Etiquette - Have we forgotten it?

So this week I had an extremely heightened awareness of our society and the lack of etiquette we possess towards others. Okay, this isn't something I just figured out. I think for me as the years go by I just become a little bit more agitated by people and their self absorbed behavior.

When I was a preteen my mother decided it was a good idea to send me to etiquette/modeling school. I was indifferent about going. I just went and learned how to be a proper little lady. I knew my mother sent me out of concern that I might turn out to be a little rebel girl. Well, bless my mother for sending me because I turned out to be a little rebel girl with some great lady-like manners! HA!!! How is that for wacky! Stay with me though. Let's explore the concept.

The yoga studio I go to posted a link to an article about the 10 characters you might see in yoga class. OMG....talk about hysterical. I was number four, the "show off". The flexible girl with a dance background that does every movement with ease and wears a bun. C'est Moi!!! Some other characters were the freestyler, the grunter, the granola guy and my least favorite character.....the latecomer. Now this was a yoga article so you know that there was some of that "we should embrace people and their differences" stuff but come on now. Where do we really draw the line?

This week in yoga, a latecomer decided to plop their mat down right next to me. Turns out not only was she a latecomer but she was a pogo dancer. You know, the student that hops around on one leg throughout all the standing poses and then wants to huff and puff about her frustration because she can't balance. Seriously? Do I really need to embrace that? Is it really okay to be late to class, disrupt the "show off" chick next to you (mind you, I was 15 minutes early and paid the same amount of money just to find some zen from my own hectic life) and then jump around on your mat like a fish outta water?

For those of you that know me personally, my biggest pet peeve is the late with anything person. In my studio, late to class is a super big no-no. Not only do I believe that it is disrespectful to the teacher but I also believe that it is annoying to others participating in class. Most people are also not aware that you can get seriously injured when you walk in late, especially in Pilates. I really don't want to have that talk with a client about why short spine massage isn't the first move you should be doing because you were 20 minutes late to equipment class.

I don't know if any other studio owners have this problem or not but being late with payment for your Pilates services is a really crappy thing to do to your trainer and small business owner. You knew you were coming to your Pilates class today, you knew you had to pay, you made a conscious decision not to bring cash, a checkbook, a credit card and/or you just couldn't get around to paying online 24/7 either. Seriously? Do you not pay for your groceries, gas and salon purchases at the point of sale?

Today I decided to go to the movies to see a matinee of "Midnight in Paris". Totally awesome film! The beginning of the movie started off with the beautiful sites of Paris. Someday I will get there!! Boy did that send me off to dream land. Unfortunately, the couple a few rows behind me had a problem keeping their mouths shut and after clearing my throat and turning around several times I had to finally get up and move across the theater in order to get away from their talking. The Starbucks is across the street if you want to talk. Better yet, the movie will be out on DVD soon and you can watch it at home and talk all you want. That's just ignorant.

There is no Pilates story for the loud talking movie couple. My clients are good about controlling excessive talking during class. I hope you are too.

So here's my last beef on etiquette for this week. I was driving home from work today and was stopped at a red light. I was minding my own business waiting for the light to change and all of a sudden this honking starts behind me. I didn't pay much attention because I was just stopped at the light and wasn't doing anything wrong and then I realized all the fuse was being directed at me!?!? Turns out one of our thousands of disgruntled drivers wasn't pleased with me because he couldn't squeeze his Cadillac between me and the car behind me so I received the honking and flaying hand gestures just for being stopped at a traffic light?

I'm sorry mom. No amount of etiquette school will allow me to conduct myself properly when someone berates me for doing absolutely nothing wrong. I won't go into detail but the little rebel girls response to this behavior wasn't pretty.

Again, there's no Pilates story to go with the crazy driver. I just feel better letting it out on the blog.

I guess the purpose of today's post was to explore the fine line between being accepting of others while not being pushed around, bullied or having your own quality of life being disrupted. I loved the yoga article but at the same time it really got me thinking. Should we really accept people and their ignorant behavior? My manners and etiquette are always wanting to be accepting and open minded towards people but the rebel girl in me thinks that sometimes absurd people really deserve a rude awaking.