How Rude.

Well, skipping one day of my writing challenge isn't too bad. I've got plenty of time to kill today so I figured I'd stop by and write something.

Today I've been tasked with sharing my top three pet peeves. I feel like I have a lot of "peeves." There are a lot of things that bother me, some of them irrational. I can't stand seeing certain actors in movies (I will boo or throw things in the direction of the television. Or claim to be dying.) I have a weird beef with celery and honeydew melon. Overreacting to things like this is done partly in the name of comedy, but gosh, I really, really do not like some things.

This post feels like complaining. Remember that I was asked to do it.

My biggest pet peeve, I guess, would be when something is happening that's not fair or right. I really can't stand it. When I was a kid, I'd get incredibly stressed if I read a chapter book that had someone being mistreated in it. The same thing would happen with television shows. My brother and I were just talking about this the other day- I got the entire series of Full House on DVD for Christmas, and we were texting about all the crazy things that happened on that goofy show. One episode that always infuriated the both of us was when Michelle, the youngest daughter (do I really have to explain that?) kept getting a free pass for her bad behavior from dad Danny. The older two girls, Stephanie and DJ, would get in trouble for the smallest infractions. Near the end of the episode, spoiled Michelle brings her kiddie pool into the kitchen and fills it with water. Stephanie and DJ call their father into the room, so he can see that Michelle has a problem with feeling entitled and privileged. Danny comes in and immediately blames his older daughters. I don't know why that enrages me so much. It's a TV show! But it's not right.

My moral compass is more like an overbearingly loud weather alert radio. It cannot be ignored. And it's incredibly obnoxious at times, particularly when it's going off because of something inane and not particularly pressing (like when my phone alert goes off just to tell me that there was lightning somewhere seven miles away.) I don't talk about my moral compass to be self righteous or make me sound like I think I'm perfect. I make mistakes all the time. And sometimes those mistakes include reacting when I'm trying to stifle my moral compass! This past year I really struggled with some issues floating around the election. I know that my posts upset some people because they thought I was criticizing them, or because they didn't agree with me. My tone wasn't always as gentle as I hoped it would be (that happens sometimes and I try to self-censor by deleting more combative posts later on.) I'm not going to say that people of one religious persuasion are incapable of voting for a particular party. That's ridiculous. But I could not tolerate some particular statements that those around me made regarding the morality and ethics of their votes. The hypocrisy and, well, unfairness of it all brought me literal, physical pain. I started having high blood pressure around the times of the debates because there were things that were said that were not true (which is something that is wrong, which bothers my moral compass) and there was no accountability for it. Which also bothered my moral compass. I think telling the truth is something that is objectively always "right" and it bugs me that we now live in a world where truth is questioned, or bastardized on the regular. It will be interesting to see what the next few years are like. No matter who had won the election, we'd be in the same place we are now, because of the way our minds have been shaped over the past few years. So I'm not blaming the person who won. I'm blaming everyone. I hope that someday soon we can get back to the point where we don't think a myth-busting website has a dishonest agenda just because they're reporting something that upsets us. If someone debunks a viral news story that was making you feel better about your viewpoint or your personal stance on something, they're not lying. They're telling you a truth you don't want to hear. I didn't want to hear that the viral video about a big hawk picking up a small child was faked, because I thought that was really funny and interesting. But when I found out that it wasn't, I didn't say "oh, no, that's a lie. I know what those birds are capable of. I know they really do that. The pro-bird people just want us to think that they're nicer than that, and that they wouldn't want to do something like that." That's silly. But that's where we are now.

I think I'm going to decline to follow the assignment to the letter today, because listing more pet peeves would just stress me out. My emotions are already running pretty high, and I've got some anxiety issues going on because of something I have to do this afternoon (a skippy heart and butterflies in the tummy. Manageable but not enjoyable.) You can just take my word for it that there are plenty more things out there that annoy me, though none of them are directly linked to the craziness that's going on across the country right now.