>Incessant flame wars and driver/car peeves wear thin after a while.
Okay, then here's something in a different (and I hope, refreshing)
vein.
I've peeved before about my officemate, but now there's a new facet
to turn my attention to, however unwillingly.
Due to things getting rather busy `round these parts, she's gotten
into the habit of eating lunch at her desk. This has the effect of
extending all the previously mentioned peevesome things into what was
heretofore a quiet hour, a temporal oasis of blessed silence and solitude:
she continues to use the telephone (between bites) and to talk to me
while I'm trying to work and peeve, and people continue dropping by at
intervals to chat -- particularly this one guy with a John F. Kennedy
accent who's just about impossible to tune out because he's so loud.
Having lots of visitors in one's office goes hand in glove with having an attractive and sociable French female for an officemate, unfortunately. ("Out! Out! Everybody get the HELL out of here! Move it! Movemovemovemovemove!") At least her little friend The Short Chatterbox Feminist got shipped off to Japan for several glorious months, and then
was relocated to another building when she came back.
Peeve: compulsive talkers, and verbose people in general. Loud people,
too. (Why are so many people from the East Coast so damn loud?)
Now for the new, added attraction.
As I've attempted to make abundantly clear before, I like my officemate
and get along splendidly with her, despite the things she does that I
find peevesome. But now that she eats lunch in here almost every day,
I've discovered that she gulps when she swallows liquids. Loudly. As
in so loud, it almost sounds like she's doing it on purpose. It reminds
me of the sound effects in Three Stooges movies, in fact: "Ulp, ulp, ulp,
ulp!" It drives me fucking *nuts!* How can she not be aware that she's
doing it?
And the frustrating thing is that I can't do anything about it. I'm quite
an assertive person generally, but even I have my limits and recognize the
need for diplomacy -- particularly when it comes to people I have to work
with every day, if not bedwetters like Minch. This makes me even more
