Grrr!

I am touchy just like anyone else who has a small tornado (read child), hormonal upheavals, not enough sleep and who hasn't been pampered in ages.
And these are the people who make me sharpen my fangs and claws even more-

• The gas delivery guy who came to deliver a new cylinder at my neighbor's house. He LEANED on my bell ( I have a wireless bell outside the entrance to apartment's corridor and a doorbell). When I opened the door I found a shifty-eyed boy lugging the cylinder in front of my neighbor's door. When I asked him if he rang my bell, he replied as if he had marbles in his mouth and said, "Hindi nahin". So I asked him in Telugu and pointed at my bell. Surely that was clear enough. Nope! He mentioned my neighbor's apartment # and said he thought my bell was theirs instead. Of course he did! everyone has their bell on the opposite wall to their house where the apartment number and name of the occupants of the OTHER house is also written. But the dimwitted glaze in his eyes just did me in! I told him not to do it in the future. He again mumbled with those marbles that live permanently in his mouth.

• The gas delivery guy who came to give me the cylinder yesterday was clearly in a hurry. He rang the outside bell, rang the doorbell and knocked on the door for good measure and then asked, "Gas hona?" Tell me this- if I've booked it, I surely will want it, won't I? So I said yes indeed I wanted it and he lugged it into the kitchen and contemplated the very difficult answer of how much he had to charge me for it. He scanned the receipt up and down and finally found the magic numbers, thank goodness.

• The guard who "guards" our building. He gave me my phone bill late (yet again) and with his usual goofy look. On being asked when it had arrived, he said with a big grin, "parso aaya madam". So madam asked him why it was being handed over so late to which he said (again with a smile). "bhool gaya madam." I told him with a bigger smile that if his tardiness and memory malfunction led to delays in my paying my bills and incurred some late fees, I'd take the money from him. Odd how he didn't smile when he said 'Okay madam' this time.

See, I'm not a hard ass. But certain things just keep getting stuck in my craw. Why do I always merit the eyes-glazed over look from delivery people? People who take forever to answer basic and expected questions and who seem to have that drooly, slack-jawed look down pat?

But such is life. Where all living being must learn to co-exist. The drooling with the non-droolies, the DUH'd ones with the ones who actually get what's going on in front of them and the in my case, the perpetually teeth-clenched ones with those who have the gaping maws that prove so favorable to flies everywhere.