“A cause of annoyance.” I dropped a cigarette butt on the sidewalk today and a guy told me that that was a “pet peeve” of his. I smiled. Then I thought to myself later, do I have any peeves in my life? I decided I didn’t have any but then came up with ten of them.

1.) Putting gum on your dinner plate, as though you’ll finish chewing it later. (Is gum that expensive?)

2) Wearing a baseball cap while eating, especially if you’re over thirty. (Really? Are you that bald?)

3) Leaving church before it’s ended. (Does three more minutes truly wreck your busy schedule and stress-ridden little life?)

4) Crossing two lanes at the last minute to make a turn. This is a problem in Milwaukee, I don’t know about your city.  Added to this is my deciding to drive through a yellow light and the person behind me follows me closely through the light.  Had I decided not to proceed through that yellow light………

5) You hear one thing on the radio or television and hold on to it and repeat it as though a burning bush spoke to you. (Very common these days.)

6.) Having dinner with someone and she/he answers the cell phone and now you need to sit there and listen to his/her (one-sided) conversation complete with laughter of which is never shared with you.

7.) You’re telling a story about yourself and you are interrupted by your friend whose story may be more interesting; but that’s beside the point.

8.) You’re holding a door for someone and he/she then holds the door as though I was going to let go of it.

9.) Being forced to listen to loud music from the car next to me at the stop light while I’m trying to listen to Rosemary Clooney.

10.) Having to think of ten things to write, just to make it a complete ten, instead of the nine things that I really wanted to say.

The next time you want to leave church before the service is over, try to come up with your own list of nine (or ten) peeves. God will like you more and the presider will appreciate your continuing attendance.