Can you PUH-leez stop breathing?!

And the poor man widened his eyes in shock and left the room....

This happened while I was on a school trip to the National Museum (ages and aaaages ago). I was admiring the display of traditional weapons with a group of my friends. A rather ... uhm.. fat man(politically incorrect, but true) was standing near us. He was breathing rather heavily (obese people usually do) and quite honestly, it didn't bother me. But it bothered a friend of mine, Punitha... All of a sudden, without warning, she breaks the tomb-like silence buy staring at the poor, fat man and yelling "Can you PUH-leez stop breathing?!"

Sheesh...

But really, sometimes people do the most innocent things (that they can't help doing... or don't even notice that they're doing!) which others find incredibly annoying.

I just came back from a meeting with 6 middle-aged men. They were clients so of course, they got the red-carpet treatment, including mugs of freshly-brewed hot coffee. They were enjoying the coffee while we conducted the meeting. In the middle of the meeting, my ears began to be sensitive to the sound of slurping. Not sipping. SLURPING. This dude was slurrrrrrping his coffee and for some weird reason, it began to bug me. I was getting distracted. Every time he picked up his mug... I'd wince. Every time he slurrrrped his coffee... I cringed. It was not a productive meeting for me.

But then I remember when I was the "annoyer" instead of the "annoyee". (yes, these are NOT real words, but you know what I mean lahhh)

I was with my debating team (*sigh* Do ALL my stories have 'debate' in them... It SOoOo had a monopoly on my life!). We had just finished the 7th round and were anxiously waiting for the results. I was frazzled and exhausted. My mind was restlessly going through the entire debate over and over again.

Suddenly, the Jamaican girl next to me placed her hand on my thigh and snapped "Please stop jigging your leg, it's giving me a headache!". I wasn't even aware I was doing that! Sheeeshhh......

I'm sure this has happened to most of us... Getting annoyed by the involuntary little things people do.

Some people hate it when others bite their nails, or twirl a strand of their hair, or grind their teeth, or play with silverware at the dinner table (my mom HATES this one).

In school, during exams, I hated hated HATED it when the person next to me starts humming... or tapping her fingers on the table... or jigging her leg... or doing ANYTHING at all that distracts me... Irrational, really. Can't expect a fellow student to be comatose during exams now, can I? :)

*sigh*
Am NOT looking forward to the next meeting with Mr.Slurpee.