I know it might seem a bit crabby, or even a touch unfair, but I can’t help it. There are two things that I see almost on a daily basis that really bug me. Pet peeves, if you will.
The first involves those people who deliberately slow their stride to a complete stop in order to find the handicapped door opener button, step back, wait for the door 
to sloooooowly open and then quickly accelerate in order to gain back lost time on their journey to get to work, grab a coffee, or to get the best seat at lunchtime. Now, of course, there are obvious exceptions. An armload of stuff for instance. In certain extreme cases, one might be unable to open the door for themselves. Especially if it is of the ‘pull’ variety. But come on. You and I both know that those who abuse the handicapped entrances rarely actually *need* to use them. It’s the epitome of laziness…what’s the next step for them? A remote control for their Ipod? Talk about a time and energy saving device.
The second is just as annoying, but slightly more justified – in some cases. I work in an office building, on the fourth floor. It isn’t quite the penthouse, 
but it isn’t on the main level either. In most cases, I choose to take the stairs. I mean why not? It’s kind of like sneaking mini workouts into my day. But other times, especially if the elevator door is sitting there, open, waiting for me, I’ll hop in and catch the free ride. Each time I do this, without fail, I find myself on the elevator with at least one person that has hit the button for floor 2. The main lobby is floor 1. There are exactly 12 stairs to get to floor 2, but these folks will wait forever for the elevator to arrive to take them to their destination instead of walking up 12 stairs and saving themselves oodles of time. The justification, as I am aware, is that some might have knee, joint, muscle, tendon etc. pain that keeps them from using the stairs. Understandable. I myself suffer from knee pain and, depending on the height of the heels I’ve chosen to wear that day, I often find going down stairs quite excruciating. But I can’t help but wonder what the majority are thinking as they are standing there, staring at the lights/numbers above the doors, twiddling their thumbs, waiting a full 3-4 minutes for the elevator to arrive. Do you think they are thinking that they should have taken the stairs? Probably. Will they take them next time? No.
Oh…and don’t even get me started on the people who won’t stand back and patiently wait for those getting off the elevator to exit before pushing their way on. Perhaps they wouldn’t be so impatient if they hadn’t been standing there for what seemed like an hour and had chosen to take the stairs in the first place.
