Today is a day for peeves, such as being peeved to have lost an hour yesterday, and why do we keep systems around lonnnnnng after they’ve stopped making sense? Every four years I hope it will become an election issue.
I’m going to start with the peeve that is least sympathetic. That is, I am about to complain about a practice that is meant to be NICE, and comes from a GOOD PLACE, and that I nevertheless find very, very irritating: it is the thing where no one can post a picture, even a selfie taken so high up and at such a strange angle that the lower half of the face is missing in an effort to hide the double chin and accentuate the cleavage, without EVERYONE IN THE WORLD commenting “GORGEOUS!!” “BEAUTIFUL!!” “HOTTTTIE!!”—and, worst of all: “Beautiful inside and out!” How oh how could I be complaining about such nice words. How. How?? Well, here we are. It is driving me crazy and it’s hard to put a finger on why, but it’s at least in part because when something is SO PREVALENT and SO PREDICTABLE and SO INEVITABLE, it LOSES something. And I think that’s especially true when someone is trying to avoid that problem by saying something that is supposed to be better, such as “Beautiful inside and out” or “We don’t care as long as it’s healthy,” and then everyone else leaps on that solution and says it like repeatedly pressing a button on an annoying electronic toy. And partly I think it’s that it feeds into this loop where people keep wanting more and more of it. Anyway. PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO BE NICE. They ARE being nice. They are trying to be nice and say the right thing and those are GOOD THINGS TO TRY TO DO. UG.
Meanwhile, my Facebook feed is now 10% my friends, and 90% ads and things-my-friends-liked-or-commented-on. So I am seeing the profile selfies of COMPLETE STRANGERS, with the predictable comments of COMPLETE STRANGERS, and I think that makes it even worse.
Next peeve. In our town, we have a place where there are railroad tracks right before a stop sign. There is room for one car at the stop sign, and all other cars are supposed to stop at a line BEFORE the railroad tracks, so that no one gets caught on the tracks with a train coming. There is a big sign instructing cars NOT to stop on the tracks. Nevertheless, it’s a little counter-intuitive: it feels weird to stop way back there, leaving a big gap between the car at the stop sign and the rest of the line, when we can see there is no train coming; and it feels especially weird if the cars pausing at the stop sign (related peeve: STOP AT STOP SIGNS) are going through at a good clip. ANYWAY, all that is to say I get it that not everyone is going to understand the set-up the very first time they encounter it, and that others might choose to risk their lives so as not to look like a dork. But it still bugs me very much to see EVERY SINGLE CAR EXCEPT MINE breaking the rule, and to nearly get rear-ended every time I stop at the line LIKE A GOOD MEMBER OF THE SAFETY SOCIETY. The very few times I have seen someone else follow the rule, I have felt the way I do when I see someone pulled over to text: like leaping out of my car and FESTOONING THEIR CAR WITH FLOWER PETALS AND KISSES. LET’S BE FRIENDS AND HAVE A GREAT CLUB WHERE WE FOLLOW RULES TOGETHER!!
Oh, related peeve: there is an intersection with a “no right turn on red” sign. I don’t know if people don’t see the sign or think I shouldn’t obey it, but I HATE getting honked at there. I’m not spacing out, I am FOLLOWING THE ACTUAL POSTED LAW.
Next peeve: the phrase “new without tags”/NWOT on eBay. This is a phrase that was INTENDED to mean something. It was MEANT for those weird, unusual situations where you remove the tags from an item and THEN decide not to keep it or return it, or where you bought it intending all along to resell it but your toddler pulled the tag off, or whatever. When I saw such a designation, there would be an explanation in the listing explaining why there was no tag; sometimes that explanation begged belief, but it was understood that there needed to be some sort of REASON why something would be BRAND NEW and yet not retain any proof of that status. Now what “new without tags” generally means is “used.”
Now I will say three pleasant, non-complaining things. First, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, but eBay’s moderation system is so good. It is SO GOOD. Gone are the days of being stuck working things out yourself with a seller who sold you a “new without tags” item that arrived pilled and stained. It is glorious. It feels like heavenly justice.
Two. I have been seeing MORE people pulling over to text. It is happening INCREASINGLY. That makes me VERY VERY HAPPY.
Three. I am watching the first season of Jane the Virgin and I really like it.