Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Is it me or is it them?

So I like to consider myself to be fairly even tempered person with a good amount of common sense but recently I'm starting to really wonder. Are people in general just getting more annoying and dumb or is it that I'm becoming more easily irritated? Here's a few scenarios to give you some examples:

A few weeks ago, Brandon and I went and saw Vantage Point. It was a Saturday night and the theater was full and some how I found myself sitting next to a little girl who was probably about four. Yes, a four year old at a PG-13 movie on a Saturday night. I just kept looking over at her mom wondering if they were in the wrong movie. So all during the movie, the little girl was obviously bored and kept poking her mom to which her mom would tell her to "stop it". Then as the movie is ending, the mom comments to the person next to her, "well that was a bunch of #$%^" and proceeds to turn the ringer back up on her cellphone as Dennis Quaid is still talking! It took everything in me not to go off on what a horrible parent she is and selfish and self-centered and inconsiderate to the people sitting around her and... Brandon got an earful though!

Every week I take Carly to storytime at Borders. She absolutely loves it. Miss Susan reads book and sings songs with sign language or actions. "You got to shake, shake, shake your sillies out..." So I like to get there early to get a good seat. Well, last week Carly and I are waiting for storytime to start and some lady with two kids squeezes herself into the space next to me which was too small for her. I'll admit I have an issue with personal space but I tried to be nice and scooted over some. Then as it was starting, she calls over two more kids equaling a total of four kids! All during story time her kids are tripping over me and each other. About half way through I notice that one of her kids has a goopy eye that looks rather pink, which could be nothing other than PINK EYE! And extremely contagious! Blah! And the little girl was reading the store books and running around touching other people. I was so disgusted! I couldn't decide if this woman just didn't know or if she didn't care. And i wanted to say something but I couldn't think of a good way to inform her that her daughter is infecting the general public with pink eye!

And these are just two of my experiences. It's like I can't go out in public without some person doing something irritating, invading my personal space, bringing beer to a community pool in the middle of the afternoon... It feels like it happens so often that maybe it's not them, maybe it's me. Does anyone else feel this way?

7 comments:

AJ said...

So I guess it isn't just a Baltimore thing. You are not being unreasonable Carissa. People in general are just more inconsiderate these days.

Armstrongs said...

Carissa...I truly believe each day people in this country get a little more stupid...Wait...It could just be people in the South. Are you sure the person sitting next to you in the movies wasn't from Birmingham???

Mack Attack said...

Reading this blog actually made me feel better about my own irritations (which I've decided I might need irritation management for).

Rachel said...

I too have major personal space issues. Like your friend aj said, people are getting more and more inconsiderate these days. Think what they'll be like when our kiddos get older. I shudder at the thought!

Matt and Jennae Porter said...

You took the words right out of my mouth. People are rude, inconsiderate, and just plain annoying. I've gotten a lot more bold over the past year or two, and have no problem confronting someone!! Case in point, I would have said to the mom in Borders: "Excuse me, I see that your child has pus draining out of his eye. I realize you may not care enough to treat your kid's raging eye infection, but it's not fair to everyone else who's kids are healthy. Can you please make sure he keeps his hands to himself?" OK maybe not quite that rude, but close to it.

Starley Family said...

I guess we can't change everything all at once, but with a little patience we'll enlighten those around us and hopefully it ripples down to everyone else. Good luck with that. At least you can remember to tell Carly when she's an adult (or will she just further be annoyed by the next generation of ingrates?)

Joe, D.D.S. said...

Can't believe this would happen in San Diego but I'm right with you on this one. 79% of people in the world are ignorant and disconnected with reality. Kind of sucks being one of the 21%. Hope you guys are doing well.