Don't Judge by the Pic...

Good Morning, Bloggers!
Two blog entries are assigned for today. You'll have to hold off commenting on others' blogs until you are at home or during our next blogging session, as I'm not here to fix the computer setting that allows you to do so. Sorry!

Blog 1: Your choice
Blog 2: Today, folks, you're going to post about one of your pet peeves. You know, something that really gets your goat, drives you around the bend, makes you want to scream. Maybe it's cliches...

In my case, what summons the violent urges from my otherwise Ghandi-loving self is horking. That's right. Whenever I hear the raw, throat-scraping, mucus suction sound I want to push the offender into a non-hygenic pit of his or her own phlegm. I used to hear people horking in the parking lot outside my apartment building when I lived in Russia--and this is when I was tucked away in bed in my room on the third floor! Closing my windows was torture in colder months as the building's heat was always at about 85 degrees.. So, I slept with a fan on to kill the sound.



Now, I get it: we all have times when, due to the common cold or allergies, we need to breathe. Excreting the offending liquid sludge is the easiest way to afford temporary relief. Heck, according to the film Titanic, sharing one's spit tossing skills can even be the subject for romance. But, come on, people! This is the real world. Most women don't dig guys who gross them out and vice versa.

I have to say that I recall far too many occasions where I felt the need to dodge someone while innocently walking down the streets of Moscow last year. Whether the offending substance was air-borne or slightly aged and stuck to the ground, it caused me much trauma. Many of the Russian folks, mostly men from what I saw, seem to think of tossing lugies to be as natural as breathing. The day I looked at the pavement to realize that no, it had not been raining, but that I was merely looking at an obstacle course of splotches of human bacteria that had recently been spat onto my path, was the day I realized I had to take passive-aggressive action, if only to make myself feel morally superior. Whenever I encountered a stranger making the nauseating wretching sound followed by the not-so-graceful launch of his spit, I screamed "THAT'S GROSS!" in English at him and hurried on my way. The fact that he had no idea what I was saying didn't matter: I had claimed hygenic victory in my own mind. Yeah, I know, I'm tough.

So, now it's your turn. Tell us about what irritates you beyond belief.

Reminders:
Use a pic to accompany each post.
Aim for at least 200 words.
Use paragraphs.
Have a creative title.
Keep it school appropriate.
Have fun!