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

[Piratelvr1121]

I stopped at the local brewery last night to pick up a Christmas gift for DH, and had a pint while I was there. I ran into a casual friend and chatted with her a bit. At one point, she mentioned that she thought it was great that my husband let me have so much "me" time (sometimes I'll see a movie if it starts right after work, or, like last night, spend an hour or so doing something by myself. It's not usually stuff that takes a huge amount of time, or inconveniences DH much.) This isn't the first time I've had someone comment to me on "me" time--among others, my mother commented a couple months ago that it was nice that my DH "let me out of the house" to do stuff by myself.

I sort of get what they're saying...but the way they phrase it just gets on my nerves. He gets to do stuff on his own, too...

I get that too. On more than one occasion I've taken a trip to see a good friend and as my two closest friends live in different regions of the country from myself, it requires being away from home for at least a few days to get a decent visit with them.  (One's in California, the other in Iowa).

People have said "Your husband lets you do that?" Well, yeah.  Typically I say lightly "Well yeah, he knows the best way to have a sane and happy wife and mother of his children is to make sure she gets time to herself!"  Especially when said wife and mother needs some girl time and has very little of it at home.

[cabbagegirl28]

Heck, I wouldn't appreciate comments like that if someone asked, "Do your parents let you..." I mean, I am a grown woman attending grad school. I don't have any kind of history of being irresponsible, so my parents trust me.

It used to drive me up the wall when kids would be like, "You should sneak out of the house and come party with us" in high school. One, I knew they were lying to me about the parties, because I wasn't popular at all. Two, my house creaks so much that my parents would know if I went to the bathroom vs. going downstairs. violinp and I got the last laugh on that one though, because those kids are still on a short leash, and our parents are a lot more free with us now.

[mmswm]

I've had this issue from a slightly different perspective.  As I've mentioned before, I moved back in with my parents after a massive medical/financial crisis.  I'm mostly back on my feet, but not quite financially secure enough to move back out.  Now, in moving back in with my parents, I also moved closer to most of my friends, which means I have the potential for a social life.  Every so often I go hang out with my friends. Because of my finances, I tend to be the one drinking water, since that's free, unless somebody buys me food/drinks.  That does happen.  Since I'm not a heavy drinker, my friends will often treat me to one or two drinks.  Also, my kids are old enough for me to leave them in the care of my oldest, and I rarely leave before the little ones go to bed, so I'm not imposing on my parents for child care. I have also occasionally taken off for the weekend.  Again, my friends know my finances and have split the cost of gas with me, and I left my kids with a friend so my parents wouldn't have to care for them.

Anyway, my parents are trying to "forbid" me to go out. Uh-huh.  I'm a 38 year old woman and I make sure that they don't have to worry about child care.  I'm not spending money I don't have.  I spend my days doing productive stuff. I'm not partying till all hours of the night and sleeping until noon (7 is the latest I get up). While I don't pay rent, I *do* do all the housework and cooking.  This is a huge house, and it's a lot of work, but it's fair, considering.  The worst I've ever done in failing to do housework is not realize that the kids' bathroom was out of clean towels because I only go in there a couple times a week to clean it, and I didn't realize they'd used so many of the bathroom towels for the pool. 

I'm not sure what they're expecting me to do.  It's driving me batty.

[CrochetFanatic]

It seems like every time I'm in the car and I really have to go to the bathroom, I get stuck behind someone doing 5 or 10 UNDER the speed limit.  Sometimes it's just for a little bit, sometimes it's for the rest of the drive to wherever it is I'm going.  If the speed limit is 40, why would you go 30?  Whyyyy? 

[exitzero]

It seems like every time I'm in the car and I really have to go to the bathroom, I get stuck behind someone doing 5 or 10 UNDER the speed limit.  Sometimes it's just for a little bit, sometimes it's for the rest of the drive to wherever it is I'm going.  If the speed limit is 40, why would you go 30?  Whyyyy? 

For the same reason that more I have to pee, the less able my boyfriend is to make a quick decision.
Last night he picked me up from the train station and just COULDN'T decide if he was going to come with me or take the train downtown.

I finally got in the car and told him the car and I were leaving in 10 seconds, with or without him in it. He came along.

[Adelaide]

One of my work acquaintances is a serial apologizer and nothing anyone says helps. For instance, she'll show up 30 minutes late to a meeting (of which her absence is glaringly obvious, as there tend to be 4-5 members at these to begin with) and say "CRUD MONKEYS! I am SO sorry, I totally forgot" and then go on and on and ON about how she is "such a spazz" and how it'll "never happen again" and such. I hate that sort of behavior. No one thinks it's cute or feels sorry for you, we're all adults.

[siamesecat2965]

One of my work acquaintances is a serial apologizer and nothing anyone says helps. For instance, she'll show up 30 minutes late to a meeting (of which her absence is glaringly obvious, as there tend to be 4-5 members at these to begin with) and say "CRUD MONKEYS! I am SO sorry, I totally forgot" and then go on and on and ON about how she is "such a spazz" and how it'll "never happen again" and such. I hate that sort of behavior. No one thinks it's cute or feels sorry for you, we're all adults.

I work with some of those too. All that's needed is a quick apology, and then MOVE ON. We are all adults, and if you mess up, so be it. We all do, but no need to beat a dead horse (as my dad used to say)

[Dr. F.]

One of my work acquaintances is a serial apologizer and nothing anyone says helps. For instance, she'll show up 30 minutes late to a meeting (of which her absence is glaringly obvious, as there tend to be 4-5 members at these to begin with) and say "CRUD MONKEYS! I am SO sorry, I totally forgot" and then go on and on and ON about how she is "such a spazz" and how it'll "never happen again" and such. I hate that sort of behavior. No one thinks it's cute or feels sorry for you, we're all adults.

If not for the pronoun, I'd've thought you were working with a former coworker of mine. It used to drive me INSANE. He would pop his head into my office and start any question with, "I'm soooo sorry to bother you! I know how much you hate being distracted when you're trying to focus....etc. etc. etc." for about 5 minutes before asking me a simple yes/no question that could have been asked and answered in under a minute. He was also a champion of the, "Oh, I suck! I'm a horrible person! etc." and then just stare at you, grinning nervously, until you say, "Oh, no, CW, you're a great guy!"  ARGGGHHHH

[Hillia]

One of my work acquaintances is a serial apologizer and nothing anyone says helps. For instance, she'll show up 30 minutes late to a meeting (of which her absence is glaringly obvious, as there tend to be 4-5 members at these to begin with) and say "CRUD MONKEYS! I am SO sorry, I totally forgot" and then go on and on and ON about how she is "such a spazz" and how it'll "never happen again" and such. I hate that sort of behavior. No one thinks it's cute or feels sorry for you, we're all adults.

If not for the pronoun, I'd've thought you were working with a former coworker of mine. It used to drive me INSANE. He would pop his head into my office and start any question with, "I'm soooo sorry to bother you! I know how much you hate being distracted when you're trying to focus....etc. etc. etc." for about 5 minutes before asking me a simple yes/no question that could have been asked and answered in under a minute. He was also a champion of the, "Oh, I suck! I'm a horrible person! etc." and then just stare at you, grinning nervously, until you say, "Oh, no, CW, you're a great guy!"  ARGGGHHHH

My DH, bless his heart, is awful about this.  He'll watch me run around the house for an hour, doing whatever chores I have on for the day, and when I'm just about done will say wistfully, "I'm such a lazy bum".  Well, actually, you certainly are behaving like one right now.  But he's really angling for me to say, "Oh no, honey, you work so hard all week, you just sit there and rest while I handle everything.  Really, I don't mind, I enjoy it".  It's bad enough that you're leaving all this to me, don't expect me to make it all right and alleviate your guilt also.

[fountainof]

I work with a woman who is also always late and people are annoyed by it.  She even brought up it at a meeting how it is funny that she is always late because only works 2 minutes from the office but I guess since management kind of ignores it, it isn't my problem.  But it does annoy me she thinks it is a cute quirk about herself.  For the record she never stays late though, 4:30 on the nose she is out of here.

[nuit93]

I work with a woman who is also always late and people are annoyed by it.  She even brought up it at a meeting how it is funny that she is always late because only works 2 minutes from the office but I guess since management kind of ignores it, it isn't my problem.  But it does annoy me she thinks it is a cute quirk about herself.  For the record she never stays late though, 4:30 on the nose she is out of here.

I'd say that was me  but I stay late as often as is needed, or work through lunch if it's really bad.

[Venus193]

I work with a woman who is also always late and people are annoyed by it.  She even brought up it at a meeting how it is funny that she is always late because only works 2 minutes from the office but I guess since management kind of ignores it, it isn't my problem. But it does annoy me she thinks it is a cute quirk about herself. For the record she never stays late though, 4:30 on the nose she is out of here.

I once had a co-worker like this.  Lived three blocks away from the office, didn't take her proper turn relieving the receptionist for lunch, argued with her mother at top volume over the phone (with serious TMI).  What finally got her terminated was her cocaine habit.  Good riddance.

[diesel_darlin]

I have a former coworker that keeps coming back into the store trying to get her job back. She quit with no notice or anything. No one heard a peep from her for weeks until a few days ago. She came in today whining about how poor she was and asked for a drink for free and a discount on cigarettes. 

[Cherry91]

When you're on a train, and you know you're going to have to take another train afterwards to get to your final destination, but then the first train passes through your final destination without stopping! It just feels like the train is taunting me. I want to grab my bag and yell "Open the doors, I'll tuck and roll!"

[Betelnut]

Those chronically late people need to start using Outlook calendar for meeting reminders (or some other system).  That is just so unprofessional!