So well, I have a problem with gum chewers or other noisy eating people. If the gum chewer is quiet, or doesn't snap their gum, I don't have a problem. It is when they chew it with their mouth open, or when they snap and pop their gum. This is a small irritating thing I picked up from mom. Little noises like that drove her crazy, along with rattling plastic bags, humming, loud breathing or whistling when eating (Dad) or singing that wasn't accompanied by a piano. That really drove her up the wall. Anyway, I have picked up on some of that, and so loud gum chewers really bother me.

There are two loud gum chewers in my ward. They have a hard time breathing through their nose, and so they chew their gum with their mouths open. Worse still, they breath hard and and do the combo breath of mouth/nose/snore sound. I know this bothers me, and so I try hard to not sit by them in Sacrament. Since Sacrament is so quite, we would hear a pin drop if one was actually dropped. This Sunday, one of them sat right behind me. I had no idea until after the Sacrament was passed and he came from passing it and sat down behind me. I sat their for the next 30-40 mins trying to concentrate on the speakers, but couldn't. All I could think of was the breathing problems this person has, and how I wanted to turn around and take the gum away from him. I know this is a personal problem and that his breathing problems aren't his fault. This is an irritation I need to work on so it wouldn't bother me. However, it is really hard. About 10 mins before the end of the meeting, I found myself tapping my foot, and drumming my fingers on the pew. It was horrible. Instead of me being able to take the things out of the talk someone worked so hard on putting together, all I could think of was ripping the gum out of someones mouth. I became very aware of how many people were chewing gum around me. There were three people in front of me that started chewing gum after Sacrament. The two on my right started chewing gum shortly before the meeting was over, and the one on my left started chewing gum right after Sacrament. I was completely surrounded by gum chewers. However, they chewed it with their mouths closed, and didn't make snapping/popping, or weird breathing noises.


I guess I will need to be a bit more diligent on finding a seat for myself next week.