Girl on the Brink: Surviving Desperate Times with Desperate Measures

You can be a voyeur through my eyes, and it will only take a minute of your time and not the hours I’ve spent researching some of my blog topics. Come, a little closer. Let me whisper in your ear about some of the other things I dislike about living with my ex and being out and about in general.

These are my pet peeves. I have many, but the one that drives me to drink the last drop of wine is when my ex leaves a drippy, wet sponge in the kitchen sink. By the time I need to use it, it’s cold, and I have to squeeze out the water. Why can’t he just wring out the sponge when he’s through and let it air dry?

I’ve told him not to do that, but he doesn’t listen, sort of like an employee you need to tell over and over again not to do something. It becomes irritating and annoying after a while.

I also don’t like it when he scooches all of the couch pillows to one side so he can lie down to read the newspaper. He never fluffs and puts them back.

My ex also leaves his shoes scattered here and there, and his spatial sense of furniture arrangement is skewed. He pushes everything flush with the walls.

I have told him to tone down his voice mail greeting when it kicks in. I have to hold the phone a good 2 feet from my ear, and I can still hear him. That reminds me of people who use a speaker phone at work. I enjoy deadpan silence while writing and editing, and while I can tune out most noises nothing is more irritating than hearing a cacaphony of voices spilling out of a speaker phone.

I’m also annoyed by people who lean their back against the pole in the subway when it’s standing room only, leaving people on their feet with nothing to hold on to, and by cashiers who hand back your change and receipt at the same time rather than just your change so you can put it back into your wallet without having to separate it from the receipt.

I realize that there will always be annoying things in life, but as we continue to push the importance of education in our nation’s schools, we should also remember to practice common sense.