I've been to Michigan and actually didn't find it to be that bad. But a week probably isn't long enough to get the full experience.

And I actually haven't lived in CT, but in the year and a half since I moved to NJ, I've driven through it a lot, as I visit friends and family in RI/MA/NH all the time.

The amazing thing about CT is that traffic will be at nearly a dead stop, then 5 minutes later you'll be doing 70, then you'll be back down to 10 mph a few minutes after that. In that time, the number of lanes doesn't change, and there are no busy exits getting on or off the highway. This will go on for miles and miles.. Speed up, slow down. Speed up, slow down. In CT, there is random traffic for seemingly no reason.

I'm convinced it's because no one drives in the lane they SHOULD be driving in.. Ever.

Driving in TX actually isn't that bad.. But yes, the drivers can be a little crazy. And it can be a little intimidating when there's a giant truck (everything's bigger in Texas!) flying up behind you, weaving in and out of lanes. However, at least they drive fast there.. From what I've seen, anyway.

My current list of annoyances is vast and may not be fully appreciated by the rest of you.
1 - and this is a biggy - I hate when people won't give you bad news. How this applies in my every day life is there are cultures represented here in Dubai who would personally rather be thrown into a pit of rattlesnakes as opposed to giving you bad news of any kind. That bad news might be no, they don't know where the milk is in the grocery store, or you have cancer. A friend of mine dealt with this. They had to move back to England to be given a valid diagnosis when based on what the doctor was actually saying, he probably knew and just couldn't spit it out. Seriously. Obviously the first example comes up more frequently, and this is how it works.
me: Can you tell me what ink cartridges this printer requires?
store clerk: Let me get someone who works in printers. (and then walks away, clearly not seeking out anyone to assist me).
me: Can I have this dish without ghee?
waiter: Yes ma'am (dish comes drowning in ghee)

2-things being almost, but not quite awesome. My husband and I call it 90%. Everything in Dubai is 90% awesome, but the 10% they miss on makes it completely frustrating. Example: Dubai is a car culture. There is a good metro and bus system but in general you have to drive to get to most places, and everyone has at least one car. The apartment buildings all have parking garages and that's awesome. But there is virtually no street parking and NO visitor parking in any buildings. There's a hotel next door to our building. It's a great hotel, nice restaurants, couple night clubs, taxis always at the ready. And no valet and about 20 parking spaces. And again, no street parking ANYWHERE in this neighborhood. I keep thinking my building should rent them parking spaces in our building for valet (they actually provided ABUNDANT parking in the underground garages that are unused) but that would bring it up to 100% and we can't have that.

OK, that's enough of my "what's annoying me about Dubai today" rant.

Grrrrr YES. MommyCG is the WORST at this. My examples are a little more extreme than yours. She knows that I generally do not handle it well when someone dies. Her solution? She pretends everything with that person is fine until either she thinks I can handle the news or she's backed into a corner. Some examples:

1. My guinea pig died while I was away at college. She didn't tell me for a month until I had to come home for a funeral and she had no choice.
2. My grandmother was sick and Mom swore she would tell me when it looked like she was going and it was time to come home. I wanted to have time to see her one last time and to say goodbye. Turns out, my grandmother was already dead at the time of that conversation, she just didn't want to tell me.

She did this again with my grandfather's death. I didn't tell her how pissed I was because her father had just died, but we did have a VERY long talk about how it feels to be constantly set up to believe one thing then be blindsided with the worst. :mad:

On the flipside, people need to stop using technology to spread bad news. I posted a couple weeks ago that I had 4 deaths in 5 days--I found out about 3 of the 4 on Facebook. That was a really sucky way to start November.

i don't like that people watch reality TV (or create it, for that matter.) it makes people value stupid shit. particularly drama, the superficial and the material.

Sounds like old people. The Rust Belt is jam-packed with them. Everyone else left, which makes the ratio of old people much higher in these states.

Old people, in addition to driving really slow, they do this thing where they start driving even slower...like from 20 to 10...and then they come to a complete stop...and then they turn. With no turn signal the entire time! THAT drives me crazy.

I'm guilty of passing people on a double yellow line in more rural areas. That's bad, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood for Grandma to drive 20 miles per hour in a 55 zone!

Others...

People who still write out checks in stores

People who hold up the line in a convenience store to play 99 lottery #s

I know parents will dislike, but when school buses have to stop every 5 feet? No wonder kids are obese, they can't walk from one house to the next?

When people on bikes think you should move out of the way for them. I work out too, but I actually get the f--- out of the way when several tons of metal is coming towards me, or else I wouldn't be alive to type this sentence.

When I mention something random in conversation and it sets someone off on a 20 minute unanticipated and unwelcome political spiel. No one asked what you thought of the President or the war in Iraq, or the price of gas. No one cares.

People at work who do distracting things- the short list includes constant alarms from texts, the radio, personal phone calls, jumping up and running outside to answer personal cell phone calls...it's called WORK for a reason...

Thank you! In elementary school, everyone in my neighborhood would walk to the same bus stop in one central location, and we'd actually get down there an hour early so we could play football/kickball/capture the flag/etc. before school.

Now, it seems like kids just have to sit in their house until the bus pulls up to their front door. I understand this makes sense in some places where the population isn't dense, but in most cases, it's ridiculous.

Especially when they just stand there while the cashier rings up all 67 of their items, and then act as though it's a surprise that they need to pay. We get to wait even longer while they fish around for the wallet or checkbook that they could have gotten out and had ready while the cashier was scanning things.

lol!!
I am laughing so hard at what's in bold. Hilarious! Yep, I hear ya. But my biggest issue with people bringing food into the movies is the noise it makes when they're opening the bag etc. It's just that when they start eating it, I can hear it, and that really bugs me. I just think it's really tacky.

Not to double post, but I forgot the declined credit/debit card one. I get impatient when I'm standing in line and there's someone in front of me pulling out a million credit/debit cards and each one keeps declining. I'm like, seriously? And then they go "Hm, that's weird, I know the money is in there." That's annoying because they're holding the line up and people have places they have to be.

Going along with the previous driving ports...it drives me crazy when people don't use their turning signals!! For me, I need to know the intentions of the drivers around me! I hate when drivers slow down to turn, don't use their signals, and turn...cause the entire time I'm thinking "what the hell are you slowing down for!"

Drivers here in Atlanta think that if they use their turning signal, that's giving them permission to get right infront of you and cut you off or make you slam on your brakes. That really pisses me off too!

My parents did this too- my childhood cat died my sophomore year in college, and every time I asked about her they'd say "she's doing fine".

My rant list:

1. People who smoke. Period.

2. People who lie about smoking. Yes I can smell it, no it isn't a little giggle-worthy lie. That means you, parents. After dealing with smoking parents all my life, I'm at the point where I don't let my parents in my house if I can smell smoke on them.

3. People who use a lot of fragrance, perfume, or lotion in a small confined place. Some people are allergic or highly sensitive to fragrance. I know your skin is dry on the plane, but I can't get away from your Bath & Body Works flavor of the day.

Okay, those are all about smells of some sort... yes, I fall in the highly sensitive/bordering on allergic category. But the biggest frustration is this:
4. People who don't respect other people's time, don't realize how their actions impact others, or otherwise don't realize that the world does not in fact revolve solely around them.

At work there are a few people, one in particular, who constantly reschedule meetings due to "scheduling conflicts". Those conflicts are THEIR conflicts, not the attendees... and THEY set up the meetings. Manage your own schedule and your own time, and stop impacting ours. There are days that I would have worked from home (which I do very rarely) and come in for say 3 meetings- and then surprise! All three of those meetings are cancelled. Color me mad.

[Warning: rant ahead] Outside of work, I'm serving on a guidance committee for someone working toward a fairly high honor within that organization. There are supposed to be 5 meetings with a very specific agenda at each.
Meeting 1: Scheduled during the weekday lunch hour (we all work at different companies in different cities). He decided to change it to an evening time a few days before the meeting. However, he gave such little notice (and never asked whether the day worked either time) that only half of us were able to attend. And then he went through the agenda for meeting 2 instead of meeting 1. Considering meeting 2 is supposed to build off of meeting 1, that's not okay.
Meeting 2: Scheduled for a day that was agreeable to those at the first meeting, with the provision that he'd send out what he was supposed to do in meeting 1. I emailed him early in the day of meeting 2 to ask if he was still planning to send it out and let him know I would be there. He emailed everyone about 4 hours before the meeting to say that he wasn't ready and it was postponed by a week (to tomorrow night). Two of us responded to say that the rescheduled day doesn't work. He rescheduled it to a day earlier (tonight) and finally sent out the information necessary. I'm still not attending because I'm flying out of the country tomorrow, have a lot to do, and I was ready to meet LAST week.

For someone going for a very high honor, this kind of behavior really bothers me. He's very nice, very competent (in other things), and is trying to do a very good thing. But if you can't realize how your actions impact everyone else... It really bothers me- as you can tell!

lol lol
I hate reality tv, it's so dumb (to me), and I think that there's entirely too much of it on tv. Thank God for cable.

What's in bold is freaking hilarious!

Oh forget it. Don't want to "offend" anyone who wants to imply that I'm more interested in speeding than I am the safety of children.

FYI - I just went through the process for getting a bus stop moved. At least in Texas, there are very precise requirements for getting bus service at all. Many districts are cutting bus service because of budget cuts. In our case, bus service is provided because our neighborhood has no sidewalks. I asked for my 8 year old son's stop to be moved not because of the distance, but because it required him to cross two streets, including one VERY busy one near the high school - those kids go flying down the street on a regular basis. His age and the streets he was required to cross lead the district to approve the new bus stop. He is the most important thing in the universe to me, and I'm happy he can walk home from the bus stop without risking being run over by some high schooler who is busy busting the speed limit and texting. (Had one driver run into the lamp post across from my house because she dropped her phone and decided to bend down and hunt for it while going 35 mph.)

What bugs me? People who think their time is more valuable than public safety. Coming to a complete stop at the stop sign won't take more than 20 extra seconds - a small price to pay to avoid running over someone. A very promising actor who went to school with me died because he tried to beat the train. It's not worth the risk.