What little things drive you completely up the wall....?

[Adelaide]

It seems like there are a lot of products coming out geared towards women that are pink or some other "womenly" color.  Bic Pens for Her, Honda is creating (or already created it) a car just for women in either pink or brown.  And I saw on Ellen that apparently someone put out a laptop for women, the "floral kiss" either in...wait for it...pink, or "elegant white" and Ellen joked that it comes loaded with scrapbooking software and a horoscope.

Oh...wait, it's actually true.  http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2012/20121019-03.html

Seriously? We women don't need a laptop made just for us, nor pens, nor a car.  Okay yeah the scrapbooking program would be nice but why do they need to make a special computer for it?  And really? Horoscope? Like all women are so into their horoscopes?   

I swear it seems so demeaning.

Not to mention the pink guns and the pink mace and pink MMA gloves. When all of that stuff hits you it's going to hurt just as much, and you're not attracting a whole new demographic by making it pink.

[Desdemona]

Legal internship job postings.

I am trying to find a summer internship but almost every position I apply for gets a response saying they have filled all their openings. Then why didn't they take the job posting down? It is so frustrating to put together my application materials just to be told it was a waste of time.

[CrochetFanatic]

My own clumsiness and simple bad luck.  That drives me up the wall.  I was buying pomegranates today so that I could juice them and freeze the juice for holiday punch; the fruit isn't cheap, but it's cheaper to juice them yourself than it is to actually buy the juice in bottles, and it's also kind of fun.  When I was putting them in one of those flimsy fruit/vegetable bags, I misjudged how much the bag could hold, and the bag ended up ripping and spilling the fruits to the concrete floor.  No big deal, but one of them split and spilled juice everywhere.

On the flip side, I think an employee was pleasantly surprised when I asked for a paper towel so that I could clean up my mess.  His face fell when I began to explain, and I think he thought I was going to tell him there was a mess for him to clean before going on my merry way.  Seems I can't go a day without dropping something, though.

[Doll Fiend]

Sounds odd, but people's belief in my abilities.

Picking up an old craft and reacquainting my self with it. Told a few people and now they are asking, requesting, and even demanding I make them things.  I explain that I haven't done it in almost a decade and need to almost relearn it. I keep getting told that I am talented and amazing and I can make them X or Y by this Christmas.

I am good at some things, but not that good people!

ETA: Craft is Needle Tatting.

[nuit93]

My own clumsiness and simple bad luck.  That drives me up the wall.  I was buying pomegranates today so that I could juice them and freeze the juice for holiday punch; the fruit isn't cheap, but it's cheaper to juice them yourself than it is to actually buy the juice in bottles, and it's also kind of fun.  When I was putting them in one of those flimsy fruit/vegetable bags, I misjudged how much the bag could hold, and the bag ended up ripping and spilling the fruits to the concrete floor.  No big deal, but one of them split and spilled juice everywhere.

On the flip side, I think an employee was pleasantly surprised when I asked for a paper towel so that I could clean up my mess.  His face fell when I began to explain, and I think he thought I was going to tell him there was a mess for him to clean before going on my merry way.  Seems I can't go a day without dropping something, though.

Yikes!  Pomegranates are yummy but they stain something fierce.

[snowflake]

Sounds odd, but people's belief in my abilities.

Picking up an old craft and reacquainting my self with it. Told a few people and now they are asking, requesting, and even demanding I make them things.  I explain that I haven't done it in almost a decade and need to almost relearn it. I keep getting told that I am talented and amazing and I can make them X or Y by this Christmas.

I am good at some things, but not that good people!

ETA: Craft is Needle Tatting.

Just to add, people who know I can craft and try to insist on "hiring" me.  "Can you knit socks for all my kids for Christmas?  I'll pay you."

Yes I can knit socks.  BUT I don't have a whole lot of time to knit and generally I have more projects planned than time so if I'm knitting, it's stuff for my kids.  People don't seem to get that payment is not an inducement for me to knit more.  If I knit more, I either have to 1) Neglect my house which is neglected enough.  2) Neglect my kids.  Um, no.  3) Neglect my job which would be OK except there is no way they are paying me enough to do that. 

The reason why they aren't buying homemade stuff on etsy or ebay is because it's too expensive.  So the expectation is that I'll do it for what turns out to be less than minimum wage.  STILL, they seem to be surprised that I don't knit for money.  (But I'll do it as a favor sometimes.  Like when my friend found out that her future grandson was likely going to live one or two days I crocheted a blanket for his only pictures.)

[siamesecat2965]

Why, when my company sends hundreds of overnight packages, and one of the FEW times we have one that's super important, the flights out of the courier's hub are delayed, and it won't arrive on time. UGH. thankfully i had all my ducks in a row before telling my one boss, and she was ok with it. its the higher ups who will have a coniption about WHY and HOW this happened.

[Piratelvr1121]

That christening outfits are so pricey. Yeah yeah, I know, they're like wedding gowns in their heirloom potential but man, they're pricey...or I'm just cheap. LOL  The least expensive ones I've found for toddler boys is around $38 or so.  (The babe will be about 18 months when he's baptized)

Really? For an outfit he's going to wear one day for about an hour?    I've mentioned getting something for Piratebabe to wear for his baptism and both DH and MIL have kind of turned up their noses at the thought of children wearing fancy get ups for their christening/baptism, and the thought of there being more focus on the frippery than the meaning of the event.*   And DH said "We didn't dress the boys up in anything fancy." Well true, but as I pointed out to him, they were older, I think about 4 and 3 1/2 at the time.  Not to mention, while they didn't wear the little white outfits, I did put them in something nice and made sure they looked especially cute.

*which I took some offense to, cause it's an important day and even if a person's not wearing something super fancy, they should at least look nice. I can't imagine anyone telling a bride that it's wrong to wear a fancy dress because if she is it means she's not focusing on the meaning of the event.  Dressing our child in something special doesn't mean I'm not mindful of the meaning of the ritual.

I'd make one but after looking at a pattern for a christening outfit in the Simplicity catalog I gave a little gasp and thought "Sheesh, I'm not anywhere near talented enough!" My best friend made a christening dress for her niece from her sister's wedding gown which is a cool idea, but again, I'm not quite talented enough for that. LOL

[Outdoor Girl]

Piratelvr, if I might make a suggestion?  Hit a high end thrift store or a quality second hand kids clothes place and see if you can get him a white dress shirt and black/navy/brown/grey dress pants.  If you have any more events in the next little while that will require 'good clothes', you'll have an outfit ready to go, maybe changing it up with a different little vest.  This way, you get to dress him up without going whole hog.

Honestly, I would find it a little strange to have the full out Christening gown get up on a toddler.

[Piratelvr1121]

I probably will do that, honestly.  I really don't want to drop $40 on an outfit that he's only going to wear once and truly, he'll be 18 months old, will be running around and those all white outfits are not going to be all white by the time we get him to church.

What annoyed me was DHs attitude that he doesn't need to be dressed up at all.  I said "Well maybe I'll just get a dressy outfit from Target or something and he said "Why do you have to dress him up at all? It's not about the clothes!"

[Outdoor Girl]

What annoyed me was DHs attitude that he doesn't need to be dressed up at all.  I said "Well maybe I'll just get a dressy outfit from Target or something and he said "Why do you have to dress him up at all? It's not about the clothes!"

I'd be annoyed, too.  Sure, it isn't about the clothes but it is a special occasion!  I don't want to look at pictures later and see him wearing jeans and a stained T-shirt.  Men!      

[Doll Fiend]

Sounds odd, but people's belief in my abilities.

Picking up an old craft and reacquainting my self with it. Told a few people and now they are asking, requesting, and even demanding I make them things.  I explain that I haven't done it in almost a decade and need to almost relearn it. I keep getting told that I am talented and amazing and I can make them X or Y by this Christmas.

I am good at some things, but not that good people!

ETA: Craft is Needle Tatting.

Just to add, people who know I can craft and try to insist on "hiring" me.  "Can you knit socks for all my kids for Christmas?  I'll pay you."

Yes I can knit socks.  BUT I don't have a whole lot of time to knit and generally I have more projects planned than time so if I'm knitting, it's stuff for my kids.  People don't seem to get that payment is not an inducement for me to knit more.  If I knit more, I either have to 1) Neglect my house which is neglected enough.  2) Neglect my kids.  Um, no.  3) Neglect my job which would be OK except there is no way they are paying me enough to do that. 

The reason why they aren't buying homemade stuff on etsy or ebay is because it's too expensive.  So the expectation is that I'll do it for what turns out to be less than minimum wage.  STILL, they seem to be surprised that I don't knit for money.  (But I'll do it as a favor sometimes.  Like when my friend found out that her future grandson was likely going to live one or two days I crocheted a blanket for his only pictures.)

Exactly! I will do gifts that are my ideas and my inspiration. When I can plan and plot it out and not stress. I will even do special extreme things like your example. But I will not give into demands, especially for free or cheep. My Mom being the exception since she is flexible about what she wants. (Has the yarn, but she just can't make the pattern work. So I take over for her.)

[LB]

This conversation that I seem to have several times a day is driving me kinda nuts.

While answering phones at work:

Me: Good morning, [company name].
Caller: Is this [company name]?

[Luci45]

This conversation that I seem to have several times a day is driving me kinda nuts.

While answering phones at work:

Me: Good morning, [company name].
Caller: Is this [company name]?

Please be patient with them. I kind of understand, maybe.

For one thing, it is often a shock to get a human instead of a phone tree and just fumbling for words is messy so the caller says the first thing that comes to mind while thinking. Even our dentist in his own office with 2 office people and 2 hyginists and 1 assistant often has to put the phone on voice mail.

If your greeting were longer, for example, "Good morning.This is Company. LB speaking. How may I help you?" Some people get impatient with such a long intoduction, but it does give the the caller time to adjust and think. That is why you probably get so many people who say, "How are you?" They are just thinking, as well as maybe being indoctrinated into saying that first thing. (I usually go to, "Hi, this is Lucy 45." While thinking, even if I need to go to an extension and the operator has no reason to know who I am. Sigh.)

Also, if I am expecting one voice, I have trouble actually hearing and understanding another. Often, the receptioninst will be so used to saying the gretting, it is kind of mumbled and tossed off so it's not clear. (Not saying you do that. It's just another common thing.)

I am of good hearing and usually have what I am going to say prepared but really get rattled if thrown a curve.

[Venus193]

When people can't coordinate the cooking of items that need to be served at the same time.  Corollary:  When someone leaves a roast too long before carving and it ends up being cold.  I can't think of a polite way to raise this issue.