, either. So it’s a tossup. I figure, if they are not hurting children or animals (or …okay ANYBODY) it’s theirs to do with as they will. Would I prefer they set up a hot-lunch fund? ho, yus. But if they choose not to…
hey, what happened to your gravatar? Here one minute, gone the next? whatup with that?
I’m not quite (a leetle bit still) as obsessed with the Bombay as I used to be – in fact, I surprised the hell out of myself the last time I was on Oak Street by walking past, not only Hermes but Graff, too! 😮
The Apocalypse is nigh! In truth, I can barely carry the bags I have now – and most of them are a variation on the same theme so why bother buying another… (sigh)
xo >-)
*Cracks knuckles* Any of y’all needs to the bathroom, might want to go now, this is a long one.
1) Men over 65–Congratulations! Now please stop using it as an excuse to burn holes in my shirt with your eyes. Seriously, if I wouldn’t tolerate it from someone my own age, the fact you’re eligable for the Early Bird Special at Denny’s doesn’t make it all right, n’est pas?
2) Tourists–Yes, New Orleas is wonderful. I am more than happy to recommend resturants, help you navigate the street car lines and find an ATM. However, this is a real city, not Disneyworld with more drunks. If I tell you a neighborhood is bad, it isn’t because I’m trying to rain on your parade.
True Story: I needed a haircut a couple years back and went to a higher end chain salon near my college. I was dressed down (though nicely) and am rather heavy. The person at the desk preceeded to give me the run around about appointments, finally telling me that So and So could see me in two weeks (cue sigh and eyeroll).
The kicker? I had $200 cash in my pocket, and wanted a color, cut and style. The independant guy a block further was fine and appreciated my business, fat, blue jeans and all.
Don’t you just love it? That happened to a friend in a high-end audio store – she’s in her 60s, not ‘chic’ and…well, the hipster guys just glazed over her – maybe they thought she was waiting for her grandson or something. A young woman came up to assist her and found herself in possession of a $4K sale in about 30 minutes! =))
Those guys were piiiiiiised! Wonder if they took away any 😕 from that? Prolly not.
xo >-)
Amen! Similar thing happened to an SA friend of mine years ago. No one would wait on this older man in overalls and she came from a nearby department and helped him. Turns out he bought enough to make her a ton of commission. She got the stink-eye from the other SAs and she glared right back and said, “You had your chance. Get over it.”
That’s why my motto is: “Be nice to everyone.”
Same type of story here. My grandparents who lived through the depression raised me. They were humble folk but worked hard, saved their money and paid cash for everything, including their house. In the l960s I went with them to a car dealership because they were looking for a brand new car. Because they were older and not dressed fancy, none of the SAs wanted to bother with them. My grandmother had cash in her purse to pay in full for a new car. Finally, she went up to the group of SAs standing talking with each other and opened her purse and showed them the cash and said “I was trying very hard to buy a new car here, but since none of you are interested in helping us, we will be going on down to the next dealership to see if anyone there is interested in selling a car.” Those SAs tripped all over themselves with apologies and excuses as my grandparents walked out the door.
Sharyl: THAT is an awesome story for the ages!
There’s a similar story that is famous in the Thoroughbred (race horse) industry where a gentleman bid on and bought a yearling at the prestigious Keeneland summer yearling sale. He was under-dressed to say the least (in those days the auctioneers and bid spotters wore tuxedos) and hadn’t established credit. The Keeneland officials about had apoplexy and tried to escort him out. It turned out that he was one of the Fortune 500 and had something like a million dollars cash on him!
=))
From New Orleans? You are the one I need to talk to about the pothole I tripped into on St. Ann two weeks ago and spent the rest of my visit with an ace bandage and a bottle of Advil. That’s it, my sole complaint, broken sidewalks and holes in the street.
That is so sad, Jen. Did you nurse yourself with hurricanes?
Years ago I tripped in Orleans and since I was eating a bag of popcorn
my face was protected – otherwise I’d have dentures or implants. It wasn’t a pot hole. There was a film being made, I tripped on the cables crisscrossing the cobbly streets. My friends picked
me up — first thing they checked were the teeth. Thank you, popcorn:)
I’m crabby about too many things to even start, but the first thing that came to mind was the expression “It is what it is” used by people who used to say “Whatever.”
But may I say, I am totally ENTHRALLED by the thought of the World Percheron Congress. Enjoy these awesome animals!
ho, yus. That’s a toughie and a conversation-8-x if ever there was one.
Thanks on the WPC. I am so stoked! El O is not. He’s terrified that I will come back hauling a semi’s worth of horse.
xo >-)
Uhhh… all horse purchases should be approved as a couple. Right?
More than once I have been left to scramble money from one account into another when The CEO has blithely announced, “Oh, hey, I bought five cows from the test farm at the college to replace last winter’s cull cows. Nice ones, three-year-old Angus crosses guaranteed in calf, got a good deal on ’em,” and suddenly I’ve got to haul $3700 out of the long-term account for a purchase I didn’t know was coming.
You’d at least run it by him first, wouldn’t you? (Sure, you would.)
Ain’t Love Grand? ;))
Sweetums, I keep a STAY OUT OF JAIL bottle of vodka for just those moments. And we have them.
Lots of them.
Luckily I usually forget the vodka,, I’m so busy scrambling to get out of the house or shop, away from blunt objects.
xo >-)
I forgot to answer you re the horses: Yes and Yes.
First, it ain’t happening right now – we live ‘in town’ – our 1/3 acre is not conducive to any horse but def not a draft. Can you imagine? Second, some days it’s challenging to feed the Rotties!
I can’t imagine going into the barn (what barn?) and saying ‘ hey boys….uh….can you hang on ’til Thursday when we get paid for that last project?’
Third (but First, really) Not Consulting – and gaining a buy-in – would just be rude.
So yeah, I’d run it by him. Besides, I don’t have the semi to haul the brutes back here! yet.
xo >-)
I’ve yet to do it, but I feel a pedicure is in order myself!
I’m all for bike-riding n all, but I live near the end of a bike path, and most bike-riders these parts blatantly ignore rules of the road and are hostile to pedestrians and car-drivers alike. I’ve thought of riding a bike to work (which is a fair hike), but I just know the mere sight of me will be the last straw for some frazzled semi driver and squoosh.
Yep pumped up with cortisol and self-importance…it would be good to see some ‘normal’ cyclists –
you’d have to laugh Downunder; our most high-profile Sydney politician has just been knocked off her bike and sustained a broken leg – well its not so much ‘funny’ but you know what I mean…modern societies bar a few in Europe are just not ‘low-impact/low consume’ friendly.
My brother used to ride his bike to work; he was knocked off his bike seven times by drivers. Seven times! Broken collar bone once, broken wrist another time. You know how many of the drivers stopped to see if he was okay? One. He got out of the car to yell at him. Madness.
😮
Walking is hard enough, when you’re fighting peds and traffic and buses and Godzilla and all….cycling in the City is just terrifying, especially at rush hour! I’ve got my heart in my mouth when I’m on my motorcycle – and I ride a pretty giant bike! Your brother is brave (and very fortunate to have sustained somewhat ‘minor’ injuries, considering what could’ve been). I’m throwing up some protection bubbles for him…
xo >-)
While my default mode is to give cyclists & bikers every safety margin possible (my little sister was knocked into a concrete barrier by a car while bicycle commuting) I have noticed that “sharing the road” and “obeying the law” often goes only one way. Many is the time I have patiently crept along behind a cyclist because they deserve to use the road too, only to see them sail through a stop sign or hop up on the sidewalk to get around car traffic.
That kind of puts a burr under my saddle.
I’m a Coloradan, and bicycling is very big here. Our urban cyclists tend to be aggressively ‘green’ and pumped up with tremendous self-righteousness because they are reducing their carbon footprint….and I’m NOT. We’re very bike-friendly – plenty of bike lanes, lots of awareness-raising signage, etc. But as in so many things, the few spoil it for the many. I can’t count how many times I’ve had a cyclist come at me going the wrong way down a one-way street and not even slowing slightly for a red light, sometimes sending pedestrians scampering out of the way as they are crossing legally at an intersection. Many times I’ve slammed on my brakes, risking a rear end collison, only to have a cyclist flip me the bird as he flies past in flagrant defiance of all traffic laws. Call me crazy, but I just don’t get the logic. I have a car that weighs thousands of pounds and can so easily hurt you…..why don’t you at least follow the traffic rules FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY!??! (lol, you can tell I needed to vent on that one)
Great vent! And totally legit (and logical) questions. But you know, I see that self-righteousness all over the place (not just cyclists) – and then, when their own actions result in damage, they get even MORE self-righteous!
Humans is funny.
xo >-)
You know annoys the heck out of me? Insecurity, pretension and snobbery. And people who take others for fools.
And that just about covers it, I guess!
xo >-)
I personally believe that insecurity/fear is the basis for most of what is wrong with this world! IMHO
Yeah, and it’s sad in and of itself, but when we start compensating for what we lack (or *believe* we lack) by being false, pretentious, aggressive or unkind, the pity party ends.
Agree! Well said, Carter.
Slow walkers. Oh. My God. Sidewalks in the city are my personal hell. Seniors and the disabled are one thing, but able-bodied, lackadaisical lolligaggers taking up the narrow sidewalk during morning rush hour? Coming to a dead stop with a crowd behind them disembarking the bus? I just…AGH! Can’t I push one of them? Just one? A little shove? How else will they learn?!
Fragrance-related pet peeve: Department store SAs who presume that, due to my male genitalia, I don’t know a Chanel from a can of Axe. The few SAs I’ve encountered who speak non-condescendingly to me in perfume language, discussing notes, concentrations, and categories, are almost guaranteed a sale from me. The others I’d like to spray in the eye with the latest Boss.
I’m really not as aggressive and bitter as this comment makes me seem. I’ve never, nor would I ever, push a pedestrian or spray an innocent person in the eye with perfume. I’m just saying that sometimes, y’know…I’ve thought about it.
Oh heh D…can’t agree more…I’m the right ‘gender’ but am old, ironic because I’ve got more spare cash now then ever before…
And I’m old and cranky enough to think the old adage “consume and die’ when I see all this STUFF dished up like some vomitus tide –
And despair when I see my nineteen-year-old seemingly quite eager to jump on the consumer treadmill…
=))
You don’t have to explain, darlin’ – def not me the 8-x >-) here! If I did 1/10000th of what I think about……I’d be UNDER the jail! Twice!
xo >-)
Lolligaggers!!!!! YES!!!! Walking or even driving – I don’t speed, but puuulleeeze do over 20 mph. in a 35 zone!
Yeah, I hear man-junk inhibits your perception of smell.
… ohmygod did I just type that?
Darryl, I think next time you should wear your pants, dude. 😉
PS My ladybits allegedly trigger TMI, hormonal inability to restrain myself around chocolate, and prevent me from understanding higher math.
Well, $2000 is what I spend on a car, but yes it would behoove the ChaVuiPrada boutique to keep up the mystery Especially since the last two are selling plastic. I don’t even like it when they’re restocking the grocery store. Especially when they give me think eye for trying to purchase something, like I’m in their way. Grrr.
Sadly, marketing a$$hats force staff to say a lot of stuff that sounds great in a marketing meeting but stupid in the real world: answering the phone with “It’s a great day at NKSL, how can I help you?” Is it really a great day for you there? I doubt it. Jeff Lewis makes his people say that and we have televised evidence it’s never a great day there. “Do you need change?” Well, I suppose if you had never glanced at my form of payment or its denomination there’s a valid reason to ask, but since I had iced tea and am paying with a $50 unless you provided service legal only in parts of Nevada I think the answer is a resounding “yes”. But the one that bugs me most? Being in some place like Koo Koo Roo or some other mid-level fast food restaurant and being called from the line with “I can help the next guest”
I’m not a “guest”. I’m a customer. I’m paying you. As a guest I won’t complain that you’ve given me the wrong item, or that the iced tea needs refilling or even remind you that I need silverware since I don’t eat salad with my fingers.
You want to call me guest, don’t charge me. :((
Oh, honey – I’m lucky if I can spend $4.50 these days! LOL! But you get what I mean yeah, let’s keep the mystery!
OOOH, yeah! on the phone answering thing – half the time I am so overwhelmed by the ‘we’re having a great day @ xoxoxoosoetlcichshowcanIhelpyou?” that I completely forget who I just dialed. What’s wrong with just saying “State Farm Insurance”?
Marketing and Lean consultants really need to spend some REAL time DOING THE JOBS before they recommend. And owners need to do it, too! I’ve been in service all my working life (sales and marketing is SERVICE, don’t let anybody tell you different) and one of the things that makes me successful is actually empathizing with my customer!
I love the ‘guest v. customer’! you’re right!
xo >-)