This is the blog where I reveal myself to be petty, judgmental,and oh so superficial. I know that what I am about to reveal will turn at least some of my readers off. I do not take this step lightly. So here it is.

I have a list of things, observations,if you will about that which really bugs me. Ready, set, go.

When I am visiting that large retailer that specializes in women’s lingerie I am creeped out by teenage girls who think they need to shop there with their boyfriend. I am not against men being in the store(accent on the word men). They may be there buying a gift for a wife or girlfriend,I get that. But 15 year old girls with their boyfriends really turn me off. I can’t imagine myself at that age wanting any boy I knew with me when I was purchasing underwear!! I can’t be alone in this view. My own 17 year old daughter confirms the “ick” factor of these shoppers and tells me that on occasion she has left the store because the “boyfriends” seem too interested in the purchases of girls other than their “sweetheart”. I would be happier if there was a rule against boys who may not even be shaving yet, pawing through a table of ladie’s “panties.”

OK. truth time. I hate that word. My mother called it underwear, I call it underwear, all my friends call it underwear. I know no one who call them “panties.”

Except on TV, when ever the police/district attorney are questioning a crime subject “panties” is the word of choice. Stop it. It’s underwear, underpants if you must, but never “panties.” Exception to this rule the phrase “don’t get your panties in a bundle” on second thought, that sounds better if you say “undies.”

Next, and this is a chip shot I know, people talking on their cellphones loudly, when I can’t get away from them. For example in a line to an art exhibit. I don’t mean conversations like,”I’ll pick you up at 6.” I mean why they hate their ex, co-worker, teacher or U.S. Senator. And recently a new kind of stupid was revealed to me on a Metra-train in Chicago when a woman told the person on her cellphone that she was going to have to hang up because the people around her on the train were talking and that was too distracting for her!

Ordered food at a counter-type eatery lately? I hate it if the person (usually a young person) doesn’t make eye-contact or say hello before saying “may I take your order?” The combination of the two really steams me.Having been in the service industry for many years this simple rule of customer service smooths over a lot of mistakes and problems; smile, say hello, and really see the customer. But what bothers me more is the large corporations usually behind these ill-trained clerks with their “customer satisfaction surveys” printed on the receipt for you to access via an 800 number or website. Have you ever done one of them? There is usually no way to give actual feedback on poor or good customer service. Just a scale ranking tool. “Rate the speed of service 1 being poor 5 being excellent” No where can you report the fact that the person behind the counter was distracted by the cute guy behind you and had to ask you three times what you wanted.
And soon the Holidays will be here. You may think a grump like me would just hate them. The crowds, the early decorating by retailers, Christmas music everywhere. You would be wrong. I love Christmas in all it’s real and pretend meaningfulness and glitz. But lately I have noticed something that bugs me. People who say “Merry Christmas ” as if it’s a dare. As in “I refuse to say ‘Happy holidays’ because December should only be about Christmas.” Now I am Christian. Christmas Eve will find me in church. But I live and work in a diverse community and unless I know someone is Christian I wish them “Happy holidays” or the like. I don’t need to batter everyone with “Merry Christmas” as a way to rub in the fact that for the most part most folks in this country are “Christian”. It’s not polite or nice or “Christian”. If I say “Merry Christmas” it’s because I really mean it because you really celebrate it. I don’t say it as a political “gotcha” phrase. And If I say Happy Holiday’s ” it’s because I wish you a joyful time enjoying the holiday that you may celebrate apart from Christmas,be it Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Years.

So there you have it. A bunch of reasons for you to stop reading my blog. But maybe just maybe, I’m not alone in these thoughts. Maybe one or two of them ring true for you too.And then you’ll keep reading. That would make me happy. It would keep my “undies out of a bundle” all through the holidays. I’m just say’n.