Annoyances

Recently I did a MySpace survey and it asked me about things that annoy me. I cleverly replied "annoyances." Which is obviously true. But here is an expansion on that thought:

* Freecycle maniacs. I give a lot of stuff away on Freecycle, mostly because I can't be bothered trying to get money for things I just want out of my house and out of my life. It's much easier to give it away. But there are some people on Freecycle who seem to think they are granting me the mother of all favors by taking this stuff and want me to answer every stupid little question they might have about it. (Not that they're not doing me even a little favor; I see it as a mutually beneficial agreement.) Like when I gave away a wrought-iron wine-bottle holder. It was wrought-iron. It held three bottles. It had a leaf pattern on it. Seems simple enough, right? "We are interested in this item but want to know if it will fit in with our kitchen decor. Could you describe the leaf pattern in detail or enclose a photograph?" No, I could not, because there are ten more people interested in it, and I really don't have time to take your silly picture and send it to you. Seriously. If I'm giving away a rug or something, okay, then I'll enclose a picture, but otherwise, eff off! I gave away three bags full of VHS tapes and DVDs this week, and I literally had about twenty responses. People were falling over themselves to get these bags. And a woman e-mails me yesterday, two days after the posting, and not only is she the very last person to contact me -- in other words, no chance she's going to get the bags -- but she says in her e-mail, "I'm interested, but first I want to know if our movie tastes are similar, so do you think you could let me know what titles are included and then I'll decide if I want them or not?" Um. No. It's free. Take it or don't, I don't care, there are plenty more where you came from who are less annoying.

* Politics. This may surprise some of you. I am interested in politics even while I loathe it. Specifically, I loathe televised politics. Let's take the DNC for an example. "Hey, we have an hour and a half to go until Hillary Clinton gives her speech. Isn't that Bill Clinton over there? Yes, Bill Clinton is about fifteen feet away from me right now. How amazing. Why don't we go to another reporter, who can talk to us about what Hillary Clinton might talk about during her speech. Other reporter?" "Yes, I'm here, I see you're sitting no less than fifteen feet from former President Bill Clinton. That's great. Hillary Clinton is going to give a speech here in about ninety minutes. It will be an important speech. Let's talk to yet another reporter about how important this talk, ninety minutes away, will prove to the Democratic party. Other reporter?" ... and on. And on. And on. I can't handle it. I don't watch it. If I have my way, the TV is OFF during election season. Unfortunately, D is a political junkie, and he actually likes watching that stuff (do not ask me why). I'll read about it, sure, but it's like watching football to me. Twenty seconds of action followed by twenty minutes of discussion on the action. Argh. (Yes, football really, really annoys me, too.)

* Somehow, some way, several music publicists got a hold of my phone number and e-mail address, and they seem to have no problem passing it along to their colleagues. That would be great, if I covered music -- which I do, occasionally, but usually only for the blog, and only in the paper if our music editor has already passed on the music in question. So I have people e-mailing and calling me, ad nauseum, about all these bands, and "do you think you'll cover this band who's going to be here in September '09?" I don't fucking know! I'm not the music editor! I do respond to my e-mails (although not anymore), and I do answer my phone, and I try to be helpful, but really, I'm not the person here you need to talk to about music. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Please, tell all your friends. Don't call me or ask me about your indie rock band who's about to blow up the charts. Unless you're a trip-hop or dark, dirty drum and bass DJ, or unless you're Blackalicious or the Digable Planets or Dilated Peoples, just don't even try, because I don't care.

Wow. I feel much better now.