Etiquette

People complain all the time about their telephone messenger mailboxes not working properly, and yet 95% of the time I leave a message the person will call me back (sometimes immediately) wanting to know what I wanted. Um.....DUH! I LEFT A MESSAGE! Why don't you try listening to that before calling me back and having me explain everything all over again. Well, not me, because the typical conversation along that vein goes like this: **ring** ME: Hello? OTHER PARTY: Did you call? ME: Yeah. OTHER: What did you want? ME: Did you listen to my message? OTHER: No. ME: Okay, well, when you do, call me back. **CLICK** The other person's laziness is costing everyone time, and sometimes time is a commodity that is best used sparsingly. One last point on a different topic: [Saying "Please" and "Thank you" during sex, you see, shows signs of proper coitus-y.]

Why do some feel the need to "prove their love?"

I wonder why it is that people blog or tweet or post or even say things like, "I love my boyfriend/girlfriend," or "I love my kids," or even, "Don't nobody better (<--vernacular, as this is how most say it) mess with my kids. I'll kill someone over my kids." I mean, aren't these things pretty much accepted as truths without the need to emphasize them? Is it just me, or is this grating on one's overall tolerance of the obvious? It's not me, is it? It's them. And while I'm on it, stop with the "LOL" after every sentence already. "Hi, my name's Sally lol. I have to work outside today in this 99 degree heat lol. I had a heat stroke last week lol." Am I becoming more cynical of human beings as whole as time goes by, or are people really becoming more irritating? That question shall remain rhetorical.