Flossing Etiquette

There's a guy in my office who sits about 8-9 feet away from me who flosses his teeth every day in the office.
No. Not in front of the restroom sink in the office.
But at his desk.

Yes. Sitting, or at times actually standing, flossing his teeth.

Even sometimes, walking around. Flossing, while stopping once in a while to chat with people, with his floss rolled around his index finger, touching things, other people's report, blackberry, and stuff. Then without washing his hands, go straight back to his desk, put the floss aside on his desk (for later use), and start typing.

Can you imagine the amount of germs invested on his keyboard? Sometimes he makes this tight high-pitch string-picked noises when pulling his gunk out. It's like playing guitar with his teeth. Totally gross. Think of all of the particles being flicked out from this floss of his.

We joked about his habit behind his back, but over the time it has become more gross than funny. Up to a point that I think it is just a matter of us pulling the straws and the one who gets the shortest straw will have to sit with him and tell him how gross it is to floss in public.
It's unsanitary, it's mannerless, it's rude, it's inhumane, it's disgusting and it's... did I say gross already?

So my friends and I got into this discussion about how weird it is that if someone is being rude, the society tends to let that person be. Because, most of the time, if we, for example, stand up and say something to the person that he's being mannerless or rude, that person will get offended.
I mean, how can that person be offended when we are the one who are trying to say in the first place that we are offended by him? The world has gone mad.

Oh, you know what, he also chews his gum and when he needs to talk to someone, he would take out his gum, stick it on top of his notebook for the longest period of time, and for later consumption.

Yup... you can only find this kind of bizarre behavior in my office.

The Angel of Dogs

On the day of my birthday, nine to ten days ago, on which I turned 32, my dad gave me a figurine of an angel.

It was an angel holding some flowers.

Then he said: I actually wanted to give you the angel holding a dog. You were with mom in that quaint little store in Long Grove picking up bracelets and I had to sneak past you to tell the lady owner which one I wanted. Then they scurried here and there discreetly and shoved me this box, and I did not check the inside.
So I ended up with the angel with the flower instead.
I wanted to give you the dog one because the pose is exactly just how you always hold Bandit. And the dog's tail hanging down just like Bandit's too. It's such a good representation of you and Bandit. You are so good with animals you are like their guardian angel. That figurine is perfect for you.

So, when you have the chance later on, go there and exchange this with the angel holding the dog.
Except,... you really like this one holding some flowers.

So I said, sure, Dad. I'll go there and exchange them.
Thanks, Dad.

To do that, then, last week, I went to Long Grove with CDC (ChicagoDimCorner, that is...) and went to that quaint store again. And I explained to the Lady owner who was very nice, by the way.
I looked for the figurine which he explained to me, the angel carries a dog with a pose just how I carry Bandit, on my right arm with him facing my right or sometimes back. And I found it.
"There it is!" I said to CDC.
I picked it right up, we stared at it in silence.
"But..." I said.

"It's a CAT."

Then CDC started to laugh.

"Are you sure?" He said.

"Yeah, I know what a cat looks like... don't you?"
"And," I said, "Also, she carried the cat on her left side... unlike how I carry Bandit. On the right. Maybe my dad didn't wear his glasses at that time and thought that it's a dog."

CDC said, "Now what? Are you still going to take it?"

"I guess so,... we can pretend that it's a dog. I can draw a black spot on its back to make it looks more like Bandit, " I said.

"Okay...."
"Okay."

So, I exchanged it.

Then we left.

Only to find, this morning, that on the official website of those angel figurines, they do have an angel carrying a dog.
With the exact pose as mine and Bandit.

I looked at it in disbelief.
Cursing inside.
It's ME who needs glasses. I missed that one over there in the store.

I guess I'm going back to Long Grove again, which is a forty freaking miles drive, one way, so that I can have an angel figurine, that my dad wants me to have, and I want to have because my dad wants me to have.

Me,...
The angel of dogs, who, because of some mix-up, currently is the angel of cats.