Gosh, it's so tough when I have so many pet peeves. [img]/domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/happy.gif[/img]

Slow people who get in the way and are oblivious that they are in the way. This can be driving or walking...you know, the idiots who pull into the left lane and pace the person in the right lane rather than pass so everyone else is now stuck behind TWO slowpokes. Or, the people who are toddling down the hallway in a building, three across, immersed in conversation and completely oblivious that someone is behind them and that they have completely blocked the corridor. Just step to the right folks and let people around you if you want to stroll rather than walk, some people would rather spend their lunch break eating rather than trying to get to the cafeteria.

Since I was just commenting on it somewhere else, germphobes who actually spread more germs through their kooky habits. I'm not talking about the person who wants to keep slathering themselves in those antibacterial gels all day, but the ones who step out of the bathroom stall in a public restroom and proceed to first crank out a paper towel, THEN wash their hands, thus depositing their toilet germs on the handle of the paper towel dispenser that those of us who have just washed our hands would normally touch, or the ones who flush the toilets with their feet, now transferring not just what might have been on their hands to the toilet handle, but all the REALLY nasty things lurking on the sticky floor and their shoes to the toilet handle.

People who think the cell phone call is more important than the person standing in front of them, who don't even pause for a moment in that conversation to complete a transaction at a register, etc.

People who use speakerphone in shared/public spaces. If I actually knew someone personally who did that, and wasn't just subjected to the entire voicemail recordings and loud conversations of random strangers on trains and buses, I'd probably call them and leave a message somewhat like, "Hi, this is Jane from the Free Clinic. We have the results from your tests. Please call us as soon as you get this message with a list of your current and previous sexual partners so we can begin the notification process; this is an urgent matter."

Yeah, cellphone users drive me nuts. Even when they are told at the beginning of a meeting to turn off their phones, they don't. And then at some point during the meeting, their phone rings and they answer it to tell the caller "Oh I can't talk now, I'm in a meeting".

Parents who let their kids run wild in public and don't reign them in.

Bad manners.

Far and away, sucker punches. You know how you're just talking to someone and then you turn to walk away, and they clobber you from behind? I hate that shit. Then the worst part is that the Judge always agrees with the sucker-puncher and sentences you.

Ooh, definitely that one. It goes right along with the bad manners part.

Oh, when I was in NYC, I went to the Museum of Natural History on a Friday. I think every school in the city had a class trip that day; the place was PACKED with little kids walking in lines. One just hit the trifecta for me. I told my boyfriend the teachers must've been trying to teach them early how to be rude New Yorkers (though, generally, I think it's a myth that New Yorkers are rude...they might be direct and dispatch with all extraneous pleasantries, but generally have always been helpful and genuine). I was standing at one exhibit, trying to read the signs (for some reason, that museum doesn't believe in lights on the signs explaining their exhibits, so it's slow reading for me trying to read in the dark). Anyway, before I know it, the teachers of this one group of kids have directed them to gather around in a way that basically entrapped everyone already at the exhibit and pushed everyone out of the way. No instructions from the teacher's to watch out for other people or for the kids to wait their turn. Then, the same teachers are yelling at the kids who actually made the TERRIBLE mistake of stopping to READ what the exhibit is. Nope, kids, don't read and learn anything on your trip to the museum, just look at the pretty stuffed animals and keep moving like a swarm of ants until you've devoured everyone in your path. As if that wasn't already enough, one of the teacher's says to the other one, as she's hunting through her purse, "Where did I put my cell phone?" Yep, she's leading a bunch of kids on a class trip, letting them overrun everyone in their path and generally be disruptive, prevents the few who actually wanted to learn something from learning anything by stopping them from reading, and then was looking for her cell phone to make a call in the middle of it, and that's just what she proceeded to do in the middle of the museum!

I shouldn't have to feel old when I reminisce about the days when children in public held their parents' hands or at least stayed close by their sides, knew to say "excuse me," and teachers on school trips would have all the students gather around in a circle and tell them about what they were seeing so they could learn something. Actually, when I was that young, they didn't even take us through a whole museum like that...we did go to the Haydn planetarium, but that was it...one straight beeline from the bus to the planetarium, plenty of chaperones, and you BETTER NOT talk during the show! We did have a zoo trip at that age, but zoos are better able to handle wild beasts...I mean small children. And they didn't attempt to have only two teachers for 30 kids, we had a chaperone for about every 5 or 6 of us, so we could take off in small groups and not overwhelm anybody. Things like museums were reserved for when we were older and didn't need chaperones, just instructions not to leave the museum and check-in times and locations so the teacher could make sure we were all still accounted for.

People who think the world revolves around them.

Drivers who don't signal.....