So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

People who pass on the right regardless of road or weather conditions. I run into this all the time when I'm turning into my street -- Route 1 gets very narrow at that particular point, and one of these days one of these impatient pass-on-the-righters is going to get badly hurt in their desperate rush to get to the Circle-K before the lottery drawing.

 

[sheeplady]

I suggest that you carefully stitch some sort of slogan into your sleeve, so that it looks like a tattoo. Maybe from one profile it appears as, perhaps, the characters of a language that doesn't use the Roman alphabet. But turned on it's edge it reads: "Mind your own ******* business!

They do make beautiful lymphadema sleeves that actually look like you have a tattooed "sleeve" on your arm. They are gorgeous, and not too much money (about $100). Right now I am in a custom sleeve, though, which is all medical looking. Mainly because I need the glove.

Luckily I have the best physical therapist *in the world* and she sends me to her former workplace to see a fitter for the custom sleeve because there is a grant at that hospital. The fitter has gotten all of my sleeves for free for me from the Komen Foundation grant, which has saved my family over $5,000 in out of pocket expenses over the past two years. My physical therapist also convinced my insurance company to pay for the most expensive lymphadema pump for me ($6,800 of which I paid 10%) rather than making me "fail" 3 lesser pumps ($2 to $3,000 of which I would pay 10% for each) as is their usual policy.

I don't call that kind of comment "trivial".
IMO, you should expect to get hit when you say stuff like that.
Where has decency gone?

We have this "culture" towards cancer, which I think steams from the fact that even a few decades ago, cancer was a death sentence. Thirty years ago you didn't meet survivors who had been alive for decades. That has improved A LOT. So we haven't had, as a society, time to figure out how to interact with people like myself. (Twenty years ago, my type of breast cancer was a complete death sentence, but improvements in ports which allow larger chemotherapy doses straight to the heart and combined chemotherapy have increased five-year survival odds to about 40%.)

In addition, we have this glorification of cancer by the media- they don't make movies about people living life to the fullest as they die from heart failure or diabetes. And a lot of that glorification pushes the "positive attitudes beat all!" type of thing. That puts a lot of pressure on cancer patients to be "cheery" and "positive."

I will say this- it is up to the cancer survivor to label their own cancer experience. Even if someone is in a sunny mood and chatting about how cancer changed their life for the positive, no one has the right to ever repeat that back to them when they are feeling down. No one- not even another survivor.

I think it is a positive thing that we are TALKING about cancer today, rather than treating it as "the C word" in hushed hushed terms like happened a couple of decades ago. I think it is a lot healthier for survivors and their families. However, we haven't figured out *how* to talk about it; mainly because we have a lot of mixed messages coming at us from all sides.

 

[GHT]

They do make beautiful lymphadema sleeves that actually look like you have a tattooed "sleeve" on your arm.

OK, I retract the Anglo Saxon remark, what you can say is: "It's a lymphedema sleeve, I have an overactive lymph gland, without the sleeve I could become a lymphomaniac!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The person at the front of the line with a checkbook and a hundred questions and all they're buying is shampoo! :eusa_doh:

 

[HudsonHawk]

OK, I retract the Anglo Saxon remark, what you can say is: "It's a lymphedema sleeve, I have an overactive lymph gland, without the sleeve I could become a lymphomaniac!

Why can't the response simply be "I'm sorry, that's personal"? Why does it have to be profanity, violence and/or snark?

 

[LizzieMaine]

If somebody brings up a topic I really don't want to talk about in a setting where I really don't want to have it brought up, I just nod and say "mnehh." Usually they get the message. I'll only snap them one if they persist after that, because that's when it becomes obvious that they aren't just socially inept.


Trivial thing that ticks me off -- wealthy retirees wearing coats that cost more than I make in a month coming up to the ticket window and asking for the "senior discount." If I could work my will, the price for such ones would be a dollar more than everybody else.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Trivial things that irritate me: when I need to sign something...at the bank, at a store, whathaveyou, and the clerk hands me a pen that has a flower or a bow or a dragon head or something on the end and it writes in pink/purple/yellow/glitter ink. Just give me a regular pen in blue, black or blue-black.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The idea behind that, of course, is that too many people have stolen the regular pens. Time to bring back the chained-to-the-desk post-office pen idea.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Several years ago, I tore my back up and had to walk with a cane for about four months until it resoved. But I got to where I did everything possible to avoid using the cane in public because I just couldn't stand another weepy-faced gaze from somebody who figured I was the victim of some terrible wasting disease, when all I'd really done is twist the wrong way while loading reel 3 of "The Great Escape" onto the projector. It's not wanting to be surly as much as it is just being sick of getting That Look from people.

Well meaning boobkins and their unsolicited sympathy: if I couldn't write a book on the subject, I could at least write a decent chapter.

When I first got out of law school, finding a job was an ongoing battle: I didn't find full time employment in the legal field until over two years after I'd been sworn in as a member of the bar. I attended a local evangelical church at the time, and the comments from the self anointed God's Little Sunbeams never failed to bring my employment situation front and center at a time when I just wanted to escape it for a few hours. Always being told, "God has a place- just for you!" with accompanying saccharine smiles: it finally got to be too much of the ripping open of the wound and I just stopped attending. Of course, there were lawyers in the church who had long standing connections in the profession, but none ever did anything of substance to help me find employment.

Curse me, put me down, whatever: just spare me your damn sympathy. By the time I actually did find decent full time employment, I decided that there were better ways to spend Sunday mornings. The only decent one of the bunch was a young associate pastor: he was finally given the gate when the senior pastor - an egomaniac with an inferiority complex- decided that he was too popular. Last time I spoke to him, the evangelicals had turned their back on him because he & his wife had divorced: he's now pastoring a more liberal Congregational (UCC) church in another state. I can only guess at the amount of well meaning pity that he had to deal with from the old congregants.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Trivial thing that ticks me off -- wealthy retirees wearing coats that cost more than I make in a month coming up to the ticket window and asking for the "senior discount." If I could work my will, the price for such ones would be a dollar more than everybody else.

Sounds like one of my neighbors. :doh:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Sometimes "I don't know" means exactly that, not "I don't remember but maybe it will come back to me under lengthy interrogation."

 

[ChiTownScion]

Trivial thing that ticks me off -- wealthy retirees wearing coats that cost more than I make in a month coming up to the ticket window and asking for the "senior discount." If I could work my will, the price for such ones would be a dollar more than everybody else.

"I'm OLD ! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee!"

Grandpa Abe Simpson

 

[LizzieMaine]

"I'm OLD ! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee!"

Grandpa Abe Simpson

That's pretty much it. And when I tell them that the senior price starts at 65, and they complain that it's 62 at the multiplex, I ask them "which age would you rather be?" That usually shuts them up.

 

[ChiTownScion]

That's pretty much it. And when I tell them that the senior price starts at 65, and they complain that it's 62 at the multiplex, I ask them "which age would you rather be?" That usually shuts them up.

Where we usually go, it's sixty, and I have to confess: when it comes to saving a buck or two from a corporate conglomerate I have few qualms of conscience when my wife asks for discounted senior tickets for us. (And I've learned to never argue with her when she's pinching a penny.)

A family owned or indie operation like yours- that's another matter. I like discounts, and free refills on popcorn & soft drinks, but I also understand that it's a fact of life that these things cost the small operator a lot more, and I'd rather have them around showing movies that offer more than car crashes, sustained gun fire, and depressing dystopian scenarios than quibble over a few bucks.

 

[Barman]

We have this "culture" towards cancer, which I think steams from the fact that even a few decades ago, cancer was a death sentence. Thirty years ago you didn't meet survivors who had been alive for decades. That has improved A LOT. So we haven't had, as a society, time to figure out how to interact with people like myself. (Twenty years ago, my type of breast cancer was a complete death sentence, but improvements in ports which allow larger chemotherapy doses straight to the heart and combined chemotherapy have increased five-year survival odds to about 40%.)

In addition, we have this glorification of cancer by the media- they don't make movies about people living life to the fullest as they die from heart failure or diabetes. And a lot of that glorification pushes the "positive attitudes beat all!" type of thing. That puts a lot of pressure on cancer patients to be "cheery" and "positive."

I will say this- it is up to the cancer survivor to label their own cancer experience. Even if someone is in a sunny mood and chatting about how cancer changed their life for the positive, no one has the right to ever repeat that back to them when they are feeling down. No one- not even another survivor.

I think it is a positive thing that we are TALKING about cancer today, rather than treating it as "the C word" in hushed hushed terms like happened a couple of decades ago. I think it is a lot healthier for survivors and their families. However, we haven't figured out *how* to talk about it; mainly because we have a lot of mixed messages coming at us from all sides.

I know what you mean.
I'm a nurse, been working homecare and hospice for years (I now work in psychiatry) and I've seen hundreds of cancer patients suffer horrible pains, people I personally cared for and saw literally die in my arms.
To imply that cancer could be considered some sort of "gift" because it makes you suddenly realize how life is worth living for is just downright shocking, ignorant and terribly insensitive in my opinion.
But then again it usually comes from people who have no clue how painful & extremely gory it can get in the final stages of the disease.

No matter how good their intentions are, people saying such things have to be taught cancer is NEVER a "gift" of some kind. It's generally a horribly traumatic experience, both for the patient and his/her family, whatever the outcome may be.

 

[The Good]

It irritates me when university professors try too hard to be funny, and to even use profanity during their lectures, even subtly mocking somebody or something associated with political or spiritual beliefs. A small amount of my professors over the years have been like that, and it strikes me as very unprofessional. Swearing is pathetic in the classroom, unless quoting some outside material relevant to the discussion. Does anybody remember if your college professors of years ago used expletive words in class? I'm guessing that it was much less common before the late '60s, early '70s counterculture generation came of age, to become part of the established culture, also many baby boomers in general, but especially the generation after that.

 

[stevew443]

Trivial things that irritate me: when I need to sign something...at the bank, at a store, whathaveyou, and the clerk hands me a pen that has a flower or a bow or a dragon head or something on the end and it writes in pink/purple/yellow/glitter ink. Just give me a regular pen in blue, black or blue-black.

That is why I always carry a very nice fountain pen. When I pull that pen out to sign something, if the clerk or teller or whatever is a young person, their eyes usually almost pop out of their head since most have never seen a fine writing instrument.

 

[Big J]

It irritates me when university professors try too hard to be funny, and to even use profanity during their lectures, even subtly mocking somebody or something associated with political or spiritual beliefs. A small amount of my professors over the years have been like that, and it strikes me as very unprofessional. Swearing is pathetic in the classroom, unless quoting some outside material relevant to the discussion. Does anybody remember if your college professors of years ago used expletive words in class? I'm guessing that it was much less common before the late '60s, early '70s counterculture generation came of age, to become part of the established culture, also many baby boomers in general, but especially the generation after that.

Yeah, I agree. I never swear when I'm teaching at university. I think some teachers try too hard to be 'cool with the kids' because they get a kick out of being 'liked' by cute young female students.
It's sad, and unprofessional.

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

That is why I always carry a very nice fountain pen. When I pull that pen out to sign something, if the clerk or teller or whatever is a young person, their eyes usually almost pop out of their head since most have never seen a fine writing instrument.

Even a Pilot Varsity gets that response.

 

[F. J.]

Fountain Pens . . .

That is why I always carry a very nice fountain pen. When I pull that pen out to sign something, if the clerk or teller or whatever is a young person, their eyes usually almost pop out of their head since most have never seen a fine writing instrument.

Even a Pilot Varsity gets that response.

I have two black Sheaffer Balances that I fill with blue-black Skrip writing fluid. They both date to ca. 1936-42 and are identical except that one is a fullsize and the other is an oversize, which is the one I carry daily.
What’s funny is people always ask “Is that a calligraphy pen?” or call it my ‘fancy pen,’ to which my response is “No, it’s a normal pen, it’s just old.” Sometimes I’ll try to explain, and say that calligraphy pens have broad nibs, etc., but I doubt they understand a word of it. I suppose they’ve never seen a real pen that uses real liquid ink. Modern ballpoints with their ink-powder simply do not compare to a good fountain pen, or even a Pilot Varsity.