TMP106: Overexplaining

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

This barely rises to the level of a peeve ~ it’s really more of a very minor, very fleeting nuisance ~ yet because I encounter it all the time here in Blogland, I figured it deserved a spot on TMP rotation. Also, I can’t think of anything else right now!

When some bloggers respond to a prompt, they copy and paste so much of the prompt post into their new post that it takes a minute to actually find what the heck they wrote. Some C&P multiple paragraphs just to post “an American sentence” or a haiku. The explanation is ten times as long as their response. At least put it at the end of the post, not the beginning! But there’s no reason to do so much C&P in the first place when you can simply link to the original post with a brief explanation. If people want to read more or participate themselves, they can visit the host post to get the full set of details.

That’s what I do, so it is obviously the Best Way.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP105: Roku Remote

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

This is an extremely trivial peeve, but that doesn’t stop me from complaining, and it shouldn’t stop you! Use this opportunity to b!tch about something excessively minor, just like I’m about to do. OK? My issue is regarding my Roku remote. I hadn’t watched anything on the “big” TV for a while, and on Saturday I decided it was a good time to sit in the living room and watch there in an attempt to quit falling asleep crookedly in bed while watching my iPad. (I’ve been waking with colossal head and neck pain and am trying to figure out how to make it stop/lessen.)

Anyway, the TV was all weird when I turned it on, with the Roku restarting itself several times, asking me for my password, etc. Did all that and then tried to find a movie. But the remote kept freezing up! I would scroll a bit, then nothing. I restarted again, but the same thing happened. Finally, I was able to click on the Leonard Cohen special, which was pretty good, especially Nick Cave’s cover of “I’m Your Man.”

Sunday, I was determined to watch in the living room, so I googled to see if I could fix the remote, but nothing helped. So I just dealt with it. Scroll, scroll, scroll ~ freeze ~ wait a minute and begin again. I was reminded that I spend more time scrolling for something to watch than watching stuff. Well, not really, but sometimes it seems that way. There’s just so much to choose from, and most of it is utter garbage. I generally stay away from series, though I have been into a few, and search for movies. I am looking forward to the final episodes of Manifest, however, which will arrive on June 2, and also there is a possibly interesting docu on the Duggar family beginning then as well. Anyway, I found a strange movie to watch called Deja Vu. Nothing bad happened while I watched, no freezing or anything, but the freezing continued when I scrolled the menus again.

Frustrating!!!

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP104: Paperback Pricing

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

I could have sworn I crabbed about paperback pricing previously, but I can’t find any posts to that effect. Must have been before my refresh. Anyhoo, I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday to use the gift certificate I received for my birthday. The new releases in hardcover (fiction and non) were upfront to tempt me, and they were ridiculously priced at like $29.99 (you can get some of them for less on BN.com). Maybe that isn’t a ridiculous price for a special book, but the way I gobble up novels? No. Not gonna happen.

So I went to the paperback section, ignoring the tables of curated paperbacks. Those books are getting promoted for reasons other than simply being good ~ or maybe some are good, but you can’t assume that just because they’re on the special table. It’s like when the grocery store decides to put a certain product on an end cap so we see it immediately. Maybe it’s yummy; maybe it isn’t.

Anyway, that’s beside the point. The point is that the fiction shelves (I was searching only for fiction) were filled with large paperbacks for around $18.00 each. Huh? When did $18 become the set price for a bodice ripper? That’s insane, especially when you can find them online as e-books for so much less, or even at the drugstore for $10 (in the normal size). There’s just no way I’m paying $18!

The only genre that offered normal sized paperbacks for $10 each was mystery. So I chose several Jonathan Kellerman mysteries because I knew I liked him, and I took them to the counter to pay. The cashier asked me if I wanted to re-up my expired B&N card. I thought sure and asked her if it was still $25. She said it was now $39.99. Yeah no. Geez!

While I’m looking forward to reading my new books, I have no intention of shopping at B&N again unless I have a gift certificate or am only browsing. Bummer.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP103: People Pleasing

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

This week’s peeve is a takeoff on Sadje’s Sunday Poser in which she asked if we were people pleasers. Sadje herself as well as many of the commenters (including me) described ourselves as recovering people pleasers. Setting boundaries is an ongoing process, and I know I have to keep working on mine diligently. It’s so easy to agree to something without putting much thought into it when you know it will make someone else happy. Most of us do like to get smiles from those around us; it’s a normal, natural thing. Despite my entire month of April A-Z nopes however, guess what? Yep, I recently agreed to a thing to please someone else and ended up regretting it thoroughly.

I can’t get into too much detail here, just in case I get a “real life” reader I’m not expecting, but I can tell you this: it had nothing to do with dating (thank God!). I should have asked more questions initially, since you can never ASSUME that someone is giving you complete information. Also, it is OK to walk out of a situation that you didn’t expect and that you find unpleasant, but I didn’t turn around and leave immediately. I don’t know why either ~ I totally should have! I actually didn’t owe anyone anything, least of all my presence, and the event would have continued on just fine without me.

I am so peeved AT MYSELF for being such a wuss, but all I can do is learn from my mistakes and do better next time.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP102: Second Chances

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

Aaaaand we are back! Fresh from a month full of nopes, LMII returns with The Monday Peeve. Today’s is something I mentioned in my post X is for X: second chance romances. They seem to be everywhere all the time, and I find them a big turn-off. In fact, if I don’t have to read a particular romance novel for a meetup or whatever, I will often reject it for this trope alone. It’s such a drag, and so predictable, even more than the normal predictability of a romance. The protagonists always start off angry at each other for something from the past that caused their breakup, but then it turns out one or both of them had misinterpreted a conversation or event, or views it differently now that they’re older and wiser, blah blah blah. The worst is when one ex (invariably the female one) needs the other to help solve a crime. Ugh!

Whatever happened to meeting a tall, dark stranger? Love at first sight? The lure of the new and forbidden? ALL GOOD THINGS! In fiction, of course.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TGIF ~ April Sneaking Out The Door

Wow, this is it ~ the last Friday in April 2023! The month is almost over, we’re wrapping up A-Z, and everyone’s getting ready for May. I don’t know about you, but I feel spun in a whirl of busyness. Today is my car’s 50K service appointment, tomorrow is a potluck and movie night with friends, and Sunday my WHOLE family will be visiting me! I took Monday off just to have some quiet me-time. (Have today off too, but who’s counting?)

I am behind on stuff I want to do: painting, reading, movies/TV, etc. Not to mention, I really should prioritize some exercise before I keel over from slothitude. It’s possible I need to think about cutting back a bit on blogging in order to have more hours in the day. I know, so radical. I said at my 2021 refresh that I planned to focus only on writing I really enjoyed… problem is, I enjoy so many prompts now, and I keep getting inspired, especially for poetry. But I don’t want to post only to prompts, so I also feel compelled to write posts like this, and my Monday Peeve, and my Two for Tuesday…

Yes, that’s right, Monday marks the return of The Monday Peeve, hurrah! You might think that after doing 26 nopes for April, I would be all peeved out, but you would be wrong. I have plenty of new complains. Oh, yes, I do!

Welp, have a nice Friday, my friends. If you are so inclined, write your own TGIF post and link back to me. See ya!

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

I is for Interrogation [A2Z]

Welcome to my April A-Z series for 2023! Initially, I was going to skip this year’s festivities because I didn’t want to feel pressured to post, but then it occurred to me that I could nope. That’s right ~ every day this month (except Sundays) I will treat you to one of the things that make me go nope in the night (or in the daytime). I’m an unofficial participant, hence the badge. Feel free to use it if you wish. Enjoy!

Wow, there’s been a lot of nope happening here at my place, and we’re only about a third of the way through. Let’s slog on. I can’t stand being asked a barrage of questions, or sometimes even one, by people who have no interest in the answer (I’m not talking about the standard business “howareya,” which is basically just another term for “hello” now).

I have TM-peeved about the store clerks and bank tellers who ask what my plans are for the weekend, which is inappropriate, imo. I know they’re instructed to do this, so my beef is more with whoever told them to be annoying, but even so, the words are coming out of THEIR mouth, and I get irritated every single time. Even worse are the salesmen (always men) who wander into my office and start interrogating me with crap: hey, how’s your day, are you busy, what’s going on? Et cetera. Basically, I “rudely” interrupt them and say “what do you want.” They usually look a bit miffed that I dared to interrupt their quest to become my bestie and mention how they “just sold some toner” or whatever stupid thing to one of our neighbors, so they thought they’d bug me next. GET THE EFF OUT!

I mean, do people really think I’ll inadvertently buy something if I get harangued with questions first? Does that actually happen? Whoops, I told some random dude how my day was going, so now I guess I’ll have to buy a new phone plan for the office from him. OK, I guess this must occasionally happen otherwise they’d quit doing it, but even so it’s really hard to imagine.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

B is for Balance [A2Z]

Welcome to my April A-Z series for 2023! Initially, I was going to skip this year’s festivities because I didn’t want to feel pressured to post, but then it occurred to me that I could nope. That’s right ~ every day this month (except Sundays) I will treat you to one of the things that make me go nope in the night (or in the daytime). I’m an unofficial participant, hence the badge. Feel free to use it if you wish. Enjoy!

My second nope is balance. As you can see, I’m tilted, askew, and totally unbalanced…or perhaps the rest of the world is and I’m at a perfect right angle to the center of the top turtle. Whatever! Balanced meals? Feh. Sometimes I just want sweets; other times I eat a zillion vegetables. Occasionally, I’ll have the traditional meat-potatoes-veg. Some days I’m in the mood for a lot of colors, while other days I wear a monochrome or just neutrals. There are weekends I take a walk, hang out with friends, read, write, and have a lot going on. Other weekends I might sit on the sofa for 48 hours and binge movies or books. So what? Balance is overrated!

You say I should be more balanced? I say…

PS: I am not doing The Monday Peeve this month, since I have 26 nopes instead, so feel free to link back to this post if you want to write a peeve today.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP101: Touching Me, Touching You

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

It’s not a secret that I dislike being touched. Well, if it was, it’s not now! In any case, when you don’t know someone, you should not presume that it is OK to touch them unless you’re pulling them out of a fire or whatever. Don’t we all know this? Anyway, on Saturday I went up to Los Angeles for a concert at a small club (as opposed to a giant arena). I had a great time overall, but one thing bugged me. The concert was SRO, and my friends and I were hanging at the outer edge, which was fine for us. There was a couple (man/woman) next to us who were very exuberant and affectionate with each other, which is fine, but it was a confined space with little room to maneuver. The man left to get more drinks and a few new people squished in. When the man returned, the woman apparently thought it would be a great idea to push a smaller person deeper into the crowd so she and her guy could have more room. Guess who the smaller person was?

I moved up a little to be accommodating, but she kept pushing me. Literally. With her hands. On my back. Finally, I said “STOP.” She said, “But there’s more room.” I said, “So YOU move up.” She gave up at that point and continued to stand at the edge with her dude, and I continued to stand at the edge with my friends. Note that she didn’t try this with my male friend who was actually closer to her, since he was on the large side. Nope. I’m small, so therefore (in her mind) she can touch me. WTF? What gave this crazy woman the idea that she could just shove people around like checkers on a board? Maybe it was the alcohol…

PS: This will be my last official TMP until May 1, since my 26 A-Z April posts will be all about nopes. You can use the Monday nopes to link to for peeves during April, if you wish.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP100: Target

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

What’s up with Target lately? The other week I placed an order for pickup one night and received a notice at 9AM saying it was ready. I went after work at 6PM and not only wasn’t it ready, but even after I waited in my car for 20 minutes nothing happened. I asked one of the workers about my order, and they said it was still being processed. WTF? So I left and received a refund. Today (Sunday) I went to buy a couple bottles of wine for a meetup and waited in line for 15 minutes. When it was my turn, the cashier said sorry but he couldn’t sell it to me because he was underage. So I waited in another line for 10 more minutes. HELLO! How about putting a sign on which registers have clerks able to sell alcohol? Management fail.

At least they delivered my two packages of kitty litter to my door. As long as Gatsby is happy, right?

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.