Feeling Better...But Terribly Cranky

Since childhood, my tolerance for discomfort has been minimal.  My sister was the one blessed with steely stoicism (born of necessity...but I digress).  Moi?  I fall more along the lines of Camille.  I detest feeling less than 100% and if I'm going to suffer, I want to make sure I'm not alone.  I can manage with some degree of decorum and grace - for about 3 days.  Then I get scared that I'm always going to feel terrible.  That I'll get stuck in this compromised state.

The sign that I'm feeling better has always been the same:  I get cranky. 

Very cranky. 

Very, very cranky. 

Although consciously I recognize that it's a phase of healing for me, the things around which that crankiness shows up have changed over the years.  One particular shift was noted as I took to the streets for the first time in two weeks to forage for food.

Walking the few blocks to the market, down the little cobbled rues, through the canyons of ancient stone buildings accompanied by the music of the ubiquitous fountains in this fine ville, I noticed a couple of behaviors that really irk me.  As in 'irk-me-on-a-regular-basis' kind of irk me.

The first is a double whammy as it is both disgusting and a health hazard:  Men blowing their snot-filled winter noses directly into the street.  That's right, folks.  They hold one nostril shut with a thumb and blow the shit out of the other nostril.  Second verse, same as the first for the alternate nostril.

(See how cranky I am?  I swear when I'm tired or cranky.) 

It's a common wintertime vignette that gets played out daily on the streets.  You'll be walking along and all of a sudden, a fellow will lean a bit forward, thumb lifted to shut down one nostril and then watch out!  Absolutely disgusting.  Beyond disgusting.  It's a veritable health hazard.  There should be stiff fines or gloved police handcuffing the offenders and hauling them off to some cell where they can blow their snot hither and yon - alone and cut off from humanity - until they can behave better or they die. Whichever comes first.

The second behavior takes place year round.  How lucky are we?  This would involve men relieving themselves whenever the urge strikes them. No bathroom around?  No problem!  That's apparently why there are walls...and bushes...and sides of the roads.  Around any given corner in our little ville one can see a fellow pull his willy out in broad daylight to pee - against a wall...or into the bushes.  I've seen no one using a fountain yet but probably only because I've not been paying attention.  Really people?  This behavior makes sense to me if one is camping in the outback, or skiing for an entire day without stopping for lunch. I try not to think about a day spent at the seaside.  But just in the street during the course of a day?!  Puhleeeze.  The café waiters may give you the stink eye but they'll not bar the door to their bathrooms, I can assure you of this.

So with that off my chest, I'll go back to the chores at hand of moving my apartment...which is happening all this week.  Add moving stress to my Miss Cranky Pants state of mind and there may well be another rant in the offing. 

As long as you are not one of the above mentioned offenders, I'm here to wish you a lovely rest of your day. 

If you do happen to be one of those disgusting aforementioned offenders, get a bloody clue and knock it off!  Your mothers would be disgusted with you. 

Ciao,
Leslie