Shoppers who don't return their carts to the corral, crooked paintings, whistlers and people who litter are just some of the things that bug me, also knowns as pet peeves.
The Cambridge Dictionary describes a pet peeve as "something that especially annoys you." One researcher suggests that since peeve means "to annoy or irritate" and the word pet is used to designate a favorite, a pet peeve is a person's favorite annoyance.
Many pet peeves have to do with the spoken and written word. For example, when people say, "I could care less," they clearly mean "I couldn't care less." There is also the improper use of the apostrophe. "Thank God its Friday should be "Thank God it's Friday," and "Merry Christmas from the Smith's" should be "Merry Christmas from the Smiths."
Drivers have their own set of pet peeves, like people who follow too closely, drive below the speed limit or don't use their turn signals.
Then there are the everyday pet peeves like people who talk during a movie, chew their gum loudly, don't cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze or put their phones on speaker, forcing everyone to hear their personal conversations.
Dining out has its own set of pet peeves, like people at a buffet who cannot wait to get back to their table and start eating from their plate as they walk. If you eat out, take a look around and you may see many diners on their phones and not even engaging in conversation.
Home is also a breeding ground for annoyance: the empty toilet paper roll, the water or soda bottle in the fridge that has maybe one teaspoon left in it, overflowing trash cans, clothes that don't quite make it into the laundry hamper, shirts in the wash that are turned inside out, the lid left off the toothpaste in the bathroom or the lid left off anything in the refrigerator, which is the one thing that always comes tumbling out when the door is open.
Grocery stores are where people go through the express line with an overflowing grocery cart and block the aisles as they talk to friends whom they seemingly have not seen for years. While on speakerphone, husbands ask their wives what ingredients to buy and then read the labels out loud until they can decide on the right choice. Then there are the people who pay with cash and search frantically in their pockets or their purses looking for the exact change.
Modern technology has brought in a whole new list of pet peeves, such as people who use too many emojis in their texts or too many cute abbreviations. And what about those group chats, with no way to escape?
Yes, there is quite a list of pet peeves, but interestingly what bothers one person does not necessarily bother another. It's what makes us unique.
And after that initial cringe, we can move past the annoyance and concentrate on the positive. We can put that shopping cart back as a favor to our fellow shoppers, we can straighten the crooked picture, we can try and enjoy the whistling and we can pick up that litter ... as long as we don't talk about it while on speakerphone.
Leave a Review