Pet peeves

Pet peeves. We seem to all have them. We can all identify little things that bother us more than perhaps they should. 

People who reply-all. People who write in all caps. People driving slow in the left lane. People chewing with their mouth open. People who do their hair and makeup to go to the gym. People showing up too early. People showing up late. Bad parking. Not using turn signals. Gender reveals. People bringing their dogs places dogs shouldn’t be. Kids running around restaurants.

That’s a partial sample of what my Facebook friends had to say when I asked what their pet peeves are. (Some of those are mine as well.)

I’ve never thought too much about pet peeves until recently when I was asked: what’s the opposite of a pet peeve?

Huh.

Have you ever considered the opposite of a pet peeve? I certainly hadn’t. Does it even have a name? Where does the phrase pet peeve even come from, anyway?

I looked up the etymology on wikipedia and others, and it was brought into common usage about 100 years ago via a comic strip called The Little Pet Peeve about many of the same things we’d rattle off now.

Some things haven’t changed in a century.

So that was a fun bit of knowledge, but what’s the opposite? Where’s the positive?

In the thread where I was challenged about the positive flip side, someone dubbed them pet pleases. Delightful!

Pet please. Little (or maybe not so little) things that make you happier than perhaps it seems they should.

My list has a lot of smells: nearly anything baking; coffee; onions frying; orange blossoms. All green lights. Technology working the way it’s supposed to. Batteries lasting longer than expected. Waking up feeling rested. Having hard work noticed in a positive way. Flowers on fruit plants. Someone else making dinner. My favorite machine at the gym being available when I want it. 

What are your pet pleases?