Pet Peeves

It has been gloomy, cold, snowy and very unhorsemanlike (made-up word) weather here in Nebraska. I have nothing to blog about that is horse related. But I do have something on my mind.

The phenomenon of Facebook has allowed us to communicate with the world in ways that we used to only do under our breath. Many times, that results in "vaguebooking".

Vaguebooking, by definition, is "an intentionally vague Facebook status update that prompts friends to ask what's going on, or is possibly a cry for help." I don't fall for those anymore because I don't believe that definition to be true. I think people do it just to get some attention or feedback.

Vaguebooking is just one of the things on Facebook which bug me. But it is like a soap opera. I keep going back for more. Outside of Facebook, there are other things that bother me. Some pet peeves, other things that just fall in the "annoying" category. I thought I would list ten which I could think of today.

1) People text me for the sole purpose of telling me to call them. Huh? If you picked up your phone to text me, why not just hit "call" instead! Don't put the onus on me to be the caller and look like the bad guys if I don't Call.You.This.Minute!

2) News videos without text. Scanning CNN.com, I see a story that looks interesting and when I click, it pops open video. I don't have time to listen to some talking head telling a story. The headline caught my eye; the first paragraph will tell me if it is of interest to me or not. Don't make me load video AND watch a commercial to get to the point.

3) Passwords with a required length, capital letter, numeral and some sort of symbol – all in one. And then have the audacity to suggest it be something I can easily remember. Huh? I don't even know what half the symbols mean. I'm a horse person, not a nuclear physicist writing formula.

4) Placing my order on the drive-thru speaker of Burger King and being interrupted by the order taker before I finish speaking. I have 2 kids and a hungry husband; I have their order in my head and I am trying my best to articulate it. When interrupted to ask what SIZE of drink; I lose my entire train of thought. Would it kill them to circle back around to that at the end?

5) Raisins. They ruin good oatmeal cookies and bread pudding. And always seem to be a surprise.

6) Mini-vans. Enough said.

7) Horrific misspellings or grammatical errors. I'm not talking the occasional typo-o or writing "road" instead of "rode" in error. Or even those who use text words instead of complete words. I am talking to those who probably have a red line under every other word indicating a spelling error and hit "send" anyway!

8) Voice messages. Weird, since I recall getting my first answering machine and how I could not wait to see who called. Now voice messages bug me because I have to go listen to an annoying voice directing me to enter pass codes (see #3 above) to get a 75 second message which is going to require me to return the call and go through the same spiel. So between item #1, item #3 and this one, you can see that phones just really bug me.

9) Shaking hands with the congregation following "Peace be with you". I have just sat here for 30 minutes watching a mother blow her child's nose or some old fart scratch at the back of his neck at what appears to be a bug bite and now we are asked to shake hands. I'm no germ-a-phob; heck, I probably let the dog lick my hand before I left for church and at one time I WAS the mother wiping the kid's nose. But this tired old tradition just creeps me out.

10) When flying, a person sitting in the seat in front of me who feels they need to recline. Don't they know they have now put their head on my lap? I am one who likes to cross my legs. And I do. Ooops! Did I bump your head? Wake you up? Sorry. And I switch legs again.

Oh, there are more that I'll share on another slow blog day. Perhaps you have a few pet peeves you would like to share, too.