Pet Peeve #29

Stinky People.

I've had two encounters with stinky people in the last week and they both happened in grocery stores. Last week I was in the Moscow Food Co-op and mind you, it's a Co-op, where scents of Patchouli, incense and organic foods abound along with the majority of the shoppers being neo-hippies. I get that some of them are saving the aquifer by not bathing everyday but at some point they do bathe. I was in the store getting some tea (and I admit...incense) and while in the tea aisle a co-op volunteer stopped next to me to load up some shelves and the BO was so overpowering I had to grab whatever tea I could get to first and high tail it out of the aisle. Now I understand the conserving water aspect for not bathing regularily but what exactly happens to the air quality around you??? Believe me, taking a shower will not the end of the world be.

Today I was in Winco and I rounded a corner just in time to get a huge whiff of BO, stale cigarettes and alcohol. I looked up to see a 40 something who was shopping with his mother at the end of the aisle. I could tell he hadn't seen the inside of a shower for days by the crumpled clothes and 5 days of growth on his face. This guy still lives with his Mommy and she probably had to force him out of bedroom to help her with bagging the groceries. He probably pissed and moaned because he'd been on a 5 day bender of playing the new Halo game or was surfing the net for porn. He reminded me of an Ignatious Reilly-type from 'Confederacy of Dunces'. I could be completely wrong though as I could only take about 2 seconds of the stench before I had to change my grocery shoppping plan and skip the aisle that they were in and avoid them altogether while I completed the grocery task.

There is no way I could've lived before the invention of scented soaps and deoderant. Being around stinky poeple just makes me want to gag and well, you all know how I feel about that.

Pet Peeve/ Phobia #1

Barf. Chunder. Hurl. Upchuck. Spew. Vomit. Puke.

Nothing churns my stomach more than witnessing the contents of one's churned stomach. We went to the fair this evening and I have never in my life seen so many people get ill as I have this evening. It was awful to catch a glimpse of an ashen gray/ green face only to quick look away about 5 seconds too late. It was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I had to write about it.

I don't know when this phobia kicked in but I think it may have been back when I was in grade school going to Libby's Logger Days when I (once again) looked at precisely the right moment and saw someone lose it on the Round -Up and just when I was feeling brave enough to go on that ride too. Or was it in second grade when a kid spewed in class. Thankfully I didn't see that one happen but I heard the kid next to me yell, "Albert threw up!" but what I heard was, "Albert blew up!" and by god, I wasn't about to look at my now exploded classmate. From then on out I was terrified that I would get seated in front of poor Albert.

So now you know my weakness. You can put me in a pit full of snakes and venemous spiders or even make me bungee jump from the tallest bridge but please.....please.....just don't hurl in front of me.

Pet Peeve #426

I will announce it to the world right now that I am not an English major. In fact our blog is littered with grammar and puncuation errors but this doesn't stop me from pointing out one of my pet peeves: The use of the word HEIGHTH.

I was somehere the other day when I was asked, "What is your heighth?" I wanted to reply "5'4" and would you like my weighth as well?"

Heighth is no longer a word, people!