Two things that drive me nuts. Part I

FIRST

I can't stand it when a friend or an acquaintance comes up to you and says, "I have something I need to tell me. Give me a call." Arrrg! Why do people do this? First of all, you're right there in front of me, why not say it? If it needs to be said in private, we can go to the other room or outside or at least move out of earshot of the person who'll be offended. Why does a phone have to be involved? And why am I supposed to be the one to call? I don't have anything to say to you. And, I promise, I won't be calling you back.

Same goes for those people who ask me to e-mail them. Why can't they e-mail me? Are they too busy to e-mail me, but assume I'm not too busy to e-mail them and wait for a response? (I admit, I'm rarely too busy to e-mail, but that's not the point.) Someone on wingb's blog did this to her. It took quite a bit of will power for me not to write something about it there, but that's her blog, and I don't need to pick a fight about manners with someone who is her friend and I don't know at all. I'm sure this tkd_ostrich is a perfectly nice person, but I still hate it when people do this.

(Sorry wingb, I don't want to pick on your blog or your friend, but the thought of that was driving me nuts. I held off for as many days as I could.)

SECOND

When did people stop knocking on bathroom doors? Almost each time I use the bathroom at work, someone on the outside grabs the handle and tries to shove the door open. It's not a simple tester jiggle, these people expect the room to be empty and think the door will be unlocked for them. At first, I thought it was mostly young people who were doing this, but most of the time, when I leave the room, it's a guy at or above the age of thirty. According to the girls I work with, the women don't knock either. Didn't their mothers teach them that you should always knock on a closed bathroom door? This is a public place that can have up to a thousand people a day, couldn't people be in the bathroom at the time you'd like to use it? Do you think the people using the bathroom like it when you walk in on them? Would you like it?

It's not hard. If the door that houses the toilet is closed, curl your fingers into the palm of your hand then use your knuckles to tap. If someone's in there, I bet you'll hear an answer, if you don't it's safe to try the door. When you try the door, though, don't jerk the handle down and throw your shoulder into it, be gentle, in case it is locked and the person in there didn't answer. You don't want to scare him and make him pee on the floor, do you?