Pet Peeves

I had never heard that phrase before the 7th grade. That particular year in my life, I was obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This would be circa 1990. I received nothing but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(TMNT) presents for my birthday. Give me a break, I was only 13. Anyway, one of these presents was a book about the story of the TMNT movie that was released that year. It had biographies for the individual turtles, and also listed their "Pet Peeves". I stared at it for a minute, completely stumped, yet after reading the entry, I caught on. A Pet Peeve is something that irks you to no end.

That being said, I would like to share with you my personal pet peeve.

I HATE IT WHEN THINGS DON'T WORK!

I was going to do a load of laundry. Not 2 loads, not 10 loads. ONE LOAD. The laundry room adjacent to my apartment is card based. I have to use my credit card, and a balance of at least $15 is put into the system. Every time I slide my card, the funds are extracted from the $15 balance and is used to power the washers and driers. So here's what happens. I take my ONE LOAD of laundry next door, select a washer, slide my credit card, which happens to have a balance of $1.75 left for laundry, select said washer, and hit "OK". I get a message saying that the washer I've selected is not responding, kindly select another. Every time I do this, the machine resets, and I have to start all over again. So I go through the motion again. Same error message. I end up doing it for every washer in the place... but to no avail. I'm somewhat irked.

I leave in a huff, and consult the map of my apartment complex to find the nearest laundry room. Seeing as how the apt. complex is a good 1,000 units strong, I hop in the car and drive over to the next laundry room. As I carry in my ONE LOAD of laundry, I notice that all the washers and driers are coin operated. Great. I leave a good deal more irked.

I consult my map and drive to the next laundry room. Coin operated. Now I'm cursing (sorry Mom & Dad) and hacking out the wilderness(Smothers Brothers reference) and am fully irked at this point. I drive back to my apartment in a very bad mood, and I throw myself down on the couch to wallow in my own misery.

After I've stewed in anger for an hour or so, I decide to give it one last try. I stomp next door, slide my card, knowing what's coming. Futility. All this unnecessary pain and suffering over ONE LOAD of laundry. Irked to no end.