Bad habits

So why do I find other people's nervous behaviour so irritating?

Last night on the el platform, there was an old woman pacing. She would take eight steps in one direction, stop, turn, take eight steps back, stop, turn, take eight steps again...on and on, without pausing. I wanted to beg her to cut it out. I would've looked away except that she was between me and the direction the train which I was anxiously awaiting would be coming.

Perhaps it's because I fidget myself, though I try not to. Is this how an ex-smoker feels when surrounded by puffers? I want to take things out of strangers hands--especially anything that clicks like a retractable pen or bag with snaps. It drives me crazy when people sigh and mutter at train delays. What difference does it make if it helps them deal? It makes it harder for me to ignore my own impatience when another person expresses theirs.

Also, I want to know when the societal ban on double-dipping was rescinded. I was shocked two years ago to meet several people at an Italian restaurant (the kind with little to recommend it except free breadsticks) and watch every single one of them dunk half-eaten breadsticks into the common sauces. At the time, I thought it was simply my bad luck to dine out in the company of boors, but since then I've seen lots of people engage in similar behaviour--including those who should really know better.

I'm not some kind of hygiene freak, I know that there aren't really any more germs in minute amounts of saliva than in the air they're breathing on me. That's not the point. It's a way of maintaining a respectful distance, of signalling "We're not intimate enough to share spit."

My judgementalness will be my undoing. Perhaps this is really my chief vice, not that other stuff I told rollick.