What Grinds Your Gears?

The other day, my daughter-in-law Jodie did a post about the Top 10 Things that really grinds her gears and then said she thought it would be a fun post for me to do, as well. Of course, anybody that knows me could tell you that I am just full of things that really, really tick me off. I have so many pet peeves that it's a wonder I can manage to keep up with them. But I'll try to whittle the list down to 10. Here goes:

1. Bad Customer Service. Oh this one is big with me! I deplore bad customer service with an almost pathological intensity. Example: Randey, Jacob and I were in a giant electronic store (called Fry's, I believe) in Arlington the other day. They were looking for a wireless card for Jacob's computer. I was there under protest because wow! what a snoozer! A store filled with computer parts, televisions and appliances. Be still my heart. Not. Anyway, I did my walk through of the place, found a card-making/scrapbook magazine and was done with my tour of the much touted Electronic Land (touted by Randey and Jacob who obviously felt the need to make the place sound better than it was just to get me through the doors). I go in search of Randey and Jake (whom I had left upon entry to the place) and discover, much to my chagrin, they haven't moved 20 feet from the spot I'd last seen them. They did, however, have a Fry's employee with them. He was on a ladder, searching for the item they were looking for. Apparently, while the shelves were devoid of said item, the computer said they had 65 of them in stock. After much throwing of little bitty boxes across the top shelf, this skinny little weenie comes down off the ladder and tells them he'll have to go look in the back, but as he's walking away, he muttered "I guess I'll be helping you people for the next hour...at least". Excuse me? Earth calling dipstick! If you're going to insult your customers you might want to make sure they can't hear you!! Although, in retrospect, the little guy may not have known I was with Randey and Jake because I hadn't been with them the whole time and when I did join them, I stood off to the side reading my magazine. And as I was off to the side, along the path this guy had to take to get to the back, I'm the only one who heard what he said. Unfortunately for him, I suffer from what I like to call "menopausal rage" and immediately took off in search of a manager, whom I found fairly quickly near the front of the store. I told said manager that if his employee had something better to do with his time, I certainly could find another store to spend my money in. No problemo. Say the word. Naturally, the manager was appalled blah, blah, blah and right away snagged another employee who was walking by and ordered that he assist us with our Fry Shopping Needs. We did finally get the stupid wireless card, but I gotta tell you...my experience was forever tainted by that little jerk and his mutterings. I won't be shopping there again. Bad customer service is my biggest pet peeve of all time. I didn't shop at Target for over 5 years because of Bad Customer Service and, in fact, have never darkened the doorstep of the Target in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida again because of their Bad Customer Service, nor will I ever. I told you...pathological intensity about this....
2. Another thing that makes me nuts...Blu's dog hair all over my carpets. He's black. My carpet is very light. Usually. Unless it's covered with his dog hair. Then it's just nasty. I'd have to vacuum 4 times a day to keep up with his shedding. I just can't stand it. Blu is Randey's dog and he promised, promised, promised me, before we got another Chow, that he would tend to all the brushing, etc. Well, technically, I guess he's kept that promise because he is the one who brushes Blu-boy out. He just doesn't do it near often enough to keep up with his shedding.
3. Next would have to be stupid phone calls. Stupid and/or long phone calls. I swear, I'm putting a timer next to my phone and once it goes off, the phone call is over. Period. No exceptions. I hate talking on the phone with a passion. Why? Because I can't get anything done when I'm on the phone. Telephones aren't designed the way they were back in the day. Used to be - some time between when phones went cordless and when they went tiny - you could walk around with a phone tucked in between your shoulder and your ear for hours, no problem. My little bitty phones require that you hold them to your ear or they'll fall. This means I can't do anything as long as I'm on the phone. Therefore, an hour spent on the phone is an hour I've missed doing something else...people should say what they've got to say and be done with it. I'd probably answer the phone a whole lot more than I do if I wasn't worried about being stuck on it forever and a day.
4. Speaking of phones, another thing that makes my spine crack is people talking on their cell phone while they're driving. Come on, people! What makes you think that driving 75 miles per hour on the Interstate while talking on a phone is a good idea? Hang.Up.And.Drive.
5. Also on the list is drug users. I'm sorry that your reality isn't all you thought it would be. Really I am. But alter it some other way. Pot heads, crack heads, Valium addicts, drunks...you really and truly grind my gears. Let me tell you something...whilst in your chemically altered state of mind, you are not as funny, as witty or as profound as you like to think. So shut up. Sit down. And detox. Then we'll chat.
6. Being kept waiting. Yeah, that's a big one, too. I've already covered this in another post so I won't bore you again with details.
7. Sensationalist news reporting. That also jacks my jaws. Can't you just report the flippin' news? I don't want your editorials. I don't want your "meaningful pauses" between words. I don't want your asinine questions, such as gems like this; "How did it feel when you thought your loved one was dead?". Honestly, people. What kind of an idiot would ask something like that? Besides 99% of the talking heads on television today, especially that entire group of morons who do the morning shows, I mean.
8. Those big, dumb looking baggy pants that some guys (and even some girls!) wear. The crotch of your pants should not be on the same level as your kneecaps. Not only that, but I have no desire, whatsoever, to see what color boxers you're wearing. Really. I think the wearers of those pants seriously overestimate the interest of the general public in their undergarments. Because eeeeewwwww.
9. Menopause. Menopause really torques me up, too. It sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Can't seem to get past those 2 words right now so I'll just stop.
10. Finally, this is a pet peeve that kind of actually mystifies me. I don't know why it burns my butt like it does, but boy...it does. I cannot stand for someone to misuse the word "literally". You see, that phrase "burns my butt", that's figuratively speaking. Not literally. I mean, if it was literal, that would mean my arse was feeling the affects of an actual, physical burn. For some reason, people today use "literally" in place of "figuratively" all the d*mn time. Maybe "figuratively" has too many syllables for them or maybe it's just harder to pronounce. I don't know. But I can assure you, those two words are as far from interchangeable as you can get. I was watching a design show the other day and the host actually told the homeowner "I'm so glad you like it! My heart was literally beating outside my chest!". Well no it wasn't, Idiot. You'd have gotten blood, and possibly gore, all over that new room you'd just decorated if your heart was literally beating outside your chest. Urrrgh! I've heard newscasters misuse this word, too. I've heard it misused in dramas on tv, in the movies and a whole lot in real live. Stop the madness! We, as a society, are actually (i.e.; literally) changing the meaning of words by virtue of the fact that a word is so misused that its meaning becomes something else entirely! Grab a thesaurus. Look up the word figurative. Now look lower, where it lists the antonyms of figurative. Literal will most likely be the first word listed. Because they are opposites! I won't say that continued misuse of these words will drive me insane. But it is a possibility. Literally.

So what about you guys? What really grinds your gears, burns your butt and/or jacks your jaws? If you choose to do this post, please let me know in a comment so I can be sure to hop (figuratively speaking, of course) on over to check it out.