Irritability

I'm not really sure that I was a patient child. I am sure that I'm not all that patient as an adult, though I think I hide it better.

Once upon a time one of my Uncle's was teasing me. I knew he knew that I was a twin and what that meant, but he kept asking this five or six year old, "And what day were you born. And was your twin born on the same day?" and I finally went to my mother and said, "Uncle ... is a little strange, isn't he?"

I'm still a little perplexed when people are obtuse. I hope I hide it better. The other day a customer tried to work our waffle maker. She put down the lid and was waiting. I went in and mentioned, 'If you're making a waffle you need to rotate the iron to start the timer." Her reply, "I'm waiting for it to heat up." And so I said, "It's already hot, you just need to spray the iron, pour in the batter, close the lid and rotate the iron to start the timer." "But don't you need to let it heat up first?" "No, it's already hot." "But it's still beeping like it needs to heat up." "No, it's hot, the beeping is to tell you to turn over the iron so as to start the timer. Look here's the directions." I guess my word wasn't enough. After she read the directions, she opened the iron, sprayed it, poured in the batter, and rotated the waffle iron.

Then there was another day when someone tried to help out by shutting off the waffle maker. He thought that it needed to be off when the waffles weren't being made. That the switch is in the back of the machine didn't bother him. Nope, he was helping us save electricity. And to help matters along, that day while I was out of the room but had a sign up saying, 'please don't use the waffle maker as it isn't hot yet.' someone went past the sign to get the waffle batter and poured some into the machine. I didn't appreciate the cleanup.

But I'm more confused by other things. Why would someone want to take the ironing board cover? Go to a dollar store and you can get one that hasn't been used. Or why would you take the extension cord that's behind the dresser? All that does is leave a lamp unusable since we can't plug it in until we get another extension cord. Towels I somewhat understand as they are useful and one can wash them. Nightlights I suspect are unplugged and then just swept up with the rest of the toiletries. how one fits an ironing board or luggage cart into a vehicle is beyond me, but I've had those disappear as well.

Sometimes what irritates me is not the big things like loss from the motel, but little things like trying to help. I give directions to people all the time with the map upside down. At this point if you turn the map away from you, I have a more difficult time. I'm trying to help you and the way I place the map will probably help both of us. Or when I give receipts and registration cards, I'm used to grabbing them from the way they're facing across the counter. If they're turned around to face me, my hands will automatically turn it around and it will be the wrong way. It doens't help to help. Or replacing the cap on a pen. If you're taking it with you, that's fine, but I have the cap on the base rather than the tip so that people can pick them up and use them. I've had people pick up every pen and change where the cap is. I can understand your automatically putting the cap over the tip on the one pen just used, but going through the whole pile and changing the way I've presented them (since they're usually in a patterned arramgement) doesn't help.

So my irritations have changed from teasing to other things. The question at the end of the day isn't about whether or not I get irritated but the response I have when the irritations happen. Some irritations I just have to live and can respond by being pleasant, others I can deal with the problem. The question is which are which. Someone who 'helps' by turning the papers the direction which I'm not used to having them isn't going to change if I snap at them. Someone who lets the waffle iron beep isn't going to learn if I bark the directions at them, but might if I ask politely and point to the sign. Someone who smokes in a non-smoking room probably isn't going to change, but I can charge them for the cean-up and that might make them a little more wary the next time and leave the next motel owner with less of an odor.

What can we do when we're irritated. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Hopefully we can figure out which is which and act accordingly.