I can’t call this a ‘rant’ because none of this is stuff really makes me mad … but I have found a bunch of annoying things over the last week, particularly on runs and on our whirlwind college tour.
Speaking of which, I have an annoyance before I start with the pet peeves – I took an unplanned rest day today, slept in and didn’t run. Why? Because I have a decent cold, a combination of a weekend spent waking up at 3AM, driving nearly 900 miles, and scrambling everywhere … then coming home and running nearly 19 miles on Sunday and more than 9 on Monday surely didn’t help. So yeah, I feel like crap … which is annoying!
1. Reciprocal Blogging
OK, this isn’t anything new, and was in a post I never finished months ago, but playing ‘catch up’ after vacation and after this weekend I REALLY noticed it.
What do I mean by ‘Reciprocal Blogging’? I mean that a person only reads/replies on your blog when you comment on theirs. For example, I posted 7 times over vacation, including the weekends, and barely read or commented on other people’s posts. When I returned I commented on a number of blogs – and most of my friends had been commenting on my stuff all week long (and I always love reading comments … they ALWAYS make any post better!).
Anyway, with one blog, I posted a comment on a post that was nearly two weeks old, and suddenly within 5 minutes a new comment appeared on my most recent post. This wasn’t the first time – or first blog I’ve seen this person do this on …
Look – I get that commenting to gain visibility is a general practice, and also that we often see a comment and remember to check on a blog we don’t regularly visit. That is natural – we all have our first, second and third tier blog-follows. But this was different. It was all about the APPEARANCE of following to sustain the connection, like giving a dog a treat to get them to behave.
I don’t know if this makes sense, and I want it to be clear I am not talking about the normal daily interactions I see on my blog and pretty much everyone I follow. But if you follow someone or comment ONLY in order to keep the other person connected, or use someone else’s comment section ONLY to promote your own blog … YOU are the problem I am talking about. If you haven’t noticed … this is a GREAT community that is all too willing to help others and promote new friends. If you are a slime bag … well, interestingly on one of the blogs that did this I visited recently and have seen the comments and even contest entries really dwindle. So I guess it wasn’t just me.
2. Crappy Customers & Customer Service
For whatever reason, over the past month I have experienced enough crappy service, and have had to watch great employees deal with horrid customers that it has really come to annoy the crap out of me!
In one store where all we wanted to do was grab a drink, the fountain machine was out of order and the employees seemed to have no desire to deal with it, and when we presented a Canadian coin in with our other change they summarily tossed it back saying ‘this is no good’, and only noted it was Canadian when we said ‘what?!?’. Then as we were finding more change he actually told us to ‘hurry up’. Yeah … rude!
But there are plenty of buttheads on the OTHER side of the counter! Most of it was the usual stuff:
– Cell phone talkers in line who expect everyone to accommodate their conversation, hold up progress, stand in the wrong places, make employees repeat themselves and so on.
– Line jumpers – generally they will not directly cut in front of you, but will push from the side, pretend they don’t notice the queue, run to a newly opened register without acknowledging those who were already waiting.
Specifically on this trip there was a shuttle from the hotel to the subway, and we were waiting there already and a family came out and the driver was unsure how many would fit so we waited … they started piling in. There were 5 and ended up all fitting, leaving us for the next shuttle – and the driver had no clue when it might come (it ended up being less than 5 minutes later so it was all good, but still annoying!)
3. Store Aisle Cellphone Talker Hogs
Shopping stores are very often cramped, with customers browsing, moving slowly due to physical restrictions, more product crowding the space, and so on.
The there are the people talking on their phones, slowly wandering around looking at nothing in particular, generally oblivious that they are greatly inconveniencing others with their rude behavior … heck, I even had someone glare at me when I said EXCUSE ME after simply saying ‘excuse me’ failed to even register acknowledgement.
I did say ‘well thank you for allowing me to shop in the shopping store’ … not as loud as I might have felt at the moment … but hey, they were already talking and blocking the entire aisle again anyway so they didn’t notice.
Here is the thing – just like it has been shown that using your phone is a distraction in the car, so it is when shopping. So if you want to talk on the phone casually while shopping, get out of the traffic pattern and chatter to your heart’s content. But not loudly, because THAT is a general pet peeve for most people. We really don’t care about your ailments, or whatever over-sharing you are doing at the moment.
4. Emergency Vehicle Privelege Abusers
In New York the law is that you need to move aside for emergency vehicles, including when the police have someone pulled over to the right. This past week I saw two egregious and possibly dangerous misuses of these laws.
On Rte 88 in central NY, a driver was pulled over by the police with lights blazing, and all of the approaching traffic was in the left lane as mandated by law. Except for one Ford Explorer, who was in the right lane, and while not driving dangerously fast, was going fast enough to pass several care including ours on the right side – he came from behind and ended up several cars in front of us. The police officer stood by the passenger side of the car he pulled over and just gaped … I hope he got the license plate number!
And then there was another instance when an ambulance was coming along, and we were on a smaller two-lane highway, and everyone was pulled to the right to let the ambulance of by … except for one car who was using it as a personal gateway to get ahead of everyone else. At first I thought it might be associated with the ambulance, but no – the ambulance turned and he went straight. Imagine that – using the grave misfortune of others as a way to jockey ahead a few places in traffic. Sad.
5. Parents Teaching Kids Crappy Habits
One would think that the general rule should be that parents would know the rules of safety for critical things they teach kids – but looking at guns we already know THAT isn’t true! So I guess that bicycle safety shouldn’t be different. I already have a pet peeve about adults with small children not wearing helmets but having their kids wear helmets. Guess what – these are the kids who stop wearing helmets before they are 10, or when out of range of home. Sure they aren’t a cure all, but helmets save lives, period. The message these kids get is ‘helmets are for little kids … not wearing a helmet is a grown-up thing to do’. Absolutely false.
Also recently – so far 100% coupled with non-helmet wearing parents – I have seen parents with very young kids biking AGAINST traffic. Ugh. I have seen it running as well as driving, and it can set up some unsafe situations. I even took a moment to call over to one parent to remind them to ride WITH traffic … and (again, with small children in front) they told me to go F myself in no uncertain terms. Nice.
As for runners … you know my pet peeve about running with music, and how it ABSOLUTELY diminishes your awareness (again, this is fact, not debate)? Well … add parent and child (about 10) running side-by-side with headphones on the wrong side of the road (WITH traffic) on a relatively narrow road with no sidewalk and only about 1 foot on the outside of the white line? Yeah, totally annoying – and forced all traffic on the 45MPH road to come to a halt to accommodate them. I beeped at them – because they were totally in the wrong. The parent waved as if I was saying ‘hi’. Um, no.
6. Ugly Early Morning Driving Habits
I have complained before about driving habits I see regularly in the early morning. It is as though people are so used to no traffic that they consider the normal rules optional … here are a couple that got to me this week:
– Stop sign jumpers: where there is extended visibility, these are the people who are second or third in line at the stop sign but have already scoped out traffic and go immediately following the car in front of them. I almost got nailed as I let one car go and started to run then had the next car just run the stop sign, and since they were turning right they were swerving right into me. They didn’t stop, and all I got out was ‘hey – stop sign!’
– Tailgating no-patience swervers: I have written before about how bizarre it is to see an empty road at 4 or 5AM with an extra-bright set of lights coming down the road only to realize that it is two cars, the second one so close that you can’t make them out from a distance. One of the roads I almost always run (6 of my 10 standard routes) was slightly widened recently, and what I have seen twice in the past week is people who were already tailgating see that the person in front is going to turn left at the intersection (no stop sign) so they pull out to the right to race past.
The problem? The road isn’t wide enough so they have to go a little bit onto the lawn of the house just before the intersection. The first time it happened I was running the opposite way and thought ‘that is dangerous’. Monday morning? Danger confirmed! The guy was just starting to pull to the right and I was in his headlights (I was already on the lawn because I feared it coming) – and threw up my hands and said ‘WTF’ (and not for ‘way too fast’ this time, Cori).
Bonus. Running Pet Peeves
Last month in the Globe, Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray wrote about his pet peeves as both race director and as a runner.
Here are a couple:
Participants taking a shopping cart load of food from the food tent, leaving nothing for the back-of-the-pack runners.
â– Doing the best we can to be environmentally responsible by putting out the appropriate recycling containers, but finding that no one is really paying much attention to any of it.
So what are YOUR pet peeves?
Running Around the Bend 
Since the last time you mentioned the early morning driving pet peeve, I’ve been paying attention to how many cars don’t leave a car length between themselves in pretty fast moving traffic. At first, I didn’t notice it very much (but I live in a fairly rural area). Then, I drove across the country. I noticed it in and outside of every major city on my trip, especially early in the morning or late at night when there was no one on the road. Just thought I’d let you know I’d been thinking about it!
As for me, I don’t have many pet peeves lately. I used to be completely grossed out by the sound of blowing your nose when I was little. And, now that I’ve grown up, it bothers me when people pretend to know about a topic, rather than admit they just don’t know much and take the situation as an opportunity to learn more. For example, we were talking about driving stick shift cars, and halfway through the conversation we realize that someone thought the clutch pedal was the gear shift knob.
That’s all from here, but I’m sure I’ll start looking out for some of your pet peeves again!
haha thanks Kaila – yeah, we are in a suburban area, and I would hate to generalize on who it is I see doing the ultra-close follows. And actually since I run the same areas and the same times – it is very often the same people! Nasty!
And people who refuse to own what they don’t know are a definite annoyance. I remember when I was going to Germany for business, one bit of advice I got was to drive stick shift for practice … so I used my mother’s Volvo a few times which helped – but really didn’t get me ready for tooling around on the autobahn! haha
Most of my pet peeves revolve around taking the bus here in St Lucia. It would probably take an entire blog post to address them.
One I never get over is people playing loud music on their phones. Do you really think I want to hear that? No. Get headphones.
Yeah, the loud music on phones is definitely weird … reminds me of people carrying boom boxes around in the 80s! haha I would love to read about your bus peeves!
Ha! It’s funny that some of these things I’ve noticed but haven’t given much thought, and some I haven’t noticed at all! I think the reciprocal blog comment thing can be okay if it’s a genuine “oops forgot about you for a while but I like this post” and I guess I haven’t been blogging long enough to notice some of this.
The “wrong side of the road” thing is a huge pet peeve with running and biking because it’s just so incredibly dangerous. I’m not at the point of biking with my kids (they’re barely taking the training wheels off) but I don’t get why parents do dangerous things with their kids. Ignorance I’m assuming, but then why don’t they listen when people warn them? Really not sure.
No pet peeves I can think of today YET so I’ll leave it at that!
Thanks Michele – I struggled with the blogger thing because it is weird and hard to describe … but it is all about intent. And some bloggers I have seen are about as subtle in their intent as a toddler who sees something they want on a table across the room … 🙂
And yeah, it was the second ‘kids at risk’ thing that really got to me this last week! Inside a development, sure whatever … but on a busy 45MPH road? Ugh!
None yet? haha … still early 🙂
All of them are great pet peeves, but aren’t most of them to do with the general lack of people being courteous to other people, which is only seems to be getting worse each year.
One of the reasons I do not like being around lots and lots of people (urban areas), where those kind of crap are magnified way out of proportion. I will stay up in my rural area, where all those things happen, but are less noticeable, only because there are not as many people to do them.
Safety or other’s thinking that you are solely responsible for their safety and that they can do whatever they want irregardless of how it impacts other’s safety. Whether they are abdicating their own responsibilities to keep themselves and others safe doesn’t matter or doesn’t register in their minds. They are oblivious for whatever reason or just so self-involved that they just do not care about the inconvenience they are causing for others irks me to no end.
The general courtesy is definitely an issue – but I think that the connectedness of everything is also part of it. I have commented on how many people I see on their phones while driving, it is astounding. And the issue is that more and more people associate more closely with their phones than with the world around them, leading to insensitivity to other people. There is enough research about the anti-social trends of social media, which is why I think ‘getting disconnected’ is so important!
At the same time, there are people who are NOT anything like this … but they deserve their own post 🙂
Ah the actual WTF> but seriously.. that was not cool! Also- i love your blog. Keep the good posts coming!
Thanks Cori, appreciate the compliment – oh the feels 🙂
I share many or all of yours.
I share Dave’s peeve of runners tossing all “trash” in any bucket even when recycling options are available. I mean, WTF! We’re runners. We enjoy and need a clean environment to enjoy our sport in. When you look at the demographics for runners, a good majority of us have a college degree. I know that doesn’t guarantee a minimum IQ, but we should be able to understand what a blue colored bin is for!
That laziness just pisses me off.
Andy
So true – I remember my first half-marathon a couple of years ago, there was a trash bin after the 6.5 mile turn-around and since you could see it coming, you should realize it would be a good place to put things after the water and Gu break. But people dumped their trash all over the place … it was disgusting. Ugh!
I feel guily dropping the tops of GU packs during a race. I usually stuff the empty packet into a pocket or drop it near a mile marker where I know someone will see it and hopefully pick it up after a race.
I just don’t get it.
Guilty as well. In a race, I try to drop my cup and empty gu packet in a trash, but if I’m in the vicinity of a water stop and there are volunteers around, sometimes I just toss to the side if I don’t see a trash or have easy access. I figure volunteers clean the area afterward (and every race where I’ve volunteered, that’s exactly what we do, an entire area sweep for trash, cups, etc.). I’d never drop an empty gu on a training run, but during a race, it seems different to me. (And for the record, I also wouldn’t drop in a random place along a race route, only in the vicinity of volunteers and other trash).
I really don’t call that ‘guilty’ – because anyone who volunteers knows how things work and therefore is going to do their best to be reasonable when they are on the other side. And I think it is the “random place along a race route” that is a problem – because those are the things that make races look bad and lead to towns not giving out permits (happened to some of my friends in northern PA this year).
Oh man, I thought my head was going to fall off for a minute there with all the nodding I was doing as I read this post! I share pretty much all of these pet peeves, especially the ones about cell phone rudeness and crappy drivers. Tailgating especially makes me so angry… it’s just reckless! I remember having to watch a video about it during drivers’ ed and it’s stuck with me ever since. I agree with Harold’s comment above… people really seem to be losing any sense of consideration for other people. Makes me want to move to a cabin in the woods 🙂
haha – so true! And I mean, yeah, as my wife said when we were in the city I did ‘get my Boston on’ and returned to more ‘focused’ (i.e. aggressive) driving … but most people in the ‘burbs where we live are pretty casual and polite. But cell phones – so agree with Harold as well.
Customer Service: The Rein Of Mediocrity. It’s hard to get used to the fact that stupid people are everywhere. I agree with your rants and have the same ones, except for the listening to music. I do it, but I keep my music low when I’m running on a road. I guess if it is a real risk, I will take it, kind of like running on a road or biking on a highway in itself. I wouldn’t let my kids do it though.
‘Reign of Mediocrity’ … love it! I am generally about the most accomodating customer, having worked retail through high school and college vacations to help pay for things … so it only takes a very small effort to make me happy. So sad when even THAT can’t happen.
As for music – my point isn’t that music is inherently unsafe, but that it inherently diminishes your awareness. Naturally it is proportional to volume, so the softer the music the more other stuff you can hear. Also, I have seen plenty of unsafe people without music or any other distractions 🙂
And yeah, taking risks is definitely something that happens, but we should always seek to minimize them and especially to realize that ultimately we are the ones responsible for our own safety
It would be crazy for me to say that listening to music is the same as not. Because why do I take an earbud out when in a blind situation (curvy road) if it’s the same? Honestly, I hadn’t given it much thought, but just try to be careful because you never know when the next moron in a hurry will run my ass over! After my reply, I was on the phone with customer service for yet another 40 minutes and was pleasantly surprised at how great the guy was. Redemption!!
Yay for customer service redemption!
And thanks for the reply – ‘diminished awareness’ is really something that we just need to work around. Sure I talk about music – but think about winter. When I put on my balaclava and then a heavy winter hat over it, and my hood on the coldest sub-zero days … what do you think happens to MY awareness? Not only that, but with a hood my field of view goes way down, and that means I need all of the lights and reflective stuff I can wear.
Thanks again for the great comments!
These are all really good, and definitely ones I share. I have many, many pet peeves, and usually feel like a jerk for voicing them. But since we’re on the topic, I get really frustrated by people who aren’t aware of themselves in space (like your cellphone talker). People who stop in the middle of a crowded sidewalk, or flail their arms around in a public space, turn suddenly with an enormous backpack on their backs… I always try to be aware of how I’m moving around other people, and it seems like most other people don’t take the time. Ben and I often joke about holding a “life boot camp” to teach people the basics 😉
haha – life boot camp! Love it … and should be part of school! Naturally between New York, Providence and Boston we saw loads of ‘what do you mean I don’t own this entire space’ people … including people with huge backpacks in stores in Fanueil Hall and one who knocked stuff off a rack, looked and walked away … ugh.
Interestingly , I still find that I treat my own body as being much larger than it is … so I yield much more space than I really need to, which is interesting to me.
Old habits die hard, I guess. At least I don’t need to put you through life boot camp 😉
Yeah, but I could apparently use a ‘body image boot camp’ refresher 🙂
That stuff about parents teaching kids bad habits is just so frustrating. I mean its simple things that are a matter of safety- almost like telling them its ok to not wear a seatbelt (one of my pet peeves is people who don’t wear seatbelts- I mean its so simple and could save your life so why wouldn’t you?) But yea I totally get what you’re saying.
And as for the commenting thing- I also know what you mean with that. I think you can get a sense of when certain bloggers just want to get their name out there versus the ones who actually want to make a connection. The first few times someone comments on my blog it will trigger me to go check out theirs and then once I get an idea of what their blog is like I can add them to my Bloglovin feed.
And that note about taking all the food from a race?! Who does something like that?!
Thanks Lisa – I think there are many things where we say ‘I’ll never be the parent who …’ and end up laughing at ourselves later on (Michele has posted a bunch about this recently). But safety stuff? Um, no. I wear my helmet every time, seat belt before I leave ‘Park’, and make sure I learned all of the rules of the road when we moved here.
I remember a post from someone about a lack of ‘late race food’ a few months ago … and there were many who chimed in with similar experiences. It is pretty awful. I look at it this way – it is nice that your family came, but your fee wasn’t ‘race for one, food for all’.
We have the same problem with drivers not minding stop signs around here. And sometimes traffic lights in general. I’ve almost been hit while out running way too many times to count. I always have had an issue with bad driving, but it’s my number 1 pet peeve now that I run.
I totally agree with your bike helmet peeve too. I don’t have a bike right now and hence no helmet, but the second I get a bike, I will also get a helmet. I never rode with one, but I refuse to let Betty see me riding without one. We put one on her to ride her Razor scooter so she knows as soon as she climbs onto a trike or whatever she needs to have that unicorn helmet on. My mother actually laughed at me and said it was ridiculous to make her wear it all the time and I’m like…yeah real ridiculous until she falls and hits her head on the ground.
Exactly – skateboards, scooters, rollerblades/skates, etc … helmets.
I have had relatively few near-misses through the years, but enough to make me hyper-aware. Right now as the mornings get darker is a real danger-zone as drivers adjust to lower visibility. Ugh …
Oh wow, so many things to say to this.
1. The blogging life of a reciprocal blogger seems pretty boring… It just seems so uninteresting to comment on blogs one doesn’t follow only when those authors comment on that person’s blog. Not to mention not following blogs would leave me so out of the loop when I did come to “return a comment.” Often, I will go several posts on someone’s blog without commenting, but if that blog is in my subscription feed, I have more than likely read those posts. I don’t always have things to say and I’m not going to force myself to find something to comment, which it seems like a “reciprocal blogger” would do. Lame.
2. Matt used to work at Barnes and Noble and his biggest pet peeve was customers who would come up to the counter on their cell phones. He used to say he appreciated the people who, even if they were on their phones in line, would say, “Sorry, I have to call you back, I’m at the register,” and then hang up before trying to pay. Almost worse is what my mom complained about once when she worked in a coffee shop–customers who go through the drive through while talking on the phone! Confusing for everyone!
5. Matt and I argue probably at least once a week about wearing helmets. I always wear a helmet when I ride my bike (except on the rare occasion that I forget, in which case I feel very unsafe) and he never does. There is a graphic that has been going around of people with severe head injuries saying they won’t wear a helmet because it “doesn’t look cool” or will mess up their hair. Even things like that don’t phase him. I’m not sure where he gets it from because I saw pictures on Facebook of his parents and his younger brother on a bike ride recently and they were all wearing helmets. I’ve told him the story about my friend whose life was saved by his helmet in a bike accident during a triathlon (he fractured his cheekbone). Nothing will change his mind. But that’s enough of a rant… you’re right, helmets save lives, without question!!!
Finally, re: the running pet peeves: Once when I was at a race with a group of my friends, I grabbed snacks after the race for all of them, so I like to give people the benefit of the doubt when they are taking a ton of post-race goodies. If they really are taking it just for themselves (or even for friends/family who did not pay to run the race), that’s definitely not very nice.
Oh wow … I love this 🙂
I look at helmets like seat belts. When I was learning driving all cars had were lap belts, and many people wouldn’t wear them – you had to for your test, but it wasn’t a general law yet. Back then it was more personal choice. And that is true with helmets unless you are under 12 – then it is law. As an adult it is his choice, and you probably won’t change his mind.
I am not so judgy about what runners do at the end of races – if they grab 27 bagels, fine. But when they herd the group of 20 spectators watching them to the food table … then I have a problem! haha Thanks again!
Pet peeve of a runner–people walking like 18 people across on the sidewalk. EXCUSE ME BUT YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. Also, cyclists being dangerously close. Giant pet peeve of mine: smacking gum ERMIGERD. Also: ridiculous amounts of cologne.
Sorry, I just felt like contributing 😀
The other week, when I ran RNR, I will fully admit to taking a bunch of snacks, but I only took what was offered to me, and I took the things that I knew they had plenty of.
I’ve been shorter on my comment leaving of late, which isn’t so like me, but I can’t leave novels all the time (and I guest posted in your comment section the other week lol). But that said, I don’t just comment for the sake of commenting. I try to return the favor when someone comments on my blog, but I also use the chance to discover new blogs, and that is how I have found many of my favorites!
My kids, being teenage boys, tend to overdo cologne … and I have seen the young women respond to heavy-handed cologne in a positive way when we bring them to parties and whatnot … and Lisa is terriby sensitive and has had to use her inhaler before as a result! haha
I smiled at the last part and here is why – if you are thinking ‘I hope this isn’t about me’ … then it is NOT about you! You are kind and generous with your comments and cross-links and everything. You are SO far from the type of blogger I am talking about … 🙂
Lol, my husband jokes that I’m like a teenage girl because I totally love strong (positive) smells on guys (I won’t limit it to cologne, b/c when he uses a ton of aftershave or even deodorant, I even love that; and don’t get me started on Axe body spray, which probably would have shortened my virginity by about 5 years if it had been around in the early 90s!). It wasn’t until we’d been married a few years and he’d commented on it a few times that I realized most of them time when I walked past someone (a valet outside, or a guy in a stairwell or on a plane) and told my husband that guy smelled good, it was frequently a guy under age 25. Yeah, totally a teenage girl at heart. Thankfully for the masses, my husband wears the “generally accepted” amount of smelling products, which is to say much less than I’d choose…
haha … this is the most hilarious thing, and I totally love it!
For me, what I have noticed is that scents that were popular or were worn by girls when I was in high school … I have long since forgotten names and am not sure I’d recognize the smell anymore, but I remember being in a computer lab in my freshman year of college (mainframe terminals, yay) and someone walking through and the smell lingering for a long time and … well, I was basically done for the night 🙂 haha
Ohh distracted drivers when I’m running are a good one (and in general) but definitely when I’m running. I’ll never forget how I almost got hit by a car last year because this older woman tried to run a stop sign next to the church she was going to and then tried to yell at me for running out in front of her. Um no ma’am, you just tried to keep going through that stop sign. Not my fault. Definitely yours. Tailgaters drive me nuts, and I will purposely slow down and drive under the speed limit if you attempt to tailgate me on a back road, but slow drivers in the passing line on the highway also drive me bonkers. If you want to drive under the speed limit that’s fine by me….but please stay in the right lane so I can safely pass you on the left. And poor customer service….I stopped at sheetz after my race on Sunday to grab a sandwich and some snacks for my trip. They weren’t busy and it took me 10 minutes to get my sandwich. I watched them complain (as I’m standing there) about having to work that day, how they didn’t want to be there, and they were irritated that I had asked for veggies on my sandwich (which they didn’t even get right but i was too mad and antsy to get on the road to say anything…and also super hungry…messing with a runner post race when she’s hungry? Not a good idea). I’ve worked many customer services jobs, so I know it sucks when you don’t want to be there, but it’s still really rude to be rude to the customers.
So true Caitlin! And funny – a coworker who came back from vacation in Virginia and went through PA complained about Sheetz pretty much same stuff as you!
and totally agree on the driving stuff. In general I just assume that people won’t stop at stopsigns. So I go behind … but if the SECOND car isn’t going to stop … then I am at a loss! 🙂
I hate rude customers. I saw a Target cashier reduced to tears because someone’s kitty litter coupon wasn’t working. And there is a grocery store that I don’t go to very often because people just leave their carts wherever and mosey around the store. The store is crowded enough as it is, please be courteous to your shopping neighbors. It just comes down to being aware of your surroundings and not being a jerk.
Rude customers really are the worst … I have seen nasty customers reduce people to tears for decades now … and I have no idea WHY.
I had to laugh about the cart, because I was grabbing a couple of things when we returned from our trip, and an older couple came out of the store, the guy just kept walking, and the lady took her couple of bags out and left the cart so it was blocking everything. So I came up, grabbed the cart and said ‘oh thank you so very much for the cart’. The woman turned, looking confused, but I just smiled and kept walking into the store.
Thanks!
It’s crazy how little patience people have on the road and what they’ll do to save a couple of seconds driving. In the past year I’ve seen two different people creep forward at a red light because they anticipated the green light but it didn’t change. And they moved so far forward that they were in the middle of the intersection and just drove through the red light! The sooner we have cars that drive people automatically the better haha.
I watched someone do that the other day as well! And I remember visiting friends in the New Haven CT are in the late 80s, and it seemed a general practice was to pull into the intersection until you couldn’t see the light but weren’t blocking traffic, then wait for the person behind you to honk to letyou know to go … insane!
Recipricol blogging is one of my biggest pet peeves. For me, I’ve been scattered between a deployment and packing to leave out of town. I have to pick and choose which blogs I want to read. I can always tell when I don’t comment on a lot of blogs (I only follow 12 right now) because my comments drop. It’s such a sad cycle but honestly I would rather someone read my blog because they genuinely want too…not because they have too.
Thanks for the comment – and with all that you have going on right now, it really means a lot to me. I really don’t understand why you would read a blog that you didn’t actually care about reading … heck, if I read all the blogs I wanted to, I’d have to quit my job and just sit in my basement all day! haha
Exactly. That is how I’ve felt as well. I have other things to do so why read the blogs that I don’t enjoy reading!
Reciprocal blogging. Mmm. Generally I only comment if I have something new to add. I read a lot, and use the ‘ like’ if I like it. If I am your reciprocal blogger( I don’t think I am, I hope not!) I apologise, I don’t comment to get comments or reward comments so if it looks like that’s happened it wasn’t intentional! Personally I blog for entertainment and I’m not counting followers or comments, I have no ambitions to be a professional blogger! Some people are on your wavelength, I think, and can be counted on to read and comment on your blog, I find that I think of these people as my blogging friends. Some people just seem to ignore you which can be a little hurtful sometimes, especially if you like their blog and read it a lot, but hey they aren’t under any obligation to read yours or reply. But isn’t it odd how there is a whole unspoken etiquette to this, with traps for the unwary?!!
Re pet peeves, I don’t get angry about stupid or bad mannered people, they are responsible for themselves, but sometimes I am astonished! One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is where you get roadworks there is traffic control because there is only one lane open and you have to stop to let people come the other way. Sometimes when the light goes to Amber I think, ‘can I get through before it goes to red’ and put my foot down a bit to get through. Then when I think I’ve cut it fine, I look in my read view mirror and find that people have come through after me, the second person behind me must have gone through on a red light! One time 3 people followed me through, so inconsiderate to people coming the other way! I think it becomes a peeve when I’m sitting at the other end, the light goes to green but I can go because people have jumped the light at the other end and are still coming through.
Thanks so much for the comment, Julie! I am sorry that I made people concerned that I viewed them as ‘commenting with agenda’ or whatever .. but rest assured that isn’t you! I really don’t want to name any names, because it is counter-productive …
Here are a few things I have noticed that are common (but not exclusive):
– totally overwhelmed with ads on all sides, to the point where you have a hard time interacting and doesn’t work quite right on phones or tablets.
– Titles are always SEO optimized to the point of sounding ultra-expert and ultra-generic
– Everything is focused on getting you to click stuff.
– Big push on branding, getting sponsors & giveaways and so on – and reviews that read like tweaked copy & paste and are never negative
– Content constantly feels ripped off, seldom attributed to other sites, often pulled from recent Runner’s World or other sites, etc
and on and on … no single item tells all, but the result is that when this type of person visits your blog it is a means to an end, not out of genuine interest.
I see, those are the people I think of as professional bloggers. I find it a bit sad when someone who has a really popular blog suddenly starts extolling the virtues of the free stuff they have been sent instead of writing the stuff that was interesting. But hey ho, who knows how we would behave if temptation was put in our path! I never follow those people whose only page seems to be ‘how to make money blogging’ no matter how many likes ( I think they must be automatically generated they ping back so quickly) they send. On the other hand you ‘meet’ some really nice people with shared interests!
And that is the thing for me – I mean, how can you NOT immediately like a ‘middle aged woman in Lycra’, right!?! haha I have no idea what I expected when I started last year, but whatever it was, all of THIS is better 🙂
Thank you!
So many peeves, so little time. Agreement on those you’ve listed. In the customer/customer service, it bothers me when people go to a cashier while still gabbing on the phone. It’s disrespectful to the cashier who is just trying to do their job…and they certainly can’t speak up, so I often speak up for them and tell the person to hang up until they’re done. And here’s a gym one that gets me. If you’re on a treadmill or elliptical and a person gets on the machine next to you and starts having a full-blown phone conversation. I wear headphones when I workout and often they drown out my music (even when I turn up the volume). I had this happen twice last week and I handled each one differently. The first time I asked the person to either speak softer or please step away until they finished their call. They shot me a nasty look and then walked off. The second time I took a more creative approach, I just started singing the song playing on my headphones out loud (and mind you, I’m no singer). I figured if I was going to get half of their conversation, they could get half of my song. They got the hint. Have a good one!
haha – love all of it. I was only a gym member for a year, but when I was, if I got a phone call I stopped, and if it was a discussion, I stepped away. Why is that so hard?
Great post!! I am surprised that #4 was in NY and not in MA bc I see people pull that stuff all the time-esp the ambulance scenario, drives me nuts!
Morning running, for me, is always done sans headphones bc people are crazy with their driving-I can’t even believe how they do not pay any attention to their surroundings-not one bit!
Fun fact: Dave McGillivray is my personal hero!
haha – SO true, Nicole, which is why I emphasized that it was on rte 88 – look on a map and you see it connects Schenectady and Binghamton, with Oneonta and Cooperstown (baseball hall of fame) in between … and not much else. I mean, after the last month driving in NYC and Providence and Boston, here we are in nowheresville NY and seeing this? Crazy!
Thanks for the comment 🙂
Oh my gosh customer services jobs are a breeding ground for new pet peeves. It’s astonishing how rude some people are when they shop – I fully believe everyone should work a customer service job at some point in their life so they learn how to be a polite and respectful person AND shopper. I totally group loud cell phone talkers in with the customer service shopping experience too. Just because it’s a portable phone doesn’t mean you should use it everywhere you possibly can.
One of my biggest pet peeves are people that wait a long as possible before forcing their way into traffic instead of merging like a normal person. Please don’t abuse the entry ramp and drive past 15 cars, then weasel your way in far beyond where you should be entering traffic. Rude.
Agree on the ‘ramp jumpers’ – see it all the time with construction as well, people who try to use lane closures to jump ahead … there is a difference between those who ‘oops’ don’t notice and then try to get over and those who are using it as their own passing lane. Definitely rude 🙂
If you’re ever bored, you should read more about the late merge thing. I read a book a few years ago about driving habits (too lazy to look on my blog, but I might have written about it at some point), and I *think* (but won’t swear to it) that traffic engineers actually said the late merge works better and is intended. People should continue in all open lanes and merge at the merge point, not earlier. Like I said, I could be remembering wrong, but I think I remember being surprised when I read it because I also thought of them as lane cutters, slowing down the process, etc.
That actually does make sense, especially considering how merges work coming into traffic normally. If they are done one at a time they are incredibly efficient .. but typically there is a ‘Get Ahead Gus’ who just has to push ahead. Or there are people who refuse to let others merge, and so on … but a very good point! (you’re on fire this afternoon!)
I whole heartedly dislike four way stops. If I could, I would set up an informal classroom at each and every one in my town and reteach all the drivers how to do it properly. It is the biggest gripe of my 5 minute commute (which is nothing I admit but I am getting very good at knowing who is not going to obey the rules). I was in Walmart the other day which it always super busy and at least I know that check out is going to take a little longer, the person behind me loudly expressed how awfully slow our checker was and the fact that she should be done by now. I felt our lady was going the same speed as everyone else but her only problem was that they had to remove some cash as it was that time which over all added maybe two minutes to my wait. I did say thank you to the checker very loudly and expressed that she did a good job, but that other lady probably thought I was crazy.
Compensating for rude people – definitely know I do that as well!
4 way stops SHOULD be simple 99.9% of the time, except when two people enter opposite of each other and are turning across each other’s path … then one person should just be nice and flash their lights for the other to go! But seriously … remedial training needed! 🙂
I admit it takes me awhile to get up the courage to post a comment on a new to me blog. I don’t know why but I feel socially awkward even behind a computer screen. I am working on it though. Oh, I agree with so very may of these pet peeves, helmets, bikes, runners and shoppers. Another thing that bugs me about helmets is when people wear them but don’t bother to hook the strap. Umm, they don’t work that way. I love what you said to that shopper, my mother hates going places with me sometimes because I have zero patience in those situations. There is an awkward 5 way stop-highway interchange at the end of my commute that drives me batty on a daily basis. People seem to think stopping at one sign means they can blow through 2. Ugh!
haha – I remember at first being very tentative about commenting, now if I read something cool on a blog I immediately comment. Might as well introduce myself right away, right? 🙂
The one rant that kind of surprised me was about parents with kids on bikes. I don’t own a bike and I certainly don’t have any kids, but I would have kind of guessed that if I went biking with a little kid, I’d defintiely wear a helmet, but I’d probably be inclined to ride like I run (on the left side of the street) since I’d feel more like a pedestrian when riding with a little kid and I’d want to have the widest possible berth from cars and not be going anywhere close to the speed of traffic. But then I’d be someone about whom someone would rant! So yeah, I’ll stick to running and no kids and I know I’m not doing it wrong!
PS good comments on this post! It took me like 2 days to read them all!
Good point again – and it IS nerve-wracking with a little kid on a main road … which is why you SHOULDN’T DO IT! But really … we would always try to limit the time spent on main roads when the kids were younger, especially since we nicknamed our older son ‘Bob Weaver’ because … well, you could guess how he looked when riding!
And yeah – the comments are AMAZING!
Lol, don’t tell his college roommate that nickname or if he drinks, the nickname could resurface…
So true!
I’m so behind on blog reading. I have a bad(?) habit of saving posts to read by my favorite bloggers because I know I am likely to want to comment something hopefully more thoughtful than “nice post”, but when I’m pressed for time, the unread blogs pile up. I can’t decide if I should read fewer blogs (i.e., take the blogs I skim out of my Feedly) or what.
Anyway, I’ve got a few pet peeves, mostly to do with grammar, lol. I’m sure there’s more, but my brain feels fried tonight.
I am trying to be better about that myself – and the worst thing is that often it is my favorites that I save for a while and occasionally never get back to! And I also agree with the need to constantly work on my subscriptions via Bloglovin’, WordPress, email and Feedly! Yikes!