I have a fiery temper, and I don't try to hide that fact (it's the Irish in me. . . Or the Italian, I'm never sure which). Over the past week, because of a couple of unsolicited and ill-advised conversations, I've somehow managed to label my mood. I call the over all set-up the "Annoy-O-Meter." It ranges from 1 to 3, because I don't really go halfsies. 1 signifies that I am absolutely peachy; you can tell because I'm laughing and having a general good time. I'm usually laid back and relaxed during stage 1. 2 equals slightly annoyed and on up until you hit 3, which is generally, "Shut your mouth before I decide to shut it for you." It sometimes doesn't take much to rile me to 3.
You see, over this past week I have had at least 3 conversations that have put me at 2, although I haven't hit 3, thank goodness. The first two covered the same thing. I'd missed a get-together, and when asked why, I replied that I had things to do. "Oh," the hapless person would say, "well, you missed a lot of fun." OK! Now, there are two reasons why someone would actually say this. A) they are trying to rub in the fact that I had things to do and they were having tons of super-fun or b) they don't believe my reply. Either way, I am now annoyed. Thank you, people, for pointing out that I missed fun things when I could not make it to said fun things. Much appreciated.
The second conversation started with an older lady, who told me that I should eat more nuts and leafy vegetables if I wanted to be healthier, because she was a vegetarian and when I mentioned I had once been one, she felt it was a chance to tell me what to do. A similar conversation occurred between me and another older lady (you people are not my mother, stop trying to be) who told me I was tired because I drank too many sodas (not because, you know, I had to be at work at 7:30 that morning) and I should really watch my caffeine intake and drink more green tea. And eat more nuts. What is it with the nuts? I imagine this is about annoying to me as it is to someone that likes a pint of Guinness, but has to listen to some nag telling them where their liver is going. I KNOW sodas aren't the healthiest thing in the world; you are not giving me new information. While we're at it, why don't you stop going on fad diets to try and drop weight and work out instead?
So anyway, such is my current rant. And just so you know, I am currently at level 2 on my annoy-o-meter. Don't give me a reason to hit level 3.
