Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

xp The parrot is probably too big. Rigby's just right! You come to Toronto and kiss the top of his little head, you'll love him. His beak is not large enough to do any major damage. ;) I would probably be afraid to interact with a parrot myself, having no experience with them..

One thing I have to say (re Carl's 'too loud')! My bird used to be loud and obnoxious all the time but we 'put him to bed' by covering his cage around 8pm and husband uncovers him around 10am and his whole personality has become so much more pleasant and lovely. So if you know any bird owners with shrieky pets that MIGHT help :) Now that won't stop him from happy whistles but he's usually so beautiful and melodic that we don't mind.

Maybe I have told this story, but when we first moved to Chicago, Jeff, Jesse, and I lived in an apartment together Jesse's African Gray who would do this little talking routine that was basically Jesse answering his phone, talking, and then hanging up ("Hello? Hey." *mumbling that sounds like someone's voice heard from another room* "Okay, bye." *CLICK* (as in he would make the sound of a clamshell phone shutting), and all of this in Jesse's voice). One night Jesse and Jeff were out and I was home alone studying, and the bird's cage was covered so we were all quiet and peaceful UNTIL I walked by his cage to go into the kitchen for some water and the bird heard me and went, "HELLO? HEY" in Jesse's voice and I nearly pooped my pants.

it's not the size -- I've had to petsit canaries, and I had a friend who had a dove...it's their eyes. and they smell sort of weird. I dunno.

I like to look at birds and read about them. Do not like pet birds. I do not like being in small spaces with birds. A pigeon once flew into my head so those suckers can fuck off.

Also, one time that bird climb down off Jesse's shoulder, waddled across the floor and bit my toe for no good goddamn reason.

xp ahhhhh! Scary creepy bird! I suppose I am lucky then because the best I have achieved is my bird tweeting the appropriate syllables/cadences when I say 'Hello Rigby,' 'I love you,' 'Pretty bird,' and 'Goodnight Rigby!'

Birds do smell. I clean all the fucking time to keep that at bay. A bird and a dog in my apartment, two smokers (but outdoors) - then my sister's apartment has the two rats, two cats and a bunny. :P

hahaha Rigby recently discovered my toenails and started biting them.. I just kicked him (softly) :P

I didn't love Jesse's bird, but he wasn't that bad. The noises he made were at least mostly amusing and not normally shrill. Long ago, I lived with a cockatiel named Bob who was a jerrrrrrrrrrrk and shrieked if you left him alone in a room.

I lived with a bunch of roommates years ago and one of them said we'd take care of a stupid parrot and it was loud and messy and stinky and got its food everywhere and then we got so many mice. I hated that bird.

xp ugh, yeah. That was definitely a problem we used to have - still do, but less. He gets timeouts (locked in covered cage) whenever he's bad like that. Or pre-emptively when we have Saturday morning brunch because he REALLY wants to eat our eggs 0_o

loool mice, I never considered that might happen. Luckily our dog is a part-time vacuum cleaner; they have a symbiotic relationship.

Whoa your bird eats eggs...

yeah, it's fucked right? He just picks at them, never really -eats- eats them, but he still won't leave them alone. Not sure if cannibal or completely heartbroken anew each weekend.

A few weeks after we got him, he'd finally got the hang of navigating our apartment and flew and landed directly on the yolk of one of my husband's fried eggs. He was so sad as he scraped it into the compost...

My inlaws' electus (female) went into the most bizarre freakout a few years ago and became this crazy hermit-bird in her own weird little nest in the back of the cage and would come out and scream and was pulling out her feathers and we all thought she was having some kind of nervouse breakdown and eventually she laid an egg! it was so weird.

- restaurants that are all cool and trendy by being located in industrial areas such as across the street from a garbage truck lot but don't open until 6 pm.
- dining companions that pick trendy restaurants for dinner and then call to say they will be 15 minutes late.
- standing in front of trendy restaurants waiting for late dining companions with the smell of a garbage truck lot wafting around you.

gross

tell the dining companion to wait for 15 minutes before joining you at the table, so you can make them endure the smell too

This makes me feel like a very old person. Why can't people be on time? Who locates a restaurant across from a parking lot full of garbage trucks??? Is this supposed to be hip? Edgy? Why can't I wait inside where it doesn't reek of garbage?

finding trendy-stuff-in-desolate-industrial-locations more transparent and uninteresting is I guess a good thing about my 30s.

ALSO ironically I did not pee before I left work because our bathroom is especially rank with the smell of poop and BO today and I thought oh I'll just wait an pee at the restaurant! NO! I will instead stand outside in the garbage smell, having to pee.

overheard by a coworker "Yeah...but you can't cook at home for under $20 for two people."

RAGE

This might be true if you're starting from square one - no oils, salt, pepper, seasonings, whatever. But otherwise that's kind of insane.

I bought mozzarella and prosciutto and bread the other day to go with the abundance of tomatoes and basil that I had in the backyard and because I was really tired and didn't want to cook, and I felt kind of bad because I spent like $15 on all this stuff and only got four meals out of it (two dinners, two sandwiches for lunch the next day).

The guy who said it is kind of a moron, to be fair

IA: House at the End of the Street marketing with the hashtag HATES. the movie is not called House at the End Street. you can't cut out one preposition and one "the" and then leave another preposition and the other "the". it's HATEOTS or HES. dicks.

she hateots me

zachlyon, I like you. You're a good egg.

Wooo y'all the rest of dinner was pretty IA, too, but I did eventually get out of the garbage smell and in to the restaurant to pee. My dining companion was 30 minutes late!

LOL I wondered if I had posted about this particular person before and indeed I have:

Irrational Anger, how do I end up friends with these people edition:

- It's fine to be The Friend Who Is Always Late, and it's fine to be The Friend Who Won't Use a Mobile Device, but it is not okay to always be late and refuse to use a cell phone so you can text me and let me know your ETA.

― Polly biscuit face (carl agatha), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 4:36 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

She started using a cell phone so she did call me to tell me she would be late. Not 30 minutes late, nor did she revise her ETA when it became clear that she had underestimated her arrival time, but we're making progress.

It's not fine to be the friend that is always late.

I used to have a friend who was always late. I started telling him the wrong time for things - if an event was at two, I told him it was at one. He'd get there at 2:15 or so.

The thing is, the friend almost always chooses the time and place!

Oh, well in that case it's your fault for showing up at the agreed time instead of half an hour late. (I'm only half joking. If someone you know is always late invites you to meet them somewhere, show up late yourself. What's the worst that can happen? It'll either be the one time they get there on time and they'll get pissy with you, at which point you can confront them with their own hideous track record re such things, or you'll both show up at the same time and everybody's happy.)

I am the friend that's always late but I normally make more of an effort to get there on time if I know I'm meeting someone who's going to be on their own if I don't turn up on time. Also I do have a mobile phone :)

I know. I actually tried to be late, or at least delightfully insouciant about my arrival time last night, but I took a cab and there was no traffic and I was 15 minutes early. :(

And I'm usually fine with being early because I sit somewhere and read or fart around on my phone, but last night was the perfect storm of accidental earliness, standing next to something stinky, and having to pee.

overheard by a coworker "Yeah...but you can't cook at home for under $20 for two people."

RAGE

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, September 6, 2012 7:58 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like this sort of rationalization is very popular in NYC. "Well we just eat out, our kitchen is so small and anyway it's 80% as expensive to cook at home!" Like (1) all you need is a stove and enough counter space for a cutting board (plus you can use your table) and (2) no it's more like 20% as expensive unless you have no idea how to buy groceries

I learned a long time ago to avoid as much as possible meeting people in places where it is unpleasant to wait. Like if I'm waiting somewhere where I can have a drink and maybe read a bit then it's no big deal if they are 15 minutes late. If I'm waiting on a street corner, it really makes me angry.

It also has the added benefit of me not feeling too bad when I'm late myself.

Yeah, just logistically waiting for people in places where you can't DO stuff is a horrible idea. Especially with public transit, trains are a certain distance apart, you're going to be 10 or 15 mins on one side or the other. Bars and parks and places with seating are A++ to meet.

carl, one thing I don't get is why you didn't just go into the restaurant and use their bathroom, though?

If someone you know is always late invites you to meet them somewhere, show up late yourself.

don't like this tactic tbh. a) it's playing by their uncivil rules, ii) how do you know how late they're going to be, and 3) if they find out then it could lead to an arms race escalation of lateness.

The restaurant was closed, it didn't open until the time carl was supposed to meet the friend.

jvc = OTM

I tried to go in when I got there and was told very firmly that they did not open until 6 pm.

Oh, sorry! I thought they wouldn't allow you in w/o your full party or something.

Makes sense now.

it could lead to an arms race escalation of lateness.

This is what happened to me at band practices. I'd turn up on time, they'd be late. I'd turn up ten minutes late, after a while they'd start showing up 20 minutes late. And so on, until basically nobody showed up until an hour after we were supposed to start.

But yeah, there are few things as frustrating as really needing to go to the bathroom and being less than 10 yards from one that you aren't allowed to use.

xp Nope. Although once it was open, I asked if I could sit at the bar and they wouldn't let me because they like to keep the bar open for walk-ins. In a "hidden" restaurant in an industrial area.

It was down this street on the right, across from the blue garbage trucks that you can see on the left - http://goo.gl/maps/OvoHQ.

late friends = so much IA

That restaurant sounds like one big douchebag.

yeah fuck a secret restaurant

seems p jerky to not let you sit at the bar for 15 minutes waiting for yr friend when you already have a table - I mean, unless the bar only seats 1 person or they get like 100% walkin business, wtf