from me!
Whenever someone asks me what my pet peeves are, I always say the same three things: people clapping in between movements at classical music concerts, grammatical/typographical errors in printed material, and going to bed when the kitchen is still dirty.
But the other day, I thought of a pet peeve that I'd never really realized before--one that the only culprit is me. I realized this after I had physically run into three different people in the grocery store (all within about five minutes of each other), after I had accidentally stepped in front of my sister as she was trying to walk through a door with her arms full, and when I realized that I had forgotten to do two or three different things for work that I should have taken care of a few days earlier...and that it had inconvenienced several people.
I hate being in the way. Whether I am actually physically in someone's way, or if I am causing someone an inconvenience, or even if someone does something that inconveniences him/herself because of me, it's all the same. They all make me feel like I am "in the way." It's funny, because I often try really hard to change my behavior so that I am not in the way, but often, that ends up being even worse. It's so difficult, when you are trying to organize your father's books and magazines to surprise him, and as it turns out, all those stacks of magazines that looked messy to you were actually organized already in piles to give to different people in a few days. Or when you are with the man of your dreams and he tries to woo you with champagne...and ends up sitting on the champagne flutes. Whoops. And you feel terrible, because if you hadn't been there, he wouldn't have done that, obviously!
Oops.
Or, like the other day when I tried to run into the room and clear a space for an armload of stuff that my sister was trying to put away, and I just ended up running into her and knocking over a suitcase and a stack of books instead. Oh bother. I'm a real lady, with poise to burn. Obviously.
You know, you'd think that since I dislike it so much, I'd figure out how to be less in the way and more accommodating. Or at least handle it a little gracefully, like Julia Ormond does. I mean, she has the nerve to slap Harrison Ford just a few minutes later! Brave woman. I'd probably just trip over his shoe.
Oh well. Guess I'm just a slow learner. And after all, someone has to provide the slapstick comedy. Maybe I'll try the Donald O'Connor tactic. Because who doesn't like him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW02c5UNGl0&feature=related (This video had embedding disabled. Sorry.)
Meanwhile, sorry if I, uh, knock you down or something. I'm probably just trying to get out of the way.
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