I'm feeling a little rant-y

CAM had a cough all last week that was making her crazy.  Poor kid, she had nothing else wrong, but this dry cough that popped up at the worst times and never seemed to get better or worse.

Saturday, when half of her class was here and coughing, we realized where it came from.

And, like clockwork, I came home from work yesterday (Monday) with a tickle in my throat and by 6:30 was feeling that whole "yep, I'm definitely coming down with something" funk.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a blogger who periodically does "50 things about me" posts.  For the life of me I can't remember where I found her, so I can't link here.

In that spirit, I was going to do something similar -- something like the list I did last year.

And then I realized that everything I was thinking of sharing with you was, in fact, stuff I'd already shared last year.

Well, today I feel like crud.  I have been working on the Maine bar exam application since 3:30 and I am still here at my computer at 8:49 and it's not done yet.  I have a mostly-done application and a wicked backache.

Those bar exam applications are nasty beasts, I will have you know.  Both Alabama and Maine are, apparently, among the pickier applications out there (I can't begin to imagine New York's).  If you don't already know, Mick and I have tended to move a fair amount in our marriage.  And we hit some tricky financial times in recent years -- a downward slide that's now only finally turning ever-so-slightly back up, but there was some hefty damage done along the way.

And guess what you have to do on the bar applications?  That's right: list EVERY SINGLE PLACE YOU HAVE EVER LIVED SINCE YOU WERE 18, with no breaks in time.  So my application looks like this:

home

dorm

home

new dorm

home

new dorm

new dorm

home

dorm

sublease

new apartment

new apartment

new apartment

new apartment

new apartment

built a new house

apartment

home

new state, with apartment

new place again

back to our home in Georgia

oops!  new home in Georgia

moved again

and back

and again

and back

and again

And back

And Maine

Seriously.  This is ridiculous.  And then, repeat with every single job I've ever had, going back to my very first job when I was 16 years old.  And then go ahead while you're on a roll and explain your credit report.

It's tedious and frustrating -- not because it's hard to do, necessarily (although remembering it all and looking up addresses and phone numbers and such is a challenge sometimes), but because it's so tedious.  Did I mention it is tedious?

So I'm sitting here, and I feel like I have daggers in the back of my throat. I'm tired, I'm grumpy from the bar application, and my back is killing me.  I think I'm going to do a new list. (It's either vent or kick an imaginary puppy somewhere, and I am definitely not interested animal cruelty tonight.) This one's about things I can't stand.  I'm not talking obvious, like people driving too slowly in the left lane, or moving, or bar exam applications.  I'm going to try to be a little creative here.

Without further ado, my mini-list of things that make me CRAZY: 

1. Those little yellow flowers that grow as weeds.  They shall remain nameless, I hate them so much ... but they start with a "d."

2. When people write "suppose to" instead of "supposed to."  We may not pronounce the "d," but let's at least act as though we're literate, folks.

3. Pouring out the last little bit of cheerios and getting all the dust in your milk and having gritty milk and cheerios for breakfast.

4.  Cold showers.  Did you know that if I am in a cold shower I will involuntarily cry?  That's not an emotional reaction, it's my body's reaction. If I am in the shower and the water gets cold, I start to cry.  Every time.

5.  The sound of whispering.  Either talk or don't talk, but don't whisper.  Whispering is like fingernails on a blackboard to me.  I lose my mind.  It literally gets into my bone marrow and makes me want to claw out my eyes.  If Mick is watching a hunting show and they start to whisper, he has to mute it.

6. The expression "at this point in time."  Um, I'm pretty sure you didn't mean "at this point in SPACE," so let's just stick to "right now." Or even "at this point."  But unless we're talking geometry and three dimensions, I think it's safe to leave off the "in time."

7.  I don't want to make this all grammar pet peeves, but I really hate when people say "anyways."

8.  Sweaters that pill after you wear them once.

9.  Skinny jeans on men, boys, and pretty much anyone else.

10. People with poor phone manners, especially if they are supposed to be helping a customer.  "yeah," "uh-huh," and "yep" have no place in that world.  Actually, that's true in person as well.  I can't stand it when I'm the customer and I say, "have a nice day," and the clerk says "yep."  It makes me want to spin on my heels and remind them that they were supposed to wish me the nice day!

11.  Pulling up to a drive-thru window to see that the server has their arm out the window, holding out my drink.  Can you give me a second to get there, please?

12.  Cashiers that don't tell me the total, but just expect me to look at the register and tender payment.  I'm kind-of a jerk about this; I just stand there and look and wait until they figure it out.

13.  Chalk on my fingers.  I hate the feeling of chalky fingers, and since I teach MATH in a school with chalkboards and not white boards, I get chalky fingers quite a bit.  I actually keep baby wipes in my room and use them constantly.  When I had an overhead projector in previous schools, I used to hate "overhead hand," too -- the marker all over my hand from writing on a transparency and inevitably leaning on ink.  I kept a scrubby sponge by my desk and used to scrub my hand after every class.  I suppose I just don't like dirty hands.

14. Sticky notes that don't stick, so you end up clipping them to whatever it was after all, but in the meantime they get dust all over their sticky part and you just end up frustrated with the mess on your hands, throwing them away, and using a new sticky.

Hmm.  I think making this list has made me a little less grumpy, believe it or not!  Thanks for reading along!  What unusual things make YOU crazy?

--Jen

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