The Bathroom Blunders

Don't you hate it when you have a "crappy" experience in the bathroom? I apologize for the pun, but with an entry like today's I just couldn't seem to pass it up. Anyways, today's post will focus on the unfortunate occurrences that individuals sometimes experience while in the bathroom. The first of these can strike on any given day at any given time: the non-existence of toilet paper. I know, I know...the images can be disturbing. So picture this. You finish up a long day of work/school, nothing particularly eventful happened. Just another day on the job. You go into the bathroom, park yourself on the can, grab your favorite magazine and begin to do the deed. Things are going well. You find an article about the drama in the World Series because the two starting pitchers for Game 1 had previously played for the Cleveland Indians or a cute new way to turn that old flower pot into a candle somehow. A little while has passed and the deed is almost done, so you reach for the toilet paper. But GASP, THERE IS NONE! Muahahaha, the inconsiderate family member has struck again! After he finished his extracurricular bathroom activities he decided not to reload the TP roller because dinner was burning or the commercial was over, or maybe he's just too lazy to do it. Thinking nothing of it, he tends to the meal or watches the news. You go in there and you're the new victim. Now this isn't necessarily an absolute disaster. Pending the design of your bathroom, you may be able to reach some back-up rolls under the sink or on top of the toilet. If this is the case consider yourself lucky. If this isn't feasible, there is still one clean alternative: someone else in the house brings you some toilet paper. This is a difficult process to maneuver simply because there are any number of circumstances that could be working against you. For example, no one else could be in the house, he could be in the basement, his bedroom door could be closed with him behind it, etc. If this doesn't work, you have to bite the bullet and do the unthinkable. Depending upon where the reinforcements are you may have to do some brief shuffling inside the bathroom or even worse actually leave the bathroom. You now have some unfortunate circumstances on your hands (maybe literally and figuratively). Uh, nasty. I think most of us can imagine what happens next so I'll leave it for you to create your own ending. Regardless of how this situation ends, it could definitely be worse. For example, you could be at a guest's house. How terrible would that be? That is just a terribly unfortunate situation. If they have extra rolls in the bathroom it's not too bad, but if they don't what would you even do? I like to consider myself to be a pretty creative person, but I wouldn't even know where to begin solving that predicament. This can also be a problem if you're in a public restroom. Wow.

An additional bathroom blunder that isn't nearly as bad but still annoying has to do with bar soap. I don't know how many of you use bars of soap but at my house we use them. With that being said, it will be easier for those bar soap users out there to relate to this problem. Don't you just hate it when you're already in the shower and you notice the only soap around is the tiny smidgen? Not only is this slice of soap small, but it's usually slimy and probably has some hair mashed into it. This is a pretty unfortunate situation. Not nearly as bad as the one I previously discussed, but still annoying. You have three primary options at this point. They are, in no particular order, 1) get out of the shower to retrieve new bar and potentially drench bathroom/hallway, 2) use shampoo or other product to wash body, and finally 3) use slimy soap. Ouch. Depending on the situation I'm not quite sure what I'd do. Hopefully you'll not need to make that decision.

With that being said I'd like to thank my dad for the idea behind this entry. He randomly called me one day last week with this idea for the blog. Thanks Dad.

Until next time,

Zac

The Constant Complainer

Don't you hate it when you're near people who are always complaining? Let me first clarify the difference between commenting on something and complaining about something. An example of commenting on something could be, "I'm having a really hard time with my math class. It's pretty difficult" whereas an example of complaining about something could be, "I hate my math class! It's so impossible and the professor sucks!" If you don't see the difference between these two situations then you are probably more understanding than I am, but I consider myself to usually be a relatively understanding person so try to bear with me. For those of you who use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, this complainer is also the person who posts, "OMFG! 2 tests tmrw FML" or something along those lines as his status. He's also the person in class who goes, "ah this is the worst class ever! I hate it so much" and other variations of that. One of the things I hate about these whiners is the generalizations they make. Before you declare, "this is the worst class ever" you should probably stop and think if it truly is the WORST CLASS EVER. I mean, worst class ever? I don't think I'd ever feel comfortable making that statement because I've not experienced every class ever. Likewise, they frequently use the word hate. Hate is a really extreme word that I think many people in our society overuse on a daily basis. When I imagine hatred I think of intolerable loathing. The experience the complainer is involved with is obviously tolerable or else he still wouldn't be participating in it. Another one of the things that bothers me so much about these individuals is just the fact that they are complaining. Part of me feels like they complain either because they're desperately seeking attention or they love to hear themselves speak. Some people are just miserable and look for things to complain about. I don't really get it. But the number one reason why I hate the constant complainer is because they have the power to change their current situation, but instead of changing it, they choose to complain about it. No one FORCES you to go to college. No one FORCES you to take that difficult Biology class. No one FORCES you to do anything, so either suck it up or change your life. My attitude is that if something you can control bothers you so much that you must complain about it, then just change it. I understand that in high school it was so awesome to hate school and type things like "Mr. Smith is a turd ROFLMAO" and "Mrs. Jones looks like a man LOLZ" but you're an adult now and you chose to do what you're doing. With that in mind, the constant complainer doesn't always have to pertain to a college atmosphere. For example, it could be one of your co-workers who perpetually complains about his wage or the boss' incompetence, but fails to do anything about it. If you deserve to be paid that much more or are that much more intelligent than the boss, then get a raise or get a promotion. That's basically it. The more people stand around and complain the more negativity that radiates throughout the world. My attitude is that if you're complaining about something that could be seen as positive then consider yourself lucky. There are many people in the world who have more legitimate reasons to complain, so try to put your situation into perspective. Next time you're around one of these constant complainers, try turning their situation into something positive or suggesting they view it differently and if you make a convincing enough case they'll probably stop dead in their complaining tracks.

With that being said I'd like to thank my friend Luke for the idea behind this entry. It's something we've discussed before and he recently reminded of it in light of my assignment. Thanks Luke.

Until next time,

Zac

The Slow Driver

Don't you hate it when you're driving behind a slow driver? Many of us can sympathize with THAT person who is driving slowly in the left lane of a two lane road. Yeah, it's obnoxious when he's driving 5 or 10 miles below the speed limit, but what I find to be even more annoying is when he is driving exactly the speed limit. The reason I find that more annoying is because I know, deep down in my heart, this driver is justifying his actions by saying to himself, "I don't care if they're tailgating me, I'm going the speed limit." It's almost as if he is purposely slapping the drivers behind him in the face. He will not go one mph above and that really peeves me off. Going along with that he will attempt to pass the driver in the right lane who is traveling 54 mph in a 55 mph zone, which is just ridiculous. That process in itself takes more time than most of us might think to worry about, but I was curious to find out exactly how much time it takes so I did some math. We can probably agree that the length of an average car is around 16 ft. 55 mph = 80.67 ft/sec and 54 mph = 79.2 ft/sec. Subtracting 79.2 ft/sec from 80.67 ft/sec we get 1.47 ft/sec. Then, we multiply that by 16 ft and we obtain the result of 23.52 seconds. 23.52 SECONDS! If you trust my math, that means that it takes almost a half a minute to pass the other driver in the right lane. Do you realize how many things some of us could do in 23.52 seconds? I won't provide any examples but if each of us stops and thinks about how long it takes us to perform certain activities we could understand that 23.52 seconds is enough time to perform some significant acts. Going along with this idea, one thing I hate almost as much is the slow driver on the one lane road. In this type of situation there are the slow drivers and there are the slow drivers who tease you. For example, slow drivers just drive slowly, usually 5-10 mph below the speed limit, which is annoying enough. The teasers however, drive slowly around the bends then once you're legally able to pass them in the passing sections of the road they speed up. They don't just speed up to the speed limit; they exceed the limit. You want to pass them but at the same time you have to draw the line with excessive speeding. Once he reaches another no passing zone the teaser drops down to 5-10 mph below the speed limit once again. These types of drivers aren't gonna cause you to pull your hair out, but they do enough damage for someone to remember if it's happened to him.

With that being said I'd like to thank my boss for the idea behind this entry. She brought it up to me last week when we were at work. Thanks Kara.

Until next time,

Zac

The Nosy Classmate

Before today's entry I want to inform everyone that from now on when I speak of an arbitrary person, I will address that person as "he" or "him" instead of typing "he or she" or "him or her." My main reason in doing so is not to discredit the possibility of one or many of these people being female; rather it is to avoid annoying repetition as was seen in the previous sentence. Back to the blog...

Don't you hate it when that one obnoxiously smart person in your class comes up to you and asks you how you did on a recent assignment when he already knows he or she did better than you? Now, let me describe who that one person is. He is probably not one of your good friends or maybe not even a friend at all, but you acknowledge his presence when you see him purely because you don't want to seem rude. That one person is the one who everyone in the class, including him and the professor, knows is the most intelligent. They also know that this student chooses to participate in an "unconventional" social life. When most students are going crazy with their friends on a Friday or Saturday night around midnight, this student is studying or sleeping. Disclaimer: I am not disagreeing with this lifestyle. These students have the right to do with their time whatever they please, but the point I'm trying to make is that most students don't take this approach. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. So most of us have one of these students in most of our classes and we can picture who it is. Now imagine you get a test back that you took last week. You got an acceptable score: nothing amazing, but you're satisfied. I'm not gonna throw any numbers out there because different people have different standards. Class ends and you begin walking to your next destination. The nosy classmate quickly approaches from behind and once reaching you asks, "hey, how'd you do on the exam?" You proceed to say, "I was satisfied with my score" and ask how he did, solely for the reason of seeming like you're interested even though you're probably not. He replies ever too confidently, "Well, I set the curve again. A 97 this time." At this point it's all you can do not to turn and yell something obnoxious right in his face or maybe even inflict physical pain on him, but you decide to refrain because you realize it's not even worth you time. You walk away, huffing and puffing about how much this student's arrogance irritates you. You tell a couple of your friends about how annoying he is and that's usually the end of it. That same situation might not play out every time, but it's definitely happened to me multiple times. Now, don't get this person confused with the people who legitimately care. There have been multiple students in my classes who have asked me how I've done on assignments, but the difference is that I KNOW these people are my friends and have a legitimate interest in my success. I guess we all just have to have a filter to determine the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Interaction with the nosy classmate isn't the worst thing that could happen, but his actions might be bad enough to bother you for an hour or a semester, so keep your eye out for him.

Until next time,

Zac

The Misinterpreted Wave

Don't you hate it when you're in a public venue and you see someone you know who is waving in your direction, then after you wave back you realize that they're waving to someone behind you? This happens to me probably once a month either in W&J's eating facilities or one of the other buildings on campus. Usually it's a person who you know from casual conversation or who you've had a class with, so you're suspicious about him or her waving to you in the first place. I usually ask myself, "why is generic friend waving to me?" Before I can usually answer my own question my hand will shoot up and begin waving back, usually in an aggressive manner so he or she knows I'm responding to the greeting. After another second you realize that you two still haven't made eye contact and you begin to suspect something. You turn around only to see the REAL person that the greeter is now waving to. You immediately put your hand down and subtly glance around to see if anyone noticed. Sometimes the other people you're with will be immersed in conversation and won't notice your social failure; other times they will call you out on it and then you feel like an absolute clown. Either way it's obviously not a total disaster. The misinterpreted wave is just another one of those annoying once-in-a-while occurrences that probably won't ruin your day, but at the same time really gets on your nerves.

Until next time,

Zac

Welcome

Hey everyone. For my first post I'd just like to provide you with a brief introduction as to what my blog will be about and my motivation for the blog. When given the assignment I decided that I wanted to write about something that people of most ages and backgrounds could relate to, as opposed to a specific topic such as sports or my current college experiences. With that in mind, the idea for my blog is simple: I will be writing about the annoying everyday occurrences that most of us experience and most of us hate, hence the name "Don't You Hate It When..." Not everyone experiences these things on a regular basis, but chances are at some time or another in your life you have experienced or will eventually experience one or many of these annoyances. With that being said, I appreciate you reading and I hope you enjoy the blog. Please include your approvals, criticisms, and frustrating experiences...who knows, maybe your experience will one day be featured in "Don't You Hate It When..."

Until next time,

Zac