Stop. With. The. Advice.

Am I the only person who doesn't assume that every time someone opens their mouth, they're looking for advice? I think sometimes people just say stuff. I figure most people have their course of action figured out for stuff, and they'll do what they want to do. I also don't claim to be an expert on what everyone else should do. If someone says, "Hey, what should I do with X situation?" then I'll tell them what I think, but if they say, "Oh my god, Anna, you're not going to believe what happened!" and then tell me something outrageous they just encountered, I really have never seen that as an invitation for advice unless it's followed by "What the hell do I do with this?!" or something similar. I suppose it's rather Aspie of me (taking things very literally and all), but I've always figured that if someone doesn't ask for advice, they're not looking for it. Therefore, when I say something, and don't explicitly ask for advice, I'm rather offended by people taking it upon themselves to give it. Like, do they think I'm stupid and can't figure it out for myself?

Erin's room is my project for today, and I'll tell you, it pisses me off every time I set foot in there. I clean it and she trashes it. I don't clean it, and she trashes it, then opens her window which is right on the street, so everyone can see her trashed room. I wash clothes for her, she puts them on the floor, or throws them right back in the hamper if she doesn't feel like putting them away. And before Captain Obvious shows up with some unsolicited advice, me and Thak have tried everything short of military boarding school to get through to her. She just won't stop screwing up.

So anyhow, in the course of packing Erin's room, I found that she had written on the walls in permanent marker, and poured a bottle of glue in the carpet. I was in complete shock over this, and happened to mention it to friends. I didn't ask what to do with it. In fact, by that point, I'd already gotten 90% of the glue out with the carpet cleaner, and am pretty sure whatever carpet cleaning service we hire will get out the other 10% without incident, and had pretty much resolved to paint the walls (even though the landlord's clearing out list says explicitly NOT to paint walls). I was not looking for people to give me every sort of stupid Captain Obvious advice when I happened to mention this disgusting mess I'd been dealing with all morning.

Seriously, when did it become something other than rude to give unsolicited advice? I get that people are trying to help, but how stupid do I strike you as being? Do you really think I haven't already tried every cleaning product on the market to get the Sharpie off the walls? Do you really think it never occurred to me to paint over it? Do I strike you as being mentally retarded? Sometimes people are just stating the facts.