I don’t just have pet peeves, I have whole kennels of irritation.  So many pet peeves so little space. Worry not, I’ll keep some for myself. 

It tends to start with a simple pet peeve here and there, then you get to certain age and it’s all the range. You will also lose certain along the way and pick up new ones as you go along.

Let us start from the beginning. I have always had a difficult relationship with food. Mostly I  just wasn’t keen on being force-fed.  Many thanks to my mom who never did that. This is just the tip of the iceberg on that,but I will move on with a random list because I could write a novel about food related pet peeves.

 Rudeness is a big one. There is no need for it, even when somebody is testing your patience. You will get irritated, the other person will be perceived as a victim and you have accomplished nothing.  A big one for me is waiting in line. Nope, I just don’t do it. If there are more than 3 people in line ahead of me I will walk away. Almost forgot: people still need to be reminded to wash their hands after using bathroom. Seriously?!?!  When you read that ‘employees must wash hands’ sign it refers to everyone reading that sign!!! I’m all about selective memory, but COVID was just a couple of years ago. Ah, people.

Then we have apathy and lethargic people. Not even gonna get into explaining the obvious. On the other side of that we have Pollyanna.  There’s nothing like seeing happy people,but nobody’s happy ALL the time. Just saying. 

We all know an energy vampire or two(a family member, coworker, roommate, neighbor…). I’ll be the first one to acknowledge my occasional dark periods, but there simply is no need to infect it upon other people. Simple as that. The list goes on,but I will stop myself here. 

Then there are the tools you  can pick up that will help you deal with them.  Different folks different strokes , so I’ll share what worked for me. 

Yoga did wonders.  If somebody told me  after the first class I simply wouldn’t have believed them. But in years that I took the class I’ve never missed one. There were times I’d get there mad at something and afterwards I’d just forget about it. For me a key factor was that nobody made me go! 

Louis,the dog. Growing up it was unusual for people to have dogs in an apartment. We had a dog that belonged to my neighbors who had a house and she was outside. We all pet her,played with her but no real responsibility. Then I went to  Canada and my hosts had a dog. It still never occurred to me to have a dog but I took a liking to that dog. So much so I even offered to walk Boomer and pick up after him. Where I come from at the time that was unheard of. 

After I graduated with an ‘A’ for the very first time Father Dearest offered me an award. While looking for super expensive sunglasses I found a Maltese. Five minutes into playing with him I have decided that’s what I really need. So I took my mom, who did not think I was serious about having a dog, picked out a baby boy I named Louis and found the real unconditional love. At that time I have never even heard of an emotional support animal,but I found it nonetheless. The end.

*** ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley