…flip someone off??
(Ava smashed her finger and ran up to me asking me to kiss this…thank goodness for phone pics.)
But I’m curious. What is something that has really made you want to flip someone off lately?
Hopefully you restrained yourself…but even as a pastor I have to admit that I really want to sometimes.
Right now I’m pregnant and the urge to let the bird fly seems to come more frequently. I feel like I’m either wanting to flip someone off or cry.
Typically though it’s arrogance. I absolutely go crazy with arrogant rude people!
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I’ve always felt weird “flying the bird”…just doesn’t feel natural. But if actually just using the F-word counts…then this is so unoriginal, but…traffic.
Lord forgive me, but I get sooooo annoyed with my fellow drivers out there. I could go on and on. Let’s just say I’m not afraid to use the horn on my car if someone is going too slow on a left-turn green arrow. Or if they go under the speed limit for no reason. Or if someone even looks like their about to pull out in front of me. Anyway…I go back and forth between wanting to live in a small town, or a huge city…places where either I won’t encounter much traffic, or a place where I wouldn’t need to drive at all.
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Oh dangit, I just used “their” when I should have used “they’re.” *sigh*
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Getting cut off on the highway, especially in the rain.
Actually, any driver who puts everyone in the vicinity at risk with selfish or oblivious behavior.
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It’s always on the road. Tailgaters, speeders, or a-holes in SUVs who don’t know how to use their side mirrors… I road-rage a LOT but then the drivers in Toledo are IDIOTS so it’s totally justified. Right?
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People who don’t know it’s their turn at a 4-way stop. I don’t flip them the bird, though. I usually just yell ARGGGGGG
And then my kids laugh at me!
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Rude people…but that kind of makes me stop and reconsider what I’m considering doing… Would be very rude of me!
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Nice.
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I have to say that for the most part life has been too amazing lately for me to get too upset…although the new neighbors have been getting on my nerves. They had a tree in their front yard taken out (one that I was especially fond of) and insisted on having the guys with chainsaws and giant woodchippers around at 8:30am-11am for about a week. As I am savoring my last few weeks of not having to get up early (I start my new job on Nov 6), I was rather upset to be woken up by heavy machinery.
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One time I was being lectured by my “then” husband. As he was talking AT me, I was doing the “bla bla bla” face and flipping him off. At that point he says, “I can SEE you.” Silly me, I was doing this in front of the sliding glass door that showed my reflection.
Sigh.
Great Pic!
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My Best friend, I just learnt was b!tching me out to one of her friends
Hmm
I feel like doing the whole F You and flipping her
But that would be mean
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My mother scheduled our Thanksgiving dinner and sent out an email to let everyone know it will be on Black Friday instead of on Thanksgiving. Why? She wanted to be different. But I work on Black Friday, so no Thanksgiving with my family this year. We will just spend the entire day with my husbands’ family. Which is fine. But I still want to whap my mother upside the head.
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I got flipped off yesterday, and I wanted to flip back but didn’t. I had been invited to a dinner party at a place I’d never been before. I was driving slow, looking for the right street I was supposed to turn on. I found it and made a left turn without signaling, because I was right on it when I found it. The guy behind me wasn’t happy. I was just glad I got flipped off and not shot. He didn’t look like someone I’d like to meet in a dark alley.
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Usually traffic, however recently I encountered a pastor on facebook who was belittling someone I knew It infuriated me for some reason. So I wrote him and kindly told him that he was being unkind, to which he responded basically, so what and don’t be a crybaby. It ticked me off so badly that I wanted to send a reply with every curse word I could think of and if I were face to face I would have flipped him off. I did flip off the computer. It made me feel better.
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Sometime in the future she is so not going to be pleased with you…..:)
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Ummmm I don’t know about flipping off, but rolling my eyes or making my mean face works for me. And I do it when people talk down to me!!! Ughhhh soooooo frustrating
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Funny story: My mom works in an office with an older woman, very religious. They were getting frustrated at a computer problem, and she turned to my mom and said, “I don’t know what it means, but I’m about to flip this thing the bird!”
My mom had to explain what “flipping the bird” meant. Poor lady was so embarrassed to have said it and for wanting to “flip the bird” at her computer!!
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Hahaha! I am glad to know that road rage is the #1 reaseon!!!
I hate driving in my town and I even give the bird sometimes, and remember that we go to a very big Church. Opps.
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being accused of padding my timesheet by staying after work to do sh*twork the boss’ henchwoman dreamed up. this after she told me i wasn’t being productive enough during the workday.
i resistesd both the urge to flip her off and to tell her if the less than $1 i might make staying to do 10 minutes worth of her crap was gonna break the bank she ought to get out now because her own fat paycheck might bounce.
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My neighbors dog, that is allowed to bark incessantly, even though flipping it the bird would have absolutely no effect and come to think of it, it wouldn’t phase the neighbors, either!
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When people make assumptions about me or whisper and point, as though judging me on appearance alone. It takes me back to my youth and all the girls who were mean to me just because of what I looked like… too bad they didn’t take the time to get to know me… I would possibly have been the best friend they ever had.
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Oh yeah, #20… I wish hand gestures had some effect on barking dogs, and their incredibly thoughtless owners. During the day is bad enough, but in the middle of the night??? Are you kidding me? Rude, rude, RUDE.
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Every time I am running or biking on a public road and the drivers will not give an inch (even when they can), I want to let the bird and the actual words fly!
but…..I don’t.
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i love this!
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That picture is awesome!
The thing that makes me most want to flip someone off is usually bad Tennessee drivers. Twice this week I was nearly hit head on by someone driving on the wrong side of the road. Both times someone was in a hurry and decided it would be ok to just sneak over into oncoming traffic so they could pass another car on the left. Golly. It’s a miracle I’m still alive.
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I have to say my husband’s oldest brother. He’s ultra, ultra religious, and likes to go around telling other people in my husband’s family (nieces, nephews, even my husband and me) how to live, but his life is totally whacked out…he and his wife fight a lot and he says he stays with her because the Bible tells him he has to. I’d like to flip the bird to him as much as possible, but it would cause a family fight. I just wish he would leave us all alone. Everyone tells him to go away, but he just gets worse.
(Sigh)
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*sigh* I read everyone’s comments and now I am almost embarrassed to write this but you asked…
Yes the traffic thing certainly makes me want to give someone the one-fingered salute, the most serious, compelling urge to flip someone off that I have resisted (please note that I DID resist it) is… my daughter!
Call me a terrible mom if you must, but my 18-year-old is such a handful right now. Selfish, self-centred and rude. So freaking rude. I literally avoid speaking to her sometimes because the attitude is so vile that I literally want to give her the finger, or even tell her to F* off.
But I resist. I count to 10. I walk away. I try to remember when she was as young and cute as Ava. And when she wasn’t so utterly disgusted by me that she can’t even conduct a 5 minute conversation with me without dying! And I try to imagine that we’ll get past this stage… right?
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I love all of these comments! I don’t use the finger much at all — if I’m am really upset I will throw out an F-bomb. Then it is generally about a situation, not at a person. (Like I’m 1 hour away from my office and I realize I forgot my phone with which I conduct all of my business….) That would merit an F-bomb, but not finger action to speak of…
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A certain Christian university that my daughter attends that recruited a registered sex offender (rape and incest) for their football team. My daughter’s in the band, so he has access to her. Football rules in Texas. At least it takes precedence over the safety of the girls on the campus. So, yeah, every time I’m near it, I give it the single digit salute…
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This post has gotten so many replies!! Seems I’m not the only traffic-annoyed out there. =)
To Andrea: I don’t think you’re a terrible mom. You’re the mom of a teenager. 18 is a hard age, and your daughter will either (as my mom used to say) learn things the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is longer and more painful, but my mom has had some pretty rough times with all us kids, too, and eventually we turned out all right. =)
Oh yeah, I also wanted to add that I work in retail at a grocery store, and by golly if there aren’t multiple moments every single shift I work that I wish I could really tell a customer my true thoughts instead of saying, “hmm…let me check on that for you.” Ah…retail.
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Car drivers who are not only completely inconsiderate of the bike lane, but angry with bikers (well, me) just for being on the road. They create such dangerous situations and turn people off from commuting on bicycles.
Just this morning some guy parked with his driver side next to the bike lane on a busy street, didn’t look before opening the door and we nearly collided. I skidded and went around him (thankfully the car behind me paused and let me go..)
It happens sometimes and I just go on, but he cursed at me as I went all the way down the street. I didn’t flip him off, but the urge surfaced a little.
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When someone else is in the wrong (we have HORRIBLE drivers in our town) and THEY honk and flip me off. It’s all I can do to keep the bird from flying up. Back in high school, I wasn’t so careful to keep from it… I almost got in a angry girl fight in the Wal-Mart parking lot. And I’m not that kind of girl!
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When people honk at ME when THEY are the ones in the wrong.
Haha, I just read Staci’s entry. Maybe we live in the same town!
I’m just glad I have two kids riding in the back seat, watching me like a hawk. Or I just may let one fly.
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I would really like to give the “bird” to the mean people who robbed us in the hospital parking lot where our mother lay dying in ICU last week…She passed on Wednesday and I know for sure she’s an angel but I’m sure would still manage a finger sign to those same people…
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When people attach the law to other’s situations and act like they know what the hell they are talking about. When I was in mid-divorce, I was faced with a situation where people were talking smack about ‘divorce is sin, and sin is sin and we gotta call it what it is – that’s what’s wrong with Christians today, they don’t call sin out when it happens’ then proceeded to explain how they knew the right way to ‘do marriage’ and keep it together…I’d like to be a fly on their wall when they’re faced with something they never imagined or saw coming. SEE THIS FINGER???? Confession time: I used to be one of those people…Humble Pie doesn’t taste good but it nourishes. I get it now.
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cuuute.
slow walkers and people who let doors go when someone is behind them get me.
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Well, smashin’ my finger for one….
And horn honkers.
And line cutters.
And Spit talkers.
And evidently allot of things!
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My mother in law telling me that my house is not clean enough,that I should wash my bedsheets at least once a week, that I should get the china out when they come to dinner (because they bought some of it for showers and wedding), how to raise my kids and explaining to me what her son needs from a wife. I would love to stick a finger out at her…….but honor thy mother and father keeps coming back to me and my guess is that it applies to mother-in-laws too.
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Usually at my husband or friends when they do something intentionally to annoy me. My hubby can be a smartalex quite a bit, and it’s often my go-to response.
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Bad drivers, especially when people who drive slower than the speed limit. The last several years I have been exercising self control and refraining from using my middle finger. But it’s only been the last 8 months or so that I’ve been really trying to refrain from swearing. In December I used the F word at the top of my lungs in a deacon meeting with the Senior pastor and the assistant pastor both in the room. Nothing like having to call everyone and apologize for my temper and my tongue to make me rethink the words I use! I offered to resign but they said no.
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Finding out that someone has built a maze in my 5th and 6th grade classroom at church without telling me.
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there times when i want to flip the bird (hahaha reminds me of one episode from Flight of Conchords) but i don’t do it because it’s really rude.
.
i fight the urge to not let it fly once my finger get slammed in the doors
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I love the accidental flipping of the bird! Last Thanksgiving, my son (age five at the time) told my mom at the dinner table that the Indians sign language for “I love you” was…and then he stuck up his middle finger. It was pretty funny. I’m still laughing.
Ava’s face is great in that photo, what with the flip and all. I hope her finger is okay, though.
Sadly, I would have to say that being angry at my husband recently has made me want to stick that finger up right in his face…but I didn’t. I don’t think I ever have done that, actually.
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my SO and i had a party this weekend, and his friends use it as an excuse to come from all over the country to stay with us for a few days.
this isn’t the issue.
one of the individuals was new to us…we’d known him online, but never in person. well, it turns out he’s an insufferable individual who not only kicks my cats (and lies about the reason for doing so), but expects me to pick up after him, and demands we provide him a computer so he can occupy himself all weekend.
by the time he left yesterday, i’d already threatened his life (because, seriously? DON’T KICK MY CATS. EVER. FOR ANY REASON.) and told him never to return to my home.
the disrespect was palpable…but i didn’t let that birdy fly.
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People who abuse the 911 system.
I’m an emergency dispatcher and nothing makes me want to flip someone off faster than answering a 911 call only to hear “Ummm… This isn’t technically an emergency but…”
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Liz (#30) – Thanks for your words. Intellectually I KNOW this, I do… but I’m dealing with a hormonal teenager. Who has time for “intellectual”?
Tracie (#34) – So sorry for you loss. And that parking lot mugger deserves a lot more than the bird!
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Whahahahahahaha! How cute!! (That she wanted you to kiss her finger that is… eh-he)
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Since I deal with the public every day, there are many times I want to let the birds fly. Mainly it’s the people who don’t listen! Just listen to what I’m telling you and your question will be answered! Those people and close-minded people. I live in WI and I’ve honestly had people (mainly from the west coast) ask me if WI is on the east coast, if it’s by VA and my favorite response when I said in the midwest (and that didn’t help) was, where’s the great lakes? Did you pass elementary school?!
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I’m not really a bird or F-bomb person. BUt if you cut me off, don’t be surprised to find a dent in your car. NOt kidding. I will let you hit me. Be polite, pay attention, use your turn signal. I get irritated with slow, but not crazy.
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Rudeness, whether it’s on the road or in the mall. I think the main problems with traffic are caused by people who believe that they are more important than every one else on the road.
My parents have a similar photo of me holding up my middle finger. I was probably the same age as Ava in this photo and also shirtless.
Our baby girl has already given us the finger, and she’s still in utero. During an ultrasound, when the doctor was looking at her hands, she flipped the bird. Quite funny, for now.
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when i politely wave someone over in front of my truck in rush-hour Houston traffic (the worst traffic in the world) and they don’t wave back.
it sounds dumb… but that’s what bothers me the most!
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Well… a few…it just seems like fun sometimes…forgive me Lord…
* When i’m feeling sassy…and don’t feel like sticking my tongue out like a child
*then there is the original when i’ve almost been killed by a semi…if it’s a minor traffic offense i like to be a brat…throw a huge smile on my face and wave like a maniac! It actually provides a huge relief
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This is so fun. Yes traffic for sure and all the parents who talked during the band concert last week when their kid was not playing. My evil eye didn’t even faze the “boy scout” mother who didn’t shut up the entire time. Wish I had taped her to show it on youtube or something.
Someone told me once it’s the way people think they are entitled. Entitled to be rude, obnoxious and first in line.
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ummmm….people who say mean things and then say: “I’m not trying to be rude or anything…” You KNOW I just want to say: “Really, cause it dang sure does sound like ya are!” or “Really? Well if you’re that good at being rude WITHOUT even trying I sure can’t wait to see you really giving it your all!”
Whew….all better now.
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The person driving just ahead of me who hit the raccoon & just left it to suffer…ARGH!
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Now THIS explains why I like you…
A pastor… with a sense of HUMOR !!!!
THERE IS a GOD !!!!!
Can I get an AMEN?????
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Sorry…
One other question…
Was it a “Flip Phone” ?
Sorry I just had to ask…. : )
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Hi Ryan,
I’ve been reading your site for a while and am absolutely in love with it. I had to comment on this post because the photo of your daughter is adorable. I work as a caller for my college’s political science center, phoning people and giving them surveys. People usually automatically assume I am a telemarketer, and even when I assure them I am not selling them anything, they hang up on me mid-sentence. It makes me so angry – did their mother never teach them manners? But then I remind myself that in high school I would hang up on callers all the time, so I calm myself down.
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xDDD I did that as a child…. I accidentally flipped off my kidergarden teacher trying to tell her which finger I hurt.
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