I’ve done the hand thing, but only when the seat has been reclined. There’s no other way to get out!
The other annoying thing on a plane are the people who walk down the aisle with their backpacks still on their back., and then may turn to the right or left (maybe looking for seat numbers or an open overhead compartment) or sometimes they just dont realize their backpacks are right at head/face height of the people already seated in aisle seats. I’ve gotten smacked by someone’s backpack more times than I’d like to remember. Ditto for when people cue up closely when they have backpacks on (like when waiting to be called for boarding) and dont realize that their backpacks are right at face level of the short person behind them!! I usually try to stay far enough back when there is someone with a backpack in front of me, but am not always successful in avoiding getting smacked with one.
My biggest pet peeve is people who can push a shopping cart all around the grocery store, but are too stinkin’ lazy to walk an empty cart 15-20 feet to the cart corral. My head nearly exploded when recently grocery shopping for my parents in another city. I had just parked, and was preparing to get out of my car when two women pushed a cart full of groceries between my side of the car and their car. I waited patiently while they loaded the groceries into their car, so imagine my surprise when they left the cart right there!!! I knocked on my window and yelled that I couldn’t believe they were so lazy. I didn’t have time to get my window down because I’d already removed my keys from the ignition. They ignored me and went their lazy way. I had to move from that parking spot just so I could get out of the car without banging my door on the cart they left.
Another pet peeve is when people cough and sneeze without covering their mouth and nose! As a school nurse, I educate students daily in coughing and sneezing into the bend of their elbow to prevent the spread of germs, but I’m shocked at the number of adults I see who make no effort at all to cover.
Oh, here’s another. Hand washing or the lack thereof. My hands are dry and chapped from frequent hand washing, and I encourage and instruct students in that numerous times per day. When students exit the clinic restroom, and I haven’t heard the toilet flush or the faucet turned on for hand washing, I turn them back around and we go in the restroom (door fully opened), and together we wash our hands. I’m so disgusted when children tell me they don’t do that at home.
(these aren’t to or about anyone on here, of course, or not that I know of anyway. If you do happen to fit any of my peeve descriptions, I’m sure you have many other qualities i do or would admire. 
- Ineffective or invalid taxes: Some taxation is necessary, but I wonder if (for instance) I'll ever see all the SS and Medicare money that's ripped from my pay check. I'm almost certain that I'd do a much better job of investing it than the feds have done/do/will do, and frankly I'm not at all convinced that they will leave that money there even if they do (miracle of miracles) manage to outpace inflation over the next 25 years. I wish there were a way to pay it off and then scrap it, or make it optional: maybe one day, newly minted 18-year-olds will get to choose whether to join. Just that much would increase our economic liberty -- or that of taxpayers, anyway -- by, what, 6-7%? (SS & Medicare combined).
It isn’t really life-or-death, of course, but it’s frustrating to know that the gov’t thinks they’re doing you a favor when you know that they most likely are not. It isn’t the 1930s anymore.
(now for the lighter topics. lol. or are they?!)
- City traffic: slow people on a green light when many other cars sit behind them. The longer you wait or the slower you are in city traffic, the more people will get stuck at the next light behind you. Ben F said that time is money, darn it, and some of us have places to be, pronto .. or would simply like to spend more time doing what we enjoy doing and less time driving. Tailgating isn't nice, but if you are being tailgated, take a moment to consider why that might be, especially if you are in the left lane. (tailgating in the right lane -- no excuse: it's not the fast lane here in the US)
- Highway traffic: Left lane hogs. If you are in the leftmost lane and there's nobody in front of you and a bunch of cars lined up behind you -- or even, really, just one -- it means you are impeding traffic and should move over at your earliest (safe) convenience. It is neither your duty nor your right to be a traffic cop unless you actually are one. If cops really cared about the speed limit, you wouldn't have to go at least 10 over (except in school zones or 25 mph zones in town...) to get a ticket -- I test this constantly. Slow left-lane drivers = unnecessary congestion = road rage = risky right-lane passing = increased danger. That's why almost every (or every?) state has either "Keep Right Except to Pass" or "Slower Traffic Keep Right" signs up all over the highways.
- Semis running side-by-side when there are just the two lanes on the freeway (going that direction). The one in the right lane is doing about 59. The one in the left lane, who cut off probably about 10 cars initially to make his pass, is "passing" the right-lane semi at about 59.2 mph. It will take that semi at least five minutes to make the pass, and by the time he finally gets back into the right lane, there'll be about 30 cars lined up in the left lane, half of whose drivers have smoke coming out of their ears. And if we all hit a hill, he might never complete the pass. It's a rolling roadblock when they pass that slowly.
(enough about my misanthropic driving…)
- Cottage cheese in lasagna. (Ricotta!)
- Steaks cooked past medium (I prefer medium-rare, but medium can be ok too and safe-but-rare can be a delight...). If I want a piece of leather, I'll eat my shoe. And no, that juice in a nice juicy steak is not blood.
- Incessant coughing in public or (especially) in the work place. I know some folks have a chronic cough and can't help it. But if your job gives you sick days and you have some left and you come into work hacking up a lung with the latest version of SARS, I am not going to be terribly happy about it. First, you are threatening the health of your co-workers. Second, you are a loud distraction, making it hard(er) to concentrate.
- Those who don't cover their cough. You might think it's just allergies, but even if it is, you're still spraying your gunk everywhere. And if you are sick, thanks a lot.
- People who don't wash their hands after #1/#2. That old "Why do i need to wash my hands? I didn't pee on them..." line is not what it's about. This is what it's about: I don't want to touch your private parts every time I open the same door you open, put my hand on the same table, type on the same keyboard or use the same mouse. That's what it's about: you putting your crotch-hands in the same places I have to put my clean ones.
- Talking above a whisper in a movie theater: I came here to watch and hear the movie, not to be distracted by your chit-chat. This especially pisses me off when it's during a quiet or an especially tense or moving scene. I can't concentrate/hear/feel what's going on with you providing conversation-level commentary. Please rent DVDs instead of ruining the theater experience for others. And loud kids in the theater. And coughers. etc.
That’s enough, I suppose.
have a lovely evening, wonderful people!
I think this is specific to my area.
People who grocery shop in groups, and then they stop and gab with another group of grocery shoppers while being oblivious that other people are there to (crazy I know!) grocery shop.
I’ve never had this happen other places I live, but people will park their grocery cart and shop the aisle on the other side of the aisle, blocking the entire aisle. And oblivious that other people might want to get down that aisle.
Now that I live in a small town, I’ve learned to never be in a hurry. People make small talk everywhere, it’s very odd to have a conversation at the gas station with the clerk and another customer about everyone’s favorite wine. (The clerk liked sweet wine, the customer not so much, everyone liked white more than red).
I wonder if this is a regional thing-one of the biggest things that throws my MA friends and relatives for a loop is that I talk to the checkout lady at the grocery store, and she talks to me. The MA peeps are just flabbergasted by this. I’ve lived down here so long that I don’t remember NOT talking to people who are providing a service for you, but they say it’s just not done beyond “yes”, “no” and the occasional “thanks”.
I’m passive aggressive enough that if the person behind me in line starts sighing irritably because I’m talking to the checkout lady, I’ll keep the conversation going. >:) Slow down, enjoy the connections you make with people. It’s not like that extra minute of conversation is going to kill your rigorous schedule.
@prezbucky Yes on the movie theater talking! Nobody knows how to be quiet anymore! Everyone seems to think they’re in the comfort of their own living rooms. It drives me nuts. Once, when my child was a preschooler, we were in a Pixar movie and the dad behind us was making phone calls! When my husband asked him to stop, he actually said, “What’s the problem, you’re afraid of missing a key plot point?” I mean, not only was he inconsiderate of strangers, but his little boy was right there next to him, how about participating in the experience with your son???
Of course there was one time the behavior of a loud theater-goer was totally worth it for the laugh, because the movie was Titanic in 1996. She actually said to her friend, “Oh my god, I think the ship is going to sink!” True story! :))
Since this is the Internet, this is tongue in cheek.
I always thought I was a thrifty person. Now due to that irritating thread, I’ve found out that I’m a terrible spendthrift :((
The other VERY annoying thing in movie theaters is people looking at their phones. Hey people- the theater is banked, so the people in the rows above you are all being disturbed by the glow of your (&)(W%_W#%& phone screen. If whatever it is is so important to check, step out of the theater.
I see many people share my pet peeves. Probably my biggest if the people who don’t return their shopping carts to the corral. I have been known to shame people when caught in the act…sometimes with just a look and a condescending head shake that has led them to return the cart
I also have a problem with parents of young children who let them walk all over them / refuse to set limits. I see this a lot when I work in the summer. I admire the seemingly few parents who have a grasp on parenting and enforcing rules, respect and limits.
Someone upthread mentioned children too big to be in strollers. This one really grates on my nerves. Let the child walk and perhaps get some physical activity. I understand that little one’s legs get tired , but sometimes I see 5-7 year olds in strollers
Anyone who has a list more than five or six long needs a vacation!
When I first moved here I thought I must look like someone else in town because so many people were saying hello to me. No, people literally just greet each other, even random strangers. Now I know the post office lady, the clerk at the grocery store, the people at the bank, the woman who owns the dry cleaner, the cashier at Panera’s, and I know many people in the establishments. It’s just a small area where I live and we all interact everyday. Why not be friendly? And trust me, act like an a$$hole and the whole area will know. Sometimes it’s just how are you doing, sometimes it’s a few minutes gabbing.
People who pick up an item in a grocery store and then change their mind and leave it somewhere else. It always seems to be a dairy or freezer item. It isn’t that hard to hand it to a clerk if you are too lazy to walk back to where you got it. I had to tell a cashier the other day that someone had left ice cream on a shelf in the detergent aisle.
If you think the gov’t is “investing” your SS taxes on your behalf, like you have some sort of gov’t 401k account or something, you need to investigate how SS really works.
Then you’ll really be irritated. >:)
Speaking about parking lots, I get irritated with the people who drive the wrong way up the one-way row of angled parking spaces at the supermarket. Then they back into the space and when they pull out, they’re headed the wrong way again. Honestly, didn’t the huge white arrow in the center of the row give them a clue that the lane is one way?
No wonder there is a childhood obesity epidemic. To go along with the stroller overusage, look at all the people who have to pack snacks and drinks for kids (and sometimes themselves!). Really? Does everyone need to eat every 1-2 hours? The food/drink is often being used a pacifier for the child.
Confinement in stroller + unnecessary food and drink = obesity
I see it all the time.
My niece puts her almost 4 year old daughter in the stroller to take her from the car in to the local Y for her pre school soccer class! The little one is going to run around for an hour, yet can’t walk from the car to the gym??
Speaking of strollers, my personal beef is strollers in restaurants. There are very few restaurants that have the floor space to have strollers at the table. The wait staff has enough trouble carrying trays of hot food through the restaurant. One time, we were practically trapped at our table because the adjacent table had blocked the access away from our table with their SUV stroller. If you’re bringing a baby, can’t you just bring in the car seat? If its an older child, can’t they sit in the high chair? If the child needs to sleep in the stroller, maybe its not the time to be in a restaurant.
There are very few sounds as therapeutic and calming as the sound of rolling waves at the beach.
There are very few sounds as irritating as someone else’s radio blaring music at the same beach.
On my last flight, the guy behind me was in the seat pocket every two minutes for a two hour flight.
“There are very few sounds as irritating as someone else’s radio blaring music at the same beach.”
Yes!!! That takes top spot. Just below that - barking dogs and buzzing drones.