You know what's NOT cute?!

My downstairs neighbours think they're quite the party animals, and were having a shindig.  Which started at three in the morning.  And involved yelling.  And pot smoking.  And urinating on the lawn, even though he had just left my neighbour's apartment (which is on the ground level and opens out onto the lawn) and could have gone back in for five seconds.  And more yelling, specifically one guy being abusive and rude to one girl.  The vibrations from the music were thumping my floors, while the people were OUTSIDE on the balcony, not even listening to it.  At least this time it wasn't Adele (I don't really like her at the best of times, but especially not when I'm trying to sleep) but that has happened before.  Needless to say, I was not impressed.

My grumpy face.  Behold it.

People, I hardly need to tell you this-my Super Cuties are perfect!-but don't be that person.  3 o' clock in the morning, even if it's a weekend?  Keep it down.  Sitting on the bus?  I don't want to hear your obscenely loud (not to mention awful) music blasting through your headphones.  Oh, you went ahead of me going through a door?  I sure do appreciate you not dropping it in my face.  Or, if I held the door for you, a thank you is all I ask.  Because everyone HATES that person, and you can tell when you meet someone who is really really REALLY rude (a certain customer at my work comes to mind!) and thinks that it's everyone else's problem.  They fail to recognize that they are the common denominator.  They treat you like dirt and wonder why their lives are so full of anger and bitterness.  It's because they are receiving what they give. 

Because here's the thing, Super Cuties...MANNERS ARE AWESOME.  They really are.  I remember my parents, my dad in particular, hounding me incessantly about manners.  And I'm glad they did.  I try my best to be polite to everyone, because you can fault me on a lot of things, but I always say please and thank you.  I'm not saying you have to put up with crap with a big smile on your face...stand your ground.  But people will take you seriously if they realize that you are making a conscious effort to be nice to them, to make them feel like a person by taking their feelings into account.  Which is what manners do.  By covering your mouth when you cough you're saying "I didn't want to get you sick today!"  By saying sorry when you bump into someone you're saying "That was an accident, I didn't mean to get in your way!"  And they won't always reciprocate.  And they won't always even deserve for you to be nice to them.  But you have to treat others the way you want to be treated, and trust that one day, karma will turn back around and repay you.

Maybe I haven't articulated this very well, and I know this is my crochet blog, but I'm tired yet needed to rant.  So do it.  Do it for manners. Do it for good grace.  Do it for that hilariously annoyed-looking cat.

Do it for the cuteness.