a few random behaviours i don’t understand

i don’t understand people who take their children for a walk, or to the park, or to the beach, and who then spend the entire time talking on a cell phone or texting into a blackberry. i find this especially lame when the child in question is a baby in a stroller. is that what constitutes “quality time”? just being in proximity but being completely oblivious?

ditto people who do this when they walk their dogs. i don’t get it.

actually, i don’t get the fixation with cell phones, in general. they have become a bane on society, as far as i’m concerned, and have not only facilitated but encouraged epic levels of rudeness in people. cell phones for emergencies are one thing; cell phones so you can wander the grocery aisles broadcasting your life to the masses are another.

i don’t understand people who seem incapable of saying “thank you.” or, perhaps, who are, for whatever reason, unwilling to do so. you send someone a gift, or hold open a door, or let someone into traffic ahead of you... and nothing. you write a thoughtful email, or give someone a compliment, or offer congratulations on an achievement... and you hear crickets. what happened to simply being gracious? does “thanks!” really require that much effort?

i don’t understand people who blast their TVs or stereos in multi-unit dwellings. if i can hear you watching Judge Judy from behind my own closed door, IT’S TOO LOUD.

i don’t understand people who refuse to recycle. the ones who dump their plastic bottles or pop cans or newspapers or what have you in the garbage can that’s less than two feet away from the recycling bin.

i don’t understand people who don’t reply to emails. i don’t mean a delayed response, i mean no response.

similarly, people who engage you in an email discussion and then just decide, at some random point in the “conversation,” that they’re not going to bother replying anymore. you’ve asked a question, and you never get an answer. your email goes off into the ether and that’s apparently the end of it in the other person’s opinion.

also, people who ask you how you are in an email, but then have zero reaction when you actually tell them the truth, be it good or bad. know what? if you don’t really want to know, or don’t care, or won’t be able to handle how i am, don’t ask.

in fact, email etiquette as a whole needs an overhaul, in my opinion.

and we haven’t even touched upon spelling.