As a person blessed with a serious face (thanks Mom!), I don’t like it when people tell me to smile.
Oh, the people who can’t be bothered to step on their cigarettes after throwing them on the ground drive me up the wall. You just threw a BURNING OBJECT. It could blow onto someone’s clothes, a kid could pick it up…is it so hard to step on your litter so you don’t start a fire?
The people who throw garbage out the car window – I have to follow the millennials here and say, “I can’t even.”
I have a very nice Facebook acquaintance who doesn’t spell or punctuate properly, which would be mildly annoying except that she homeschools her (five) children. So instead of being mildly annoyed, I worry every time about how hard it will be for her kids to unlearn what she teaches them.
• People who get to the end of moving walkway/escalator/stairway and stop.
• People who text/IM/email while walking. If your email is so important, step to the side.
• People who get to the front of the queue and do not have their transit card/coupons/money ready.
• People who do not stand to the right on the metro escalator to/from the platform, especially during rush hour.
My neighbors below me. They spend a lot of time on their balcony sometimes 3 or 4 people into the night talking loudly, laughing and smoking. The stench travels up to my apartment when the windows are open. I too want to enjoy some fresh cool air because it feels to warm when all the windows are closed.
If I had plants on my balcony they wouldn’t survive after inhaling all that smoke. As much as I’d like to sit out there and enjoy the weather I don’t for this reason.
Anyone, anywhere, smoking. I hate it when it comes into my car.
I hate it when people talk/eat with their mouth open.
I hate it when I am told to smile. This is nearly every time I go shopping. First of all it is just the shape of my mouth.
And then it is my poor hearing. When I am concentrating it is especially annoying.
I choose my seat according to my hearing problem. If I do end up at the end of a long table I just smile and nod.
I am good at lip reading but actually am not able to be part of the group. But my problem and, most of the time,
I am happy the others are having a good time.
People who past gas and act as if no one will notice. #-o #-o
Please! Just say “pardon me” so that I can hold my breathe.
Do your friends know you have hearing issues? Several of my friends even remember my better ear and make sure they are on that side. I don’t think anyone would mind if you situated yourself so you could hear better.
One major pet peeve is when I send an email to someone, and they reply and add some third (or fourth or fifth) party. If I had wanted someone else involved in the conversation, I’d have included them in the first place. This used to drive me crazy at work, and wasn’t a major problem once I retired, but now I’m on a couple of volunteer groups and it’s started up again. People do this for a variety of reasons, none of which are compelling.
DH and I have a some joint pet peeves that have already been mentioned. That fact we thank people who are just doing their job, and their response is “No problem,” is one of them. Someone should revive “You’re welcome.” The other is people who interrupt to one-up you as you relate some issue or problem you’re dealing with. When these things happen, DH and I give each other a look and, if it can be done discreetly, an eye roll.
When people who smoke 1-2 packs per day complain to me about the expense of their inhalers. 
@Midwest67 said:
After my boyfriend of 6 years was killed at the end of my junior year in college, I was walking through campus, and a man said to me “Smile! It can’t be that bad!” If I’d had any energy at all, I would have gone off on him. The audacity!
@Midwest67 … Yes yes and yes! I used to work in cardiac rehab monitoring about 8-10 different cardiac patients, some with complex arrhythmias and congestive heart failure and fresh off an MI or CABG. All the little old men on the “graduated” side of the program would come up to me and say “smile.”
One time, at 8 months pregnant I could take it no longer and actually said to one of them “if this was your heart I was watching on the monitor would you want me standing here grinning like a fool just to keep people happy while ignoring your EKG ??”
He backed down a little bit.
Nrdsb, horrible! And so sad.
I am aware of the restaurant seating issue, but more intrinsically. My impression is that few people care, and I let them choose first. Then I’ll go for the seat with the view, if free. Otherwise, the company is the point.
carachel, try working in a hospital with folks who can’t afford their meds, yet have Iphones and smoke.
Hospital patients who interrupt my time assessing and having needed conversations, by initiating cell phone calls, or taking unneeded cell phone calls.
Having to talk over blaring TVs or sports on the radio, whether in a restaurant or someone’s home.
Chewing used to aggravate. Now, eating most meals alone, the company is welcome, and I find myself putting up with what previously bothered. But there is something about parental aggravation. I visit my precious elderly mom, and her chewing still is like nails on blackboard.
@“great lakes mom” … Oh yeah. I have 20 years of ER/ICU/cardiac rehab experience in a major metro area so I have put in my time with that for sure and still do but just as an NP.
So when you go out with two other couples how do you choose seats? Who usually ends up sitting next to you?
Just for you, @oregon101 . This would be a lot more like my family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXfpOHxEH0Q
I thought of another one; I almost never use the word “absolutely.” It is used mainly as an enthusiastic “yes”, but mostly seems disingenuous. The world really needs more poetry and less cliche.
EEEWWWWW magnetron!! I happen to have an upset stomach at the moment and did NOT need to see that!!!
Another pet peeve… I usually fly United or American for work travel (not by choice though). The boarding process for these airlines is horrendous… One big disorganized mess; just a bunch of people congregating at the gate, starring awkwardly at the gate attendants. I can’t stand it.
I much prefer Southwest’s boarding process of having people line up by group letter.
This introduces another pet peeve: Strangers who accuse you of doing something wrong that you didn’t do, and then refuse to hear why they’re mistaken.
W and I were getting in line for a Southwest flight, so we stepped into group A20 or whatever. An older gentlemen behind us grumbled to his wife, “Can you believe they’re cutting in line like that!” Obviously a first-time SWA flyer who didn’t know how the boarding worked.
So I turned to him to show him my boarding pass and explain how the process works, but he immediately turned his back on me and ignored me!
I guess I’m going to have to rethink my response of “no problem”. Didn’t know anybody objected. To me it sounds nicer than “You’re welcome”.
In some languages, the normal response kind of does translate into “no problem.” It doesn’t really bother me, but I will admit that “you’re welcome” is a little more positive in tone.
“No problem” seems like a perfectly acceptable alternative to “you’re welcome” under modern American idiom, and consistent with the response to “thank you” in other languages. Maybe the problem to the posters is that they are expecting a reciprocal “thank you”?
Patron: “Thank you.”
Clerk: “No, thank YOU.”
Otherwise, I can’t see why “no problem” is a problem.