You know what grinds my gears?????

OK, I realize that at 31 I should not be so cynical and jaded about people and stuff.....but lately I've turned into a cranky old women. So, for your reading pleasure, here are a list of things that grind my gears.

1. Employees of stores who stand right outside to doors to light up on their smoke breaks... ensuring that my children and I get plently of second hand smoke immediately upon leaving the store. Never mind their sectioned off/benched area to the side. Apparently those 20 steps are too far away. Or there are the employees in stores who stand in a group chatting, forcing customers to go over and interrupt their conversation in order to get service. ( I have been known to go up and ask fully uniformed employees 'Excuse me are you working today')

2. Impatient people who press the crosswalk button overandoverandoverandover while waiting for the light to change. News flash moron! All you need to do is press it once and the funky computermathingamajig tells the light to switch to "crossing" when the light changes. It doesn't speed it up with each and every press and BEEEEEEP of the button.

3. The self centered little teenagers at the local high school who don't give a flying fig that anyone else is on the sidewalks, at the next table in a restaurant, standing in line at the movie theatre next to them or anywhere else. They proceed to fling swear words at an alarming rate, yet unsurprisingly bland usage in their regular banter (methinks they could use a thesaurus... not that they'd know what to do with one). I can't believe that in my 30's I'm even going to type this... but in my day, as much of a snot nosed brat that I was, I was still respectful of my language around others.

4. The amount of clueless adults, never mind teens, who don't give a darn about our city anymore! Every day I see people tossing gargage (sometimes full drinks) into the greenery at the train station, in the park, outside the stores and restaurants. There is a garbage can not 5 feet away, yet it's so much cooler to just toss your crap on the ground!! Then there are the a-holes who think that our city is their own personal urinal.

5. The lack of basic manners that people do not have. NO please, thank you, excuse me, pardon me, etc. Spitting on the ground. Gross. Or even worse blowing snot out of your nose onto the sidewalk. Ick. General disrespect for public property. I was sitting in front of the Wal-Mart at Christmas and these three kids about 13 or 14 tipped the outside garbage can over right in front of the store. I turned to my kids and told them if I ever saw them doing something like that I would kick their asses. But the good boys that they are they got out of the van and put it right side and picked up the garbage.

6. Kids/teens that just mosey across the streets when and where they please. Yeah, don't use the cross walk kid.....like you're too important to obey the law. And God forbid you should honk at them to get their attention. If you do that....well....refer to #3 on my list here.

7. Parents who loudly scream at, threaten, demean, discipline or in any other way degrade their children in public. It makes me so sad for those little babies. if this is how the parents act in public, I can only imagine what goes on behind closed doors.

8. People who are in front of you in the grocery line, and decide to continue shopping after they have all there stuff on the belt. I mean I understand when you forget on thing, and you run back real fast to go get it, but don't put all your stuff on the belt, then walk off, be gone for another 5-10 minutes while you go back and fill another shopping cart. If you need that much stuff, get the heck out of the line, and finish your shoppong instead of holding up the line..and then not even apologize to the people in the line or the cashier, who by the way was recieving death glares because it's not like she could help someone else..because ALL YOUR STUFF WAS ON THE BELT, AND NO ONE ELSE CAN PUT THEIR STUFF UP THERE!!!

OK, I think you get the point, and I am sure that I could have an entire month worth of blogs dedicated to this, but here's my bottom line: Respect others and the world around you. Realize that we are all human beings and we are all the same. Everyone is entitled to love and be loved. So, if you want to be treated well, offer everyone else that same courtesy. (I will now get off my soapbox)