2 posts tagged “peeves”

Yet, colleagues who have read for my distaste have taken the opportunity to tease me. "We bought you this lotion, so your hands will feel... supple." "What's wrong, does all that oil dripping out of your sandwich make your hands feel... supple?"

That sly grin that follows using the word deserves a returning smile, from yours truly, that only might say "Jackass."

What was worse tonight was when another acquaintance meets me, hugs me with holiday cheer, and then remarks about my coat. I grimmaced, hoping she wouldn't use the word. "This coat is... is it new? So smooth... it's... supple."

I know she didn't know, but she paused like all the rest, before laying it on. "Supple." I hate the way that word looks on the screen, how it looks written-out, and above all else, the way it's used.

Perhaps, it all lends itself to a cheeseball, cracker-jack silly font used on some medical exam gloves I spied years ago at the doctor's office. "Soft and Supple Latex Gloves." That "S" in "supple" had such a teasing curl on it, to suggest frivolty and unabandoned sass. I sure didn't want my doctor groping me in those supple gloves.

They ought to be clean and sterile. Itchy even, with powder. Somehow, "supple" wasn't the right word.

I have a similar reaction to something else... tasting cloth. It can also be brought about my licking a hairy upper-lip, but have you ever dragged your tongue across fabric? That hairy, no-taste type of feeling is so replusive my tongue curls up in the back of my mouth, and I physically cannot open my mouth until that taste/knee-jerk reaction goes away. That feeling is utterly repulsive and so personaly disgusting to me.

Like the word "supple."

Someone suggested at dinner tonight that we arrive at a list of our own personal pet peeves. Mine would start with "people who egg you on with personal quirks, like strong distaste for certain words and sensations of touch." That, it would.