I’m reading this book about writing and one of the exercises was to take 10 minutes to gripe. So, I set my timer and began to gripe about things that really grate my ever last nerve. Mind you, this is the condensed version of my pet peeves since I was only allotted 10 minutes. Try this yourself and see how fun or funny it gets. It never can hurt to unload your growls and gripes on paper or screen.

So, here goes, I’m gonna take just 10 short minutes, hop on my soapbox and spout out about some aggravating things other people do. King of this “it-ticks-me-off” agenda would have to be lying. I despise being lied to. People who lie to me will be guaranteed a wall of distance from getting close to me or rather will just have to endure my distrustful glances every time they open their mouths to communicate. Hey, even God hates lying. Look it up. Actually, even white lies can do harm in the long run regardless of the reasons. If you can’t be honest just bite your tongue until it bleeds!

Next in line would be narcissism. These days, selfishness seems to be promoted as “taking good care of oneself” or “self love”. There’s clearly a difference in holding oneself as more important than others and just simply loving yourself for who God made you. It is possible to treat yourself with kindness and compassion without promoting yourself as center of the universe.

Narcissism leads me into my third gripe, which is public toilet seat “drippers”. You know, those self-centered individuals who hover their “obviously-so-much- more-precious-than-ours” buns over the rim, avoiding contact, yet leaving pools and droplets of their own fowl urine for the rest of us to wipe away before we sit. I actually get fairly vigilante about how I view this nasty habit. Don’t let me be the one that comes into the stall after you pee-pee crop-dust the commode seat! I will be dragging you back in to rub your nose in it.