I have pet peeves. We all do. To be honest, I don’t have any way of determining if I am more easily annoyed than other people.

You’ll have to tell me if I seem normal or extreme. Actually, don’t. I’ll just get mad at you.

Lately my biggest annoyance, even bigger than people with headphones that leak their tunes into my subway airspace, is this:

People talking with their hands at a communal table.

Specifically smacking or slamming them on said shared table.

I spend a lot of time in coffee shops and seemingly all of them offered shared seating. When I’m there, I try to write stuff (for this blog and otherwise), catch up on email and perhaps most importantly, to clear my head.

In my neighborhood, Toby’s is my favorite.

Unfortunately it’s lots of people’s favorite which is how I ever came to set foot in the new 7th Street Starbucks. Yes, I feel a little guilty going there but it has the needed combo of caffeine + food + good free wifi.

Also, my previous hangout Modca closed. Boo hoo.

Anyway. The pet peeve.

Generally, people are [mostly] nice and considerate. But then there are those folks who talk with their hands, thumping the table for emphasis. Or they use their hands to drum out a beat on the table. I try to give looks that say “could you not?” but I find that they are ignored.

What would you do if you were me?