The Not So Successful Side Hustle: An Update

You may recall that I recently started an unsuccessful side hustle. I never claimed to be an entrepreneur and I definitely am not much of a salesperson, but last year I thought I would try my hand in selling some stuff online. The last time I posted, I was just trying eBay, but I asked for your opinions on FB Marketplace and you all said to do it, so I did. 

I won't say that it started off easy. First of all, I was afraid. I don't really love people knowing my details and FB shows your name and could possibly involve your address. I am not a huge fan of people coming over to my house, unless it is specifically scheduled, and I do not really want people inside my house. However, I decided to do a Shonda Rhimes and call this "the year of yes" and just get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

The first thing I listed was a stationary bike. I immediately got three replies, all offering me the exact amount I had listed it for. Hurray!! Or should I say, hurray? My Spidey senses went up, I looked at the profiles of the buyers and all of them were created in 2023 and had no personal info. I blocked and reported all three. My first adversary, slayed! After that, weeks went by with no further inquiries. 

I decided to try something a little more simple, cheaper and that did not need two people to lift it. I listed an end table, had an inquiry the next day, and had a pleasant conversation with the buyer over messenger. However, our times were not jiving, so face to face pick up was going to be difficult. I decided at that moment to offer to leave it on the porch and she could get it when she could and just leave me money. I figured if she wanted it that bad, she could just take it. However, she was super sweet, came and got it and left me money and then communicated (gasp!) that she had done so. I was converted! 

After that I listed a bunch of other things and after about six months, I have mixed feelings. Firstly, there are a ton of flakey people. So many people ask if the item is available and even if I reply right away, they ghost me after that. I have had people ask questions about details that are in the description (and I always include dimensions, info about stains, chips, tears etc.). I want to tell them to read the bloody description and stop wasting my time, but I usually don't. I have had people fully commit, ask me to hold the item, set up a time and then ghost me. I have had people set up a time and then come an hour early! People are strange. 

However, I have had some good ones and I thought I would give a seller's perspective on the perfect buyer. 

(1) The perfect buyer does not use the auto inquiry "Hi, is this available?" (often used even when the items are plural, by the way). 

(2) The perfect buyer has personality and says something like, "Hello [insert seller's name here], I was wondering if this was still available. If so, I would be able to come and get it today." ***side note, are there a lot of sellers who don't take down their listing even if they have sold the item? There must be, because I get A LOT of  "is this still available" inquiries. It's still listed! Yes it is still available!***

(3) The perfect buyer sets up a time to get the item as soon as possible. An actual time, not "tomorrow" or "later today" or my favorite, "after 9 pm." (they clearly don't know me). The perfect buyer then messages their ETA when they leave, when they are 5 mins away and when they are outside. I love these people! LOVE THEM. 

(4) The perfect buyer does not set up a time, come to my house and THEN ask if they can get the item for half off. The perfect buyer haggles in advance, settles on a price and then sets up a meeting time. 

(5) The perfect buyer pays cash, in exact amounts, but I will not be mad if they want to use Venmo. 

(6) The perfect buyer sends a photo of the item later, happy in its new home. 🧡 

So clearly everyone is different, and I am sure the buyers out there have some horror stories about the sellers (and I want to hear them!) but it seems like sometimes common courtesy is just lacking. I actually went down a wormhole of this reddit thread and wow, there really are some way worse horror stories than I have had! 

But wait, let me tell you about the saga of the suitcases. I have a set of suitcases; there are three of them, they are hard sided, they have four spinning wheels. They are nice suitcases. I only used the smallest of the three a couple of times, but I decided I was a backpack person and they sat in the garage for years. I listed them for about half of what I got them for, even though they are essentially unused. Since I listed these cases, I probably have had almost a thousand clicks on them. And for some reason, everyone who is interested in the suitcases has some issue or other. 

The accursed luggage. 

The first guy seemed like a creeper as he did not ask any questions about the cases, but just asked for my address right away, so I ignored him after that.

This lady told me she wasn't a flake, which made me suspicious.  Also that looks like a copy-paste. Hm. 

Several other people set up times and then ghosted me. Here is an example. (before this first clip, I told her I would be available from 12 pm to 1 pm). 

At 12:57, no word. So I messaged her. 

After this, she gave me another thumbs up and then the next day, did not show, did not message, nothing. 

Here is another good one. This lady messages me on Tuesday afternoon and says: Hi do all the wheels work smoothly? I just had to return a luggage set to a lady on market place. The wheels ended up being all wonky and not wheeling properly. I’m leave for a long trip Thursday and need something durable. 

So I am thinking that she sounds like one of the ladies I used to serve at Nordstrom; they would buy shoes but as they were buying them would complain about shoes and you knew, you JUST knew that they were going to wear them once and then return them (which goes against your commission if they do) after wearing them. Also, their party or whatever would be the next day and they would complain about how they just can't find anything perfect (and you would be thinking that it doesn't seem strange to you!) yet! 

BUT I message her and tell her that the wheels work great but I am only available Tuesday evening, not Wednesday. She goes on to then ask me my address (why!) and I give her the general area, thinking that we have a sale. Then she asks for $25 less than the listed price, which by the way is about 25% less, and when I counter, she doesn't agree, but just asks if we can set up pickup for tomorrow, and I reiterate that I am not available Wednesday and then... she ghosts me. Mind you, this exchange took place over six hours. So she texted me at the last minute (for her vacation) and then draws out the conversation and then doesn't want to come and get it as soon as possible!? I don't get it. 

On the other hand, if you ever DO want to get into a side hustle, for some reason around here, plants are the way to go. Remember I talked about emptying out my plant room? Well, I was going to just put them all out on the curb with a "free" sign, but I thought what the heck, I will give FB a shot. I listed about 15 indoor plants and over the next day, I sold about 9 of them and made almost $200! Listen, I listed them cheap, including the pots, but I was going to give them away for free, so I was super happy. Drinks are on me! Plus, if you recall, many of these were propagated by me, so aside from the pot and the time, they didn't really cost me much to begin with! 

Plants for sale!! 

Do I know how to make a short story long, or what!?!? Thank you for listening, and thanks to those of you who commented on my original post and prodded me to just give it a shot. 

Do you have buyer or seller horror stories? Are people in your area as flakey as the ones here? But most importantly, why are the suitcase people so weird!?!?!? I need hypotheses! 

Randoms and Peeves

There are a lot of things that annoy me; some of them are organizational, like the fact that I like certain things to have their place and when they are not there, it is annoying (car keys anyone?). Some just seem like common sense, like not leaving two drops of milk in the milk carton in the fridge or one square of toilet paper on the roll (obvious, right?). However, there are things out in the world and on the streets that I know I can't control (nor do they really affect me) but I get annoyed at them anyway. So, in no particular order, here is a (Friday Five?) list of some of my peeves.

People who use cell phones while walking. Just like driving, this should be illegal. They don't pay attention; they don't look up; they don't walk in a straight line OR walk fast enough. They need to pull over and use the phone while stopped in a place where they are not in other people's way.

Litter bugs. This is a really big one for me. I see littering as something that the lower class does. I am sorry if this is not true but it seems like the lower income neighborhoods have more trash. However, I've seen people throw their fast food wrappers down right in front of me in downtown San Francisco (and I didn't say anything)! Have you no pride? Also, in this case, the trash can was literally 10 feet from them! To make it worse, I ran a trail race last weekend and there was a bunch of race detritus (Gu wrappers mostly) on the trail! These are people who should be loving and respecting nature!

This one kind of goes along with the trash theme, but people who do not sort their trash annoy me. At work, we have a basket for compost, one for bottles and cans, one for all other recycling and one for trash. There are PICTURES that tell you which thing goes in which bin, but there is always someone who throws their plastic container in the compost bin.

People in the gym who take up the whole changing bench in the locker room with all of their stuff, or people who sit on the changing bench and text, Instagram, Facebook or talk on the phone, especially when the locker room is really crowded (like at 5 pm, as everyone is changing for Zumba).  There is an atrium in my gym where there is plenty of space to socially network.

People who walk really slow on the sidewalk, especially during rush hour. Don't they get it? It's "rush" hour! Also, when they don't walk straight, whether I am walking or running up behind them and am about to pass, if they are swerving/veering around, it's hard to figure out how to get around them without a collision! 

So, all of my peeves are regarding things that people do/don't do. Hm. By the way, Happy Friday everyone! If you do one of the above things, I will still be your friend, but I may complain a bit about it!

What are some of your peeves? Do you have recycling/composting where you live?

Don't Know Much About

I am stealing this idea from Lisa, who did a post about things that people may not know about her last week, because it is fun to hear weird quirks of other people, plus I am about to get on a plane right now and to go and hang out with her this weekend! Here go, a few things you may not know about me.

- I grew up on the Pacific Crest Trail. It actually comes down a mountain and you have to walk along a road and cross the river and then go back up another mountain. I lived on the road that the hikers have to walk on. Aside from that, my mom was the Postmaster for the post office on the road, and post offices are the life blood of the PCT. We had hikers for dinner at least once a week in the summertime. PS. they smell REALLY bad and are quite hairy, but they are very nice people.

Home sweet home

- I hate presenting in front of people. I used to go all pink and shaky and my heart would be beating a mile a minute and I would stutter a little bit. I have gotten a little better. I presented at work this week and I didn't flub it too much. I still have a ways to go, but I am learning to control my fears, or to fake it! It's a lot easier when I know when I am talking about and don't really have to read from the cards/power point. Also, I have gotten better at saying, "I don't know" or "I will look into that". I used to really fear getting a question I couldn't answer.

- I love going barefoot. I used to run around barefoot as a kid all the time and my parents would make me put on shoes because there may be gross things on the ground, but I still snuck out without shoes as often as I could. Now I take off my shoes as soon as I get home. A caveat: since the roommate got a dog, I wear socks because the floors are filthy! Then I take them off before getting into bed. I don't want to put dirty feet in my bed.

- I drink a lot of tap water. I have a reusable bottle that I drink from and I fill it up from the tap. Even when I travel or fly, I bring one in my bag and fill it inside the airport. Disposable water bottles are such a huge part of our trash problem. Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

source

- I've eaten ants. Not on purpose, but we used to have a bad ant problem in our house when I was a kid and once they got into the Raisin Bran. The little black ones taste slightly of peppermint. Not in a good way.

- I have to make my bed every day. Coming home to a mussed up bed would make me a tiny bit antsy. I really love coming home to a calm, serene space. It only takes 2 seconds, because I don't tuck everything all the way in and I don't thrash around a lot when I sleep; I just flop it back into place in the morning and I am good to go.

- A couple of gym peeves of mine: (1) people who crank up the speed or incline really high and then hold onto the treadmill while they are running/walking. I feel like it just creates back/neck problems and they would get a more beneficial workout if they just turned it down a bit and let go. (2) People who sweat all over and then hop off and you are waiting for them to come back and wipe off the machine but they never do.

- I almost never wear skirts. I will put on a dress for a nice occasion, and I own several skirts/dresses. I just don't really feel that comfortable with my legs hanging out. I don't really wear shorts very often either.

- I wear my hair up 90% of the time.

- I eat approximately 8 salads a week and drink roughly 3 cups of coffee a day.

- I am trying to improve my Spanish by getting Spanish books from the library, and by using a flashcard app. Now I just need to buck up and start working on talking to people! That's the hard part for me (see: public speaking, above).

Do you wear skirts/shorts a lot? Do you speak a second language? What can you tell me that I don't know about you?

I almost forgot to mention: Happy Valentines Day!

What I Love: Not

You have already heard about the things I love several times, so here I am back again, with a list of things that I don't love, in no particular order. 

- Those U-Verse commercials. Do you know the ones I am talking about? The little girl says to her younger sister, "when I was YOUR age, we couldn't move the TV into any room. We had to watch Mom's dumb channel..." It basically takes your grandpa's "uphill both ways in the snow" and "5 cents for a candy bar" and makes a really annoying copycat (mockery) of those stories. I am not amused.

- Dogs off leashes. You already know I don't like this. But it keeps getting reconfirmed. Maybe I need to stop running outside, on trails where dogs are supposed to be on leash. Why do people feel entitled to break the rules? It bothers me, especially when there are specific areas where your dog IS allowed to be off leash. I avoid them for a reason, people.

- Poop bags. Again, why can't people just follow the rules? If you want to share the space with everyone, keep it clean! Don't leave your poop bag on the trail! And seriously, you already did the dirty part of the job; now you can't even carry the darn bag to the trash can!?

- Litterbugs. Same problem as above, but this time it's not just dog owners. I see TP, bottles, cans and other things in places they don't belong, but it REALLY chaps my hide when I am out in nature and people have littered there. Respect your home, people!

- People that won't shut up. Have you ever been on a plane and had the person next to you talk to you even though you have your headphones on AND your nose in a book!? There is certain body language that people need to learn to read. I don't want to feel (a) obligated to talk to you or (b) rude because I am ignoring you. Don't make me be rude to you. This also pertains to people at work. When I am starting to turn and (try to) walk away, please stop talking about your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's cousin's daughter's cat. Please.

- Snakes. Yup, it's that time of year again. Remember last year when I saw 12 snakes by May? Well I am hoping not to repeat that again this year! I have my eye out though!

What don't you love? What annoys you? What's the weirdest/worst conversation you have had with a co-worker/airplane seat mate?

A Weird One

Yesterday was a weird day. First thing in the morning, I got into a stupid argument (when are they not stupid!) with Mr. L. We made up quickly but it's still not the best way to start your morning. After that I was low on patience. I decided to go for a run to shake it off. Instead of it getting better, at first I just got more annoyed. WHY are these families taking up the entire sidewalk with their dogs and their coolers and their pool noodles and their 17 kids? WHY do they have so many kids anyway!? Why can't people have a low number of well behaved kids who stay off the middle of the sidewalk?!

Why is this car parked on the shoulder? Don't they know the shoulder is for bikes and runners, NOT for your convenience so you can be 20 feet closer to the beach so you don't have to walk your dog and your cooler and your 17 kids and your pool noodle that much farther!? Why should I have to suffer because you decided to come to my neighborhood today? You probably need the extra 20 feet of exercise because I bet your cooler is stuffed with hot dogs and Cheetos and sugary sodas anyway!

It was not my day. I was being totally negative. In my head of course.

I am passive aggressive. I would probably never actually say anything to anyone. Actually the other day I really and truly ACCIDENTALLY bumped into one of the bathing suit clad ladies carrying a pool noodle. The reason I bumped into her is because the pool noodle is kind of long and I was trying to devise a strategy for getting around her as I was coming up behind her. I mean, do you go to the right around the shorter end of the noodle, or to the left around the bigger end? I decided to go left, as you normally would when passing a slower moving vehicle. Just as I was about to go around her, she swung herself, and the noodle, around and I kind of rammed into her elbow/the noodle. On accident. Then of course I felt bad, as if she wasn't taking up the entire sidewalk with her noodle AND making moves without giving any warning.

But yesterday was not that day. I swerved around the kids by going into the bushes on the side. I jumped over the dog leashes, did the crip walk (<------ if you don't know what this is, you have to click here and imagine me in my running shorts doing this on the sidewalk) around the coolers and did the limbo under the pool noodles.

I got halfway through my run and my calf was hurting. It had been hurting for several days. In fact, I cut my run short on Sunday and skipped my run on Monday and Tuesday because of it. It was probably karma. When  I reached the turn around point, I was in Capitola, which is a little beach town near Santa Cruz. I decided to take a break and "ice" my calf...in the ocean. So I did. I took off my shoes and waded in. I stood there for about 15 minutes, just enjoying the COLD water, the sun, the waves, and yes, even the families and their pool noodles. Afterward, I sat in the sun and dried off a bit. And saw this.

Just so you know, there were tons of people in the water -- "swimming, surfing and doing other water sports". Tons of kids actually. Not so many parents. Maybe the parents are as sick of their kids this summer as I am. Oh my gosh, I am just kidding! Wow. Don't get all riled up.

How embarrassing; you can see my sock tan line.

Anyway...sitting there, watching the waves, listening to the sound of people enjoying themselves and thinking about things restored my inner peace. I know it sounds kind of hippie-dippy, but really, after a bit of a run and some sun and sand and water (and thinking about all the pool noodles getting eaten by sharks), I was in a much better mood. The second half of my run was much better. EVEN THOUGH I still had to do the crip walk from time to time!

Who needs mood altering drugs? I have exercise and fresh air. Sometimes they just takes a little longer to take effect. 

What do you do when you are in a funk? Why do you think we let certain things get to us? If you don't let things get to you, what's your secret?

Email 101

I normally work in an office. We have fancy email addresses with the company name dot com and we spend a lot of time sending emails back and forth to clients. So it never ceases to amaze me how badly people behave over email. 

I was looking for a house a while ago. I sent an email to a prospective landlord (via Craigslist) asking when a good time to see it would be. Here was her response (I italicized it for clarity): 

thanks for the response--i will be showing it next tues (but  remember, it is occupied)-- the dates sound good-- may be best to call me, _____, for a phone interview first-- weekend is good for this  ###-###-####   (or earlier of necessary)--- hope to hear from you

This one was even better (and I have not changed any of the punctuation or wording): 

sorry only for one person.

That is all she (he?) said. Maybe this sounds silly, but I don't really want to rent from someone who can't even treat me as a client. Is this how they write emails all the time? If they are looking for a job, do they write their cover letter like this? Then I thought, maybe I am just being picky and anal about things; I do have a tendency to do that from time to time. So I went (where else) online to find out: What are the proper rules for emailing, especially when it's a business or "professional" email?

I found a great website. It's called 101 Email Etiquette Tips. It is a series of 101 tips, pertaining to sending and formatting emails, email attachments, cc'ing, forwarding, IMs, Business emails, blogs and message boards. Some of them were a little silly, some of them seem self-explanatory, but a lot of them were pretty spot on! 

Here are some of my favorites (I added a couple of comments in blue): 

- Make sure your e-mail includes a courteous greeting and closing. Helps to make your e-mail not seem demanding or terse.

- Spell check - emails with typos are simply not taken as seriously.

- Are you using proper sentence structure? First word capitalized with appropriate punctuation? Multiple instances of !!! or ??? are perceived as rude or condescending. **see lady above

- Refrain from using the Reply to All feature to give your opinion to those who may not be interested. In most cases replying to the Sender alone is your best course of action.

- Type in complete sentences. To type random phrases or cryptic thoughts does not lend to clear communication. **also see lady above

- Always end your emails with "Thank you," "Sincerely," "Take it easy," "Best regards" - something!

- Do not type in all caps. That's yelling or reflects shouting emphasis.

- Typing your emails in all small case gives the perception of lack of education or laziness. **OH! What? See lady above!

- When forwarding email, if you cannot take the time to type a personal comment to the person you are forwarding to--then don't bother.

- If you must forward to more than one person, put your email address in the TO: field and all the others you are sending to in the BCc: field to protect their email address from being published to those they do not know. This is a serious privacy issue! **Do you know how many of my friend's friend's email address I needlessly have due to this issue? So many!

- Be very careful how you use Reply to All and Cc: in a business environment. Doing so for CYA or to subtlety tattle can backfire and have your viewed as petty or insecure. **Annoyingly, the CYA (aka. tattle) happens a lot in my office.

- IMing is not an excuse to forget your grade school education. 

- Don't fall for trolls. Trolls are folks who will post rude comments just to get a rise out of everyone.**Did you guys see THIS post? If you get a chance, read it and then check out the subsequent comments!

- If any email states to forward to all your friends, or just 5 people -- do everyone a favor and just hit delete!

Here is the PDF of all 101 Tips.

What is your biggest email pet peeve? What is the worst case of punctuation or grammar you have ever experienced? You don't have to say who it was sent from, but were they supposedly an intelligent business person?

Mayhem in The Airport

Instead of grabbing a beer (inspired by Kim) and checking out my week, I am going to interrupt this regularly scheduled program with a little something different. You may know already that I spend a lot of time in airports. This week was an especially airport / airplane filled one! So, instead of looking what I did this week, we are going to do List Sunday, where I let you in on a few of my Travelers Peeves, Airport Style.

Air Force One - in SFO on Tuesday!

- People in the waiting area who sit in one seat, have a bag in another and their feet (or purse or food or...) in another. Especially when the airport is really busy. There is no need to take up more than one seat. The ones who lie down on the seats are equally as annoying. Common courtesy people!

- That guy who talks back to the flight attendant when she tells him that he cannot have three carry-on bags.

- People who have three carry on bags. Or people who, since you can only have two, have two of the biggest bags ever. And when the bags don't fit into the overhead, the people try over and over and over (while holding up the whole plane) to stuff the too big bag into the bin.

- People who take up a whole bin to themselves, whether or not they have three bags. They put their coat, their hat, their purse, shopping bag, suitcase and travel pillow into the bin so that it fills up the entire thing. Or they put their roller-board sideways, even though the attendants keep telling them, "wheels facing out!"

- That guy (and there always is one) at security who forgets to take his laptop out of the case (a no-no), who puts his case on top of the laptop (a no-no), who forgets to take his change out of his pockets, forgets to take his watch off, forgets that he has to take his coat and shoes off (annoying). I ALWAYS get behind that guy. Is this his first time flying? If it is, I forgive him. If it's not, get with the program. We are all trying to go someplace. Literally.

- The people in zone 4 who stand up right in front of the podium as soon as the flight crew says, "we are going to begin by boarding people with small children..." and then continue to stand there throughout the boarding process, even though they are NOT people with small children, nor are they in Zone 1, 2 or 3.

- The people who are in Zone 4 who get IN LINE when Zone 1 is called. Then when the attendant says, "sir, we are only boarding zone 1 now", he looks at her stupidly, and stands there for a while before finally getting out of line (and then getting back in once Zone 2 is called).

- The lady behind me when boarding who keeps touching (pushing) me / my back, as if by doing that, the ENTIRE LINE will move faster.

- The guy who keeps talking on the phone after the flight attendants say to turn the phones off. And then once they ask him again to please get off the phone, he looks at them disgustingly and keeps talking. (I love the campy gay attendants who give them attitude and say - Get Off The Phone, "SIR"!)

- People who stand two abreast on the moving walkway. "WALK-way" people! One of you needs to walk or both of you need to stand aside.

- People who are sitting behind me who put their feet on my armrest. It has happened!

- People sitting beside me who are kind of oozing over into my seat. I even had one guy snuggle up to me with his back towards me and his butt over the line. Too close for comfort.

- People who try to talk to you when you clearly (earphones, book, flat black stare) don't feel like talking.

- People at baggage claim who stand right up next to the conveyor, so then I can't see my bag and when I do see it at the last minute I have to lunge in and try to get it. I admit to "accidentally" knocking my bag into these people if they are inconveniently in the way of my bag extraction. (I like the places where they put the yellow line around the conveyor and you have to stand behind it and then you can step in and get your bag once you see it heading your way.)

- People who make out on the plane. Right next to me. Really? Are we 12?

Well, that was fun. I am sure there are many more, and maybe next time I should stop being so negative and make a list of things I LIKE about airports and airplanes. But this is more fun.

What are your airport and airplane pet peeves? If you don't travel a lot, what are your "crowded places" pet peeves (bar / restaurant / train station / elevator)??

Labor of Loathe

Before I get started, let me preface this post with the fact that I have a lot of carpenters and other laborers as family, friends and coworkers. So I know that electricians are people too and can be nice ones at that. I love old carpenters with their mangled hands and their cocky grins (and their dirty jokes). I love a manly man who can build something with his own two hands. I am used to boots and hard hats and beards and bellies and bad words. But I can't stand rudeness.

I don't like it when I am jolted awake at 5 a.m. every morning to the sound of slamming doors, loud voices and talking, gunning truck engines and backup beepers. I appreciate that laborers have to get up early and go to work, but I do not appreciate it when they feel the need to wake me up as well. The first door slam may have been an accident. The following 37 slams are just plain rude. The standing in the parking lot next to your running (diesel, smelly, loud) trucks, laughing and talking loudly at...5:27 a.m. is NOT acceptable behavior in a public place, especially one where other people are sleeping. Not only are other people sleeping because it's oh, EARLY in the morning, but they are sleeping becuase...you are standing outside a HOTEL!

This is so rude!!

I would like to say this is the only thing they have done, but it's not. The first day I came to Missouri, I checked into my hotel and there were a bunch of contractors standing right outside the entry door, smoking, drinking beer and...making comments about the good looking ladies. Which apparently to them...was me. I not only could HEAR them talking about me, but I had to pass them to get into the hotel. I had to pass through their smoke and their comments to get to my new "home". I felt uncomfortable.

But this morning I just felt mad. I mean, didn't their parents teach them any MANNERS!? Don't they realize that they are being rude?

But they probably don't. Most people who are doing whatever annoying thing they are doing do not realize their faults. Bad drivers...never THINK they are bad drivers. My grandmother drives 60 on the freeway becuase she is being "safe". Loud talkers never realize that they are being loud. I rode the bus once in some country where an American was yapping on and on about himself, loudly, and I though, GEEZ, someone needs to shut him up, he is the only loud person on this bus!

I am not perfect either. I sit quietly and fume about this annoying loud American, these contractors, or the little only lady going 60 on the freeway, but then I too, sometimes do similar things. We are blind to our own faults. Sometimes, we just need someone to (kindly) tell us that we are being rude. I think many of us would be embarrassed to hear it. I would. I think your kind piece of advice would be the best way of getting me to stop doing whatever rude thing I was doing. Rather than an angry accusation.

So I did not do what I wanted to do and stick my head out of the hotel window and yell, "SHUT THE *$%@ UP!" I think they would have just laughed. Nope, I got up and started my workday early. But if I see those guys in the hallway tonight, I am going to (kindly!!$%$#&) give them a piece of my mind.

What do you think I should do? Have you ever had to deal with rudeness? How did you handle it? What's something that you really think is rude? Do you tell your friends when you think they are being rude? 

Don't forget, I am having a giveaway! Go HERE to enter! 

Randoms

I was driving to work today and every lane was going the same speed. Three lanes, all going 58 MPH. I hate that. And there were miles of empty highway in front of them. I just couldn't get to it. I think getting over to the proper lane so people wanting to go faster than you CAN is not only a rule but a simple courtesy. I finally  passed the guy who had been camping in the left lane (I had to pass him on the right) and I tried to give him a really dirty look but he wouldn't look my way.

Yesterday I went into the lunch room to get a cup of coffee. There are three pots. All of them had about a millimeter of coffee in them. All three pots were on. The lunchroom smelled like burnt tar. I eeeked out about 2 inches of coffee into my cup and made three new pots of coffee. I went back a half an hour later. All pots were back to the millimeter point. I think there are about 4 people who make coffee and 400 people who drink it. I am going to sit in the lunch room and give people dirty looks if they don't make coffee when it's getting low.

My best friend is having a baby. Its a girl!! (yay!) That doesn't seem weird to you, but I still see her at 17, wearing converse and sneaking off to the river at night after her mom told us not to. She's going to be a great mom. I am totally going to go see her and spoil her daughter. I mean, isn't that what Aunties are for?

I think the IT department at work is reading everything I am writing...Hi guys!!! I wonder if they purposefully look at certain people's computers becuase they are more entertaining. If that's the case, I should be safe. I saw a guy looking at porn at work once. I mean, he couldn't wait until he got home? A little creepy if you ask me. Okay, a lot creepy.

When I sent out my Christmas cards last year, I sent them to people in 24 states and five countries. I think that is cool. Not cool like "look at me, I am cool" but just fun! I hope to someday sent one to someone in every state. I better get a move on. I need to meet some people from Alaska. Here are the states I have. AL, AR, AZ, CA, FL, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, MN, MT, NC, NJ, NV, NY, RI, SD, TX, VA, WA, WV. Where are you from? Is your state missing? Do you want a Christmas card?

So, do you have any driving pet peeves? Work pet peeves? Do you write Christmas cards to more that 24 states? Lets hear it.