I have noticed lately, as I am well into my 40's, that I am less likely to tolerate things that annoy me. Previously I was a lot more easy-going and would just take things in stride but as I get older I find myself not being willing to tolerate certain situations and avoiding people and places that have this impact on me. I was walking somewhere the other day and it occurred to me that as I get even older, this is likely going to get worse.
It's the way that I am and while there are certain days that I am more willing to be patient, most of the time I will speak up or just leave a situation that has these things in it. Let me make a short list and see how many of you feel the same way.
Loud places
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To many, the picture above might seem like a good time but to me it seems like hell just by looking at it and if I was even in a place that packed, which is almost certainly also very loud, I would leave because I would hate every minute of it. Far too often, I am invited somewhere by someone only to arrive and discover that they have the sound system at what has to be close to maximum volume. It is impossible for me to relax or have fun in these situations and even if I miss out on a "good time" I will leave.
There are some local bars where I have some clout as a regular and one of them in particular will always put the volume on both sports and music at a level that makes it nearly impossible for the people that are there to speak to one another. I am able to get them to turn it down or even off in these places. Look, I don't need the places I go to to be library-quiet, but I do not see the point of going somewhere social when it isn't possible to talk to the other people there. If you are paying for a concert I get it, but just some random place? Screw all that nonsense.
Smokers coughing up a lung and then complaining about illness
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I'm an ex-smoker. It was the ignorance and invulnerability of youth that lead me down that path. I'm not disappointed that I ever picked the habit up because it was something that basically everyone did when I was a teenager and in my 20's. Very few of the people I knew were non-smokers. Almost all of them are now though. I don't understand how anyone can continue this habit knowing what we know now.
But all that aside and because I am willing to allow others to do whatever the hell they want to, there is one thing that I have zero sympathy for and will call the people out every time it happens. Someone I know was irritatingly "coughing up a lung" around all of us and if we were outdoors he was spitting on the ground as well. It sounds disgusting, it is disgusting. It's also very loud which ties into my first point. This guy when asked "are you alright dude?" answered with "I'm coming down with a head cold" while simultaneously butting out his 15th cigarette of the afternoon. While I am not denying the possibility that there is a bit of a cold involved there since it is that time of year, it is you and your habits that are making this everyone's problem instead of your own. Your body is reacting so violently to a tiny cold that I had as well and was over in 36 hours because you have a self-destructive habit. I don't think that smokers have any ground to complain about respiratory issues when they are intentionally wrecking their respiratory system 20-40 times a day.
Once I was driving a motorcycle with a girl who was a smoker on the back and when I got behind a truck and some exhaust headed our direction she started coughing, complaining about the fumes. I said "you intentionally poison yourself 30 times a day, shut up."
Get TF back home with your loud, phlegm-filled, annoying and persistent hacking.
People cutting in line
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I'm not talking about "my friend was holding me a spot" sort of thing but the people that just seem to think that the line or queue doesn't apply to them. Some nationalities seem to make this a national sport to annoy the rest of the world and I have experienced plenty of that in SE Asia. I think it is directly related to affluence as well, as strange and sad as that may sound but I base this on the fact that when I was in wealthy Asian countries like Korea and Japan, everyone politely gets in line and the whole system works faster because of that. Here in the relatively poor South though, lines are routinely ignored by certain members of society. This is oddly quite evident in the type of people that were in my 2nd point too who walk into a mini-mart that has a line and they don't even make an attempt to join said line. They walk up to the front sometimes interrupting the current transaction to get a pack of ciggies. Do they think that because of their habit that they are somehow entitled to not wait in line? It's gotten to the point where I will "OI!" someone and then point at the line in an intimidating fashion.
They act all sorry most of the time at that point and also look at the line like they didn't know what it was for. They know what it is for, they are just inconsiderate members of society. Don't even get me started on behavior at airports.
People not being aware of their surroundings
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This has a lot to do with phones but is not entirely related to it. It is evident that there are a lot more zombies wandering our streets who can't manage to put down the phone long enough to walk across the street but that isn't the full extent of it. I'm also talking about people who abruptly turn around on a sidewalk nearly running into the people behind them and even children who meander on their bikes or when running out into the street. In places like Vietnam this extends also to people that are operating vehicles who seem to think they are the only people on the road.
Maybe I am more sensitive to this because I have spent my entire life trying to be polite and not get in other people's way. When I am jogging I am constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure that I am not going to run into anyone. Others do not have the same courtesy as I will frequently encounter groups of people that instead of walking single file will occupy the entire sidewalk end to end with apparently zero concern about the fact that the people walking towards them now have no way of getting around them. When they act all surprised about why there is an issue when we do finally meet, I want to punch them or even better, treat it like a game of "red rover" that I played as a child and get a running start to see if I can break through their lines.
These are just the examples of things that popped up in the past 24 hours, I'm sure there are plenty more.
I'm slowly slipping into the grumpy old man portion of my life I guess.