By Kate Chumley, Guest Writer
This pet peeve of mine is not one that you think of right off the top of your head. This may not affect you but for me, it paralyzes me. Sending a shock wave of bumps across my arms and legs. It terrorizes people across any setting, but most importantly the setting of the sit down meal. You eat with loved ones. A great sense of community is the theme of gathering together for a time of laughter and delicious food, then boom my night is done. Someone not paying attention to the placement of their left and right hand carrying metal silverware. The utensils clash against each other. The fork and knife have struck each other through the motion of sawing a piece of food. The sound. The vibrations of metal versus metal. I immediately freeze up, but thankfully, my arms gather enough strength to push immediate force onto my ears to free me from the agony of the terrible noise.
I ask myself these questions, why do people do this? Or why are people not careful of what they are doing? Watch what you are doing, I ponder. Most of the time, someone is trying to be considerate of the individuals around them so they make eye contact with them while cutting their food, but they are ignorant to not watch what they are doing. I am waiting with no ounce of patience until they are done with their despicable scheme.
I believe within my heart, if I was taken captive, the sound of silverware grinding against one another would go beyond the initial point of torture.
Kate Chumley
I am not familiar when I first encounter that my biggest pet peeve would be this. I think it has always been a part of me. When I am at a busy restaurant waiting for my food to arrive and suddenly I hear the crime that has occurred, I immediately go into my safe position to block the noise. I do believe my niche pet peeve spreads awareness to the people I am around. If they are honored with my presence at a sit down meal and this crime occurs and sees my body go into safety, they are puzzled and question what happened. I proceed to explain what happened and tell them it is the worst sound to exist. My favorite is when it’s the person I am eating with. I don’t care if I have known since birth or 3 minutes ago, I will tell you to stop. Without a doubt mid-conversation, I will place a firm but subtle warning that what’s being done must stop. If they continue, I block every word that comes from their mouth and begin to pray God will rescue me from this evil.
My pet peeve is mine. I am not ashamed of it or feel as though I am asking too much from people, but rather it taught me to be careful of my actions and have manners during a meal. I do know how to look at someone while cutting my food into apportions, so I hope you too can learn if you suffer from this illness of hitting your utensils. I will gladly demonstrate if needed.
