In previous years, my husband has been the designated car-pool driver. This year, I am it. Her. Whatever. My neighbor and I share duties. Last week, she told me that I was responsible for Wednesdays and Fridays. On Friday, I left my computer (where I work from noon until 5 p.m.) to pick up the kids. When I got there, I discovered she’s already picked them up.
Today, I am working and get a phone call at 3:35 p.m. My son was calling from school, wondering if someone was coming to pick them up. They’d been waiting since 3:00 p.m. Apparently, that someone was me. Even though it wasn’t my day. So I thought.
My daughter and I climbed into my giant green van. It’s only a five minute drive to the school under normal circumstances. Today was abnormal. Today, cars idled on the street I needed to cross. The side street was backed up about fifteen cars because no one could turn on the cross street because the cars weren’t moving. I believe there was a paving projects some miles up the road.
It was kind of like a river without a bridge. No way to cross.
So, I backed up my huge van, turned around and parked a few blocks over. I decided it would be quicker to walk across that street that to try to drive across it. I’m guessing that my daughter and I walked about a mile round-trip to pick up the boys. The sun was hot. I was away from my desk, from my job. And it wasn’t even my day to pick up the kids!
What should have taken less than fifteen minutes ended up taking over thirty. Forty-five? Who knows?
My neighbor told me later that her days to work are Monday and Wednesday. (Have I lost my mind? She told me differently and I marked my calendar accordingly not so long ago!) I hope we can get this whole car-pool thing figured out eventually.
And now, for the Pet Peeve of the Day: I am peeved when I find multiple open containers of the same item in my fridge. I don’t want to see two open gallons of milk, true. But much worse is when I find two open containers of mayonnaise (HEY, CHECK THE FRIDGE BEFORE YOU OPEN A NEW ONE!) or two Costco-sized containers of mustard–which is exactly what you’ll find in my fridge at this very moment.
I hate that almost as much as driving car-pool.
What’s your Pet Peeve of the Day?
Actual Unretouched Photo 
Today’s Pet Peeve: I hate it when people say they need to speak to me and they set a date, but they do not tell me what we need to speak about. I have two such engagements tomorrow and I’m fretting! What could these two people possibly want from me? WHAT?
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It sure seems hard for that to figure out the days of the week. Me? I’m getting tired of seeing people drive through red lights.
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I hate it when you plan something with someone and then they “forget” or don’t tell you that changed their plans, or they flat blow you off. I hate rearrainging my schedule for someone only to have them waste my time.
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Dirty dishes in the sink when the dishwasher is standing there, empty, begging for the dishes to be loaded in, a scant six inches away. PUT THE DISHES IN THE DISHWASHER, PEOPLE.
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First of all, not getting school supply requests from teachers until the 2nd or 3rd day of school and then having only a few days to secure such items. Secondly, Teachers with very specific school supply requests that are difficult to fulfill. Hello-o-o. Retail has moved on to Halloween! I want them to go with me from store to store looking through the jumbled boxes, messy shelves, and only have pink and purple pencil pouches for their 7th grade son!
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Detours.
I have lived in this town for 50 years, and I have seen parts of it today I never knew existed.
I happened to be already taking a detour, but that detour had a detour.
There is SO much of this, that they leave the detour signs up even when they are not necessary, which causes everyone who lives around here NOT to trust the signs.
“Detour” usually means “Ha Ha! Made you drive out of your way for nothing!”
That is, until today.
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How weird. I have two jars of mayo opened in my fridge, too, and it makes me crazy! Just crazy! My pet peeve is when people aka my kids, drop pencils or pens on the floor and don’t pick them up. I know it sounds strange, but it happens a lot around here and it just makes me nuts. What is it with them?
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That sounds like a very frustrating situation with your carpool.
My latest pet peeve is when I offer to tend for someone and they drop off a sick kid at my house…or I drop my kids off for a playdate and find out later that someone in their house was throwing up…or when I go out with a friend and she hacks away the entire time and says, “I must be getting sick”. Especially a few days before school starts and ten days before a big vacation. Ya, we are almost through all the sicknesses we caught last week.
Also, when my husband opens up a can of applesauce or fruit for the kids when we have a bowl full of fresh fruit that needs to be eaten.
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This very day I was thinking about this very thing because these events took place within the past 24 hours:
I hate it when you go through a drive thru and they fail to give you a straw.
(HELLO! IT’S A DRIVE THRU!!! I CANNOT DRIVE AND DRINK MY LARGE ICED TEA WITHOUT A LID! SO I EITHER HAVE TO STAY THIRSTY OR ENDANGER THE LIVES OF MY PASSENGERS AND EVERYONE IN TRAFFIC!!!!! DON’T THE MC DONALD’S PEOPLE REALIZE THE MORAL DILEMMA THAT PUTS ME IN?!!!!!)
Dropped calls.
When a CD skips in the CD player. Why does it ALWAYS happen during my favorite song?
When my husband clips his toenails in bed. I have to leave the room or I would be compelled to stab him repeatedly with an orange stick. There is no middle ground about this.
The fact I cannot read a magazine without my eyeglasses. And my eyeglasses are in my purse. And I do not take my purse into the bathroom.
I have now unburdened my soul. Thank you.
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I just found four open bags of brown sugar in the pantry. It’s actually hard to blame my husband for this one because he wouldn’t even know what the word pantry means, let alone what to do with brown sugar. Dang…
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when the towels in the bathroom are just SHOVED on the towel rack. IS IT REALLY THAT HARD TO FOLD THEM PROPERLY SO THEY WILL DRY? arrgh
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