Funky Pet Peeves

Over the past few months, I have become keenly aware of some of my quirky pet peeves. (Are all pet peeves somewhat quirky?!) It's made me think, sometimes it's made me angry, sometimes it's really made me step back and try to adjust my frame of mind. I sometimes wonder if all of my pet peeves are "normal," or if some could be classified as kind of weird. Here, help me classify them, won't you?

Gum. I have a total neuroses about gum. I hate it. Really, really, absoultely despise gum. I don't like hearing it being chewed (especially when someone is looking over my shoulder), I don't like hearing it being snapped, popped, or blown into bubbles. And I really hate seeing it outside of someone's mouth in a chewed fashion. In fact, when people pull out their gum at a dining table and stick it on the side of their plate or wrap it in their paper napkins, it's everything I can do to not throw up then and there. I'd classify this as a "weird" pet peeve. How about you?

Timeliness. I have a real thing about being on time, and it's a pet peeve of mine when I am late for an appointment or a meeting. I also feel really slighted when people are late for meetings that they have set with me. If someone says that they are going to be somewhere at a certain time, then I think that it's up to them to go above and beyond to meet that commitment. And if you're going to be more than 10 or 15 minutes late, then I think that it's common courtesy to call and let the person know. I feel like I'm being disrespected (and my time is being under valued) if you don't call to tell me that you're running late or not going to make it. On the flip side, I take it really personally that I'm running late, and work very hard to give people the simple courtesy of being on time or communicating with them. Normal pet peeve? Yes, that's how I would classify it. What do you think?

Toilet seats. I think that we need to all come to an agreement across the nation -- either we need to all put the toilet seats down, or all put 'em up. And we all need to agree on it. This should not be a "men vs. women" thing, rather, we should all be consistent on how we treat the seat in shared bathrooms. Classify this one as a "normal" pet peeve. I think it's an age-old argument, in fact.

Proper English. First and foremost, I'm not perfect on this topic. However, I feel like the advent of "spell check" has made our society lazier and perhaps a little less intelligent than earlier generations. The word "ain't" is never proper English, in my book at least. "Are system" is not down, "our system" is down. The bride did not walk down "the isle," the bride walked down "the aisle." Simple spelling mistakes that I've seen in the past that wouldn't be picked up by a spell check application. I guess that I wish that people would take a moment to step back and read their work -- your words, and what you type, are how people see you in this virtual world. I'm not even sure where to classify this pet peeve...

I think that the reason that these pet peeves have made me step back and examine myself is that I find that I am projecting my pet peeves on others -- and on how I see the world. Perhaps I need to reframe my impressions of others and cut people a little more slack. Who knows?

What do you think? Do you have little pet peeves that get the hairs standing up on the back of your neck? I would love to hear about them!