I need to get a couple of things off my chest; nothing too serious, just little pet peeves.
I really get bugged when someone I don't know calls me "Hon." Or should it be spelled "Hun?" It's usually a woman, roughly my own age, blue collar type, waitress or store clerk. I don't know why it irritates me so much. But when I hear it from someone in the service industry who should show a little less familiarity; the back of my neck crackles just a little bit. Am I a snob? Do I see them as less than I am? No, I don't think that's it. I just want a little more respectful distance from a stranger. Is that asking too much? Does that bug anybody else? If so, what's a good response? Perhaps I should say, "Have a nice day, dear." Or would "darling" be better? Or do I continue to do what I do and just walk away letting my annoyance fade slowly away?
Second pet peeve: What is with the word "enjoy" being used everywhere lately. Now don't be offended if you've done this to me, but I get pictures e-mailed to me with the one word "Enjoy" in the message. No friendly little explanation of the pics or a "How's the fam?" Just enjoy. And often the pictures aren't pictures of Pete or Maddie or Mckinlie. I really could take joy in those. But they are pictures of dogs or flowers or some other such falderal. (Now there's a great word. I'm going to use it more often.) Enjoy by definition means: to experience with joy, to take pleasure in, to have and use with satisfaction, to have the benefit of, and to have intercourse with. Yeah, the last one surprised me, too.
At any rate none of these will be my natural response to an e-mail filled with cutesy pictures. So why does it feel like a command of sorts when someone writes "Enjoy" and leaves it at that.
The final straw is our new microwave at work. When the cycle is finished, it's beeps once and then in it's lcd message displays over and over again "Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy." Now this is really too, too much! The last thing I need is some dumb microwave telling me how to feel about my poorly heated Lean Cuisine.
Thanks for letting me get it off my chest.
Stocking Candy Cookies
11 months ago
4 comments:
That hun thing doesn't bother me nearly as much as when I say thank you to someone who replies by saying, "No problem." What the heck does that mean? Whatever happened to "you're welcome." You're welcome implies the person was glad to provide even a little bit of assistance, whereas no problem indicates they don't think they helped at all and wouldn't have helped even if you wanted them to help.
Part 2 about hon. My kid works at a credit union and his supervisor has instructed the tellers to call each customer by his or her first name. Excuse me? Whatever happened to Mr. or Mrs. or Ms.? Especially when the teller is often considerably younger than the customer. I've waited a long time to be older than the service people I encounter, and dang it, I want to be shown that little bit of respect that Mrs. or Ms. or even Miss indicates(but, please not ma'am. I'm not that old yet.)
Perhaps I am getting old if these old fashioned niceties mean so much to me? Not even.
See, the "No problem" sounds to me like the person thought we were apologizing for putting them out when we were saying thank you. I translate it as:
"Thank you" = I'm so sorry you had to help me
"No problem" = Yeah, now I can get back to what I really wanted to do here at work, which wasn't serve you.
But I've caught myself saying it and then I bite my tongue. It's becoming acceptable. Too bad.
Best response, I think. "My pleasure." Now that's old-fashioned, but so gracious!
If anyone calls you "hun," you should call them "sweetheart" or "liebchen" if you'd like to call them "darling" or "sweetheart" in German.
I hope you enjoyed my comment! Enjoy!
Ha ha ha!
Next person to call me "Hon" is gonna get a slap in the face!
I think I'd enjoy that!
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