Feeling peevish...

In my supermarket today, I picked up a copy of a free magazine.  I won't name names, but on the cover of this magazine was a local cosmetic dentist. She is a very attractive person, every hair was in place, her skin looked lovely, her teeth (of course) were perfect, and her makeup was quite nice, except for one thing: she had on so much BLACK EYE MAKEUP that it completely detracted from everything else. She had rimmed her eyes with black pencil along with a lot of black eyeshadow in a very "Debbie Harry as Blondie" way that is now very dated looking. It just wasn't an attractive look - on her as a middled-aged woman, or on ANYONE.

At first I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, and I thought: what a shame; someone must have told her to put on extra makeup for the photo session and maybe she didn't know any better and put on too much.  I thought: she'll probably be horrified when she sees the photo and will want to sue the magazine.  Until I started browsing through the magazine and notice that she also had a half-page black and white ad in there -- with the same ridiculous-looking makeup job. Clearly this is how this dentist chooses to look every day of her life.  She's stuck in a style rut!

And what's worse, I didn't even NOTICE her great-looking teeth until much later (and after all, as a cosmetic dentist she's a walking billboard for her own services).  I couldn't get past the bad eye-job - there were just no good excuses. She wasn't a young teenage girl trying to freak her parents out by going Goth. She wasn't a super-model or a movie star preparing to be on film with an artistically exaggerated makeup. She wasn't from a cultural or ethnic background where rimming one's eyes with kohl is considered a thing of beauty. No, she was just a dentist who clearly hadn't updated her style or look in decades; and I'm guessing no one has ever taken the time to tell her the truth about how her eye makeup is aging her when she probably thinks she looks great -- because that's how she did her eye makeup 20 years ago.

I have no idea why this woman's makeup bothered me so much - in truth, I typically don't care much how others look or what they wear as long as they're CLEAN, and normally when I observe someone else obsessing over something so trivial, my usual response is:  "You must have way too much time on your hands if THAT'S all you have to worry about."  And I know I'm not perfect and I don't always look that put together, either. But it's always easier to criticize the other guy than look at ourselves, have you noticed that? Eventually I just chalked it up to it being one of those human "pet peeves" that we all have.  And this got me thinking about other things that tend to irritate me more than the average. 

So, in the interest of letting my shallower side come out for a breath of fresh air once in awhile, and because sometimes writing all the time about soul and spirit and positive thinking can get a little old, here's a short (?) list of stuff that really gets on my nerves - just because I need to get it off my chest!

1. Women who don't realize their hair, makeup or clothing style is either all wrong, too much, or too outdated -- please, ladies, look in a mirror once in awhile and don't keep the same look decade after decade. Watch a makeover show for current tips or ask a professional to help you update your look! You can even get advice and tips online now.
2. Women who won't tell a friend that her their hair, makeup or clothing style is either all wrong, too much or outdated (women really can be bitches sometimes.)
3. People who talk on their cell phones while driving without using a headset, who get so engrossed in their own conversations they don't realize they are driving at 28 MPH in a 45MPH zone (not only are you people not safe to be on the road, but the rest of us who are stuck behind you while you chat with your boyfriend for the 12th time that day have to GET someplace! Hang up the phone and drive already!)
4. People who actually try to READ while driving on the freeway doing 70 MPH -- do you not care about anyone else's life with your dangerous driving, buddy?
5. Bigots. Racicts. People who "got religion" and need to moralize to the rest of the world about how their theology is the "right one".
6. A government who thinks it needs to get into every aspect of a citizen's life - including trying to legislate away her right to die.  "Culture of Life?"  HA!  Being technically "alive" is not the same thing as "living". Just because most people fear death, they can't imagine that it's OK to die - they think dying is the worst thing imaginable. In my mind, being in a body that can no longer serve you with a brain that is operating at an infancy level is not "living". Sometimes the most human thing IS to help someone be at peace. The politicians and so-called "right to life" activists should mind their own business.
7. Smokers who love smoking so much they don't want to quit, but who toss their butts (cigarette, not the other kind) out the car windows, or drop or crush the used butts on the ground right where they're standing or walking, thereby littering the environment -- like it's not bad enough the rest of us have to breath the air around you when you walk by puffing away, or smell the stale stench on your clothes, hair and breath when you talk to us after having recently partaken in your favorite pasttime. I know, I know - you have the right to smoke if you want to, and that's your choice. Well, fine, if that's how you want to live your life. I'm not here to tell you have to live your private life.  I do, however, take issue when your private choices spill over and affect the rest of us.

Here's what I don't get about many smokers: if smoking is so damned great, why don't you want the ashes or ciggy butts in YOUR car?  Why do you have to toss it out the car windows and screw up the environment?  Can't you find some way of disposing of your precious cigarette other than throwing it on the ground where I will get to walk on it with my cute shoes, or worse yet, where it might even a brush fire?  I won't waste MY (clear, smoke-free) breath telling you what you already know about the effects of smoking on your health, but PLEEZ: if you like doing it so much, keep the "remains of decay" to yourselves and at least be considerate about it.  The world is littered enough without any more help from YOU.

Before all of you who happen to be smokers start writing me hate mail, let me just say that I KNOW not all smokers litter when they're smoking and many of you are, in fact, very considerate people who just want to enjoy a smoke but don't wish to bother anyone (and we non-smokers really do appreciate that), but for those that feel the need to "smoke with an attitude" and get on your high horse with "I have the right to smoke if I want to" blah blah blah -- if you won't clean up your bad habit, at least clean up your ACT when you're smoking in public because the rest of us DO have to live with it when you don't.  Smoke if you must, but be responsible to the environment and the other people who have to live on the planet with you... and your cigarettes.

So, forgive me for being on a little rant tonight.  Sometimes you just have to vent so you can move on and use your powers for GOOD.  Now maybe I can get some sleep... nighty-night, friends!