Peeved Much?

Pet peeves. We all have them. And really, most of the things we don’t like are so minor, we have made them into precious little “pets”—dislikes that we secretly nurture because we’re convinced that nobody else has the same irking peeves. But, seeing as how I have a blog, I thought I’d list some of mine: Cold jam from the fridge that ruins the toasty warm goodness of my English muffin or toast. I can’t find a way around this, short of microwaving it and turning the jam to syrup or leaving it at room temperature and allowing mold to grow in the jar. The layer of water on the top of yogurt. (Shudder.) Setting something on what I think is a clean countertop, only to find coffee grounds sticking to the bottom of said object. Drives me batty. Water bottles that leak. That cold damp feeling around my neck when I pull on a sweater before my hair is dry. Wrappers in the car. The way commercials are so much louder than the TV show you’re watching, making you dig around for the remote to turn down or mute the volume (while feeding a baby or making dinner). Then you have to repeat the process when your show comes back on. The smell of baby formula. Must it smell so rancid? Tags. Tags on baby toys, tags on receiving blankets, tags on washcloths, tags, tags, tags. The way spit-up permanently lodges itself inside the crevices of the car seat buckles. The fact that Costco’s cart is too big for Charlotte’s grocery cart seat cover, enticing her to touch and suck every germ-infested inch of it. Rinsing the recyclables. Is wasting water to clean garbage really helping the environment? How slowly the new sliding doors at my office building open. I stand there like a dork for what feels like forever as they slooooowwwwly inch their way open. And I’ve had more than one near-miss where I almost ran smack through them. Narrow aisles in stores. Sprinklers that arch over sidewalks, forcing you to turn around with your stroller, get off the curb, go into the street to get around the water spray, and then hop back onto the sidewalk. It totally ruins the rhythm of the stroll. Talk radio. No matter what side you’re on, listening to people bitch about politics is torture. And why does it always seem so loud? So there you go. What peeves are your pets?