I'm in a mood today. I can tell things are going to irritate me, but there's not going to be a lot I can do to keep from being irritated by them. So here are a few of my current pet peeves, by way of getting things off my chest, and maybe reducing my likelihood of sighing melodramatically when a student requests an extension on a paper, or snapping "I already have plans!" when a last-minute meeting gets called:

1. Spam. I had thirty pieces of e-mail in my work box when I came in a few minutes before seven this morning. All of them were either some kind of weird virus written in another character set (the Subject line was nonsense), or they were trying to sell me ViAkgr1a! or c1al1s or narcotics or a home-loan refinance or a fake degree or p0rn0 videos (that's the most disturbing one, at my work address), or they were strings of non-sequiter words. And in the roughly 45 minutes I've been here, I've had to delete five or so more. And I get perhaps twice as much spam at my home e-mail address.

2. People who change their babies in store parking lots and then leave the soiled diapers on the ground. Like cars aren't going to drive over that mess and track baby excreta all over. It just grosses me out to think of it. I realize you might not want to drive home with a dirty diaper in the car, but please...at least find a trash can.

2a. I'm gonna expand this one to People who Litter in general. You know, there aren't Magick Cleaning Elves that come out at night and pick up your trash - it's the homeowners in the neighborhood, or the people working at the business, or good-citizens on a trash-off day who do it. And if you didn't litter, they wouldn't have to spend their time picking up your castoffs. I mean, how awful is it to drive home with an empty Sonic drink cup in the car, and put it in the trash when you get there?

3. People who make it their business to be offended and assume the World is Against Them. It's just tiresome to deal with them, nothing you can do will make them happy. Also: there are only so many times I can say "I understand your concern but I have no authority to change things" before I start to get ticked off.

4. Negative campaign ads. Can you just tell me what's good about YOU without running down the other guy? It makes me wonder if there's anything good about a candidate if all he or she has to say is "I'm not the other guy."

5. The news. Yeah, I know, the world is a wicked place, but I almost wept listening to the radio news this morning. Surely ALL religions have a commandment proscribing murder?

I can actually do something about numbers 4 and 5 - not listen to news and try to avoid channels that will be running campaign ads. I'm just at a point right now where I'm kind of worn down and I feel almost like an appliance with a frayed wire - the wrong kind of contact is going to make me short out or melt down.