The opposite of the What Made You Smile Today thread. I’m not talking about climate change, politics, etc. I’m talking about the little irritants that piss you off. I’ll go first.
When trying to move or pick up a rug, the dog (s) ALWAYS have to stand on it. It’s like they are drawn to the rug like moths to a flame as soon as I go to pick it up. I ask them to move and they just stand there staring at me.
My bathroom is upstairs. I get ready for the day in there - dress, makeup, hair. I already have 3 dogs milling around in the little hallway or coming into the bathroom, all 3 playing with a tug toy stomping around, etc. Today, my husband also comes upstairs. He has decided that it would be the perfect time to change the battery in the smoke detector. Now there are 3 dogs and a husband on a step ladder in the hallway right outside the bathroom door. Across the hallway from the bathroom is a closet that I frequently have to go in and out of - my brush, hairspray, deodorant, etc are in that closet. He is blocking my way. GEEZ! I told him - you have all day to do this and you choose this time?! I wanted to scream.
We have two bathrooms in the house. When my husband has to do his morning dump, he will inevitably choose the bathroom which is nearest me. We’re fortunate to be a two-bathroom family, but I do wish he’d choose the furthest one away from me at that moment. There’s a gap under the doors of the bathrooms, and I can hear every grunt and splash as I’m getting ready for work in our bedroom, or if I’m downstairs on the sofa drinking my morning tea.
^^The men’s room is right near my desk (about 10 feet away). One of the guys here takes those kinds of shits (groaning, splashing, splattering and heavy sighs).
And doesn’t turn on the fan or spray the air freshener in there when he’s done; so the next person who goes in there has to gag and hold his breath.
And doesn’t have the courtesy to put a new roll of toilet paper on if he’s used it all. He will leave the roll with one tiny goddamn sheet on it. A few times I thumbtacked that roll to the wall with a note: WTF is someone gonna do with that?!
We have a three bathroom home. My gf has the nice master bath, I have the one down by my mancave. When we travel and are in a hotel/motel with just one bathroom it is the worst part of the trip.
My irritation today involves grocery shopping. I’m making a lamb-shank tagine for dinner. I have three nice shanks defrosting at home. However, I am not sure about a few of my needed ingredients (dates, chickpeas). My gf is working from home, but if I text her asking that she check the pantry, that’s too big an ask depending on how her work day is going.
So, I’m going to pick up what I’m sure I need (canned tomatoes) and either buy what I’m uncertain about or else potentially make a second trip to the grocery store (a 20 minute drive).
The same thing that irritates me every day: that fucking kid with his skateboard who has decided that the street in front of our house is where he just has to practice his moves. And he sucks at it. It’s been going on for a year now.
I hate when people put their weights in the wrong place. 10’s are at a real premium at my gym, and it irritates the crap out of me when I see that there’s a 10 buried under 3 45’s. Morons.
Every bit of this. I know who does it at my gym, and furthermore I know the bag of dicks does it on purpose.
But what irritated me today is that the sound on my Vizio TV suddenly went out and won’t come back on. I’ve rebooted and reset to factory settings and still no sound. I can listen with earphones plugged into my Roku remote, but not through the TV speakers.
Today was my weekly visit to the Wound Clinic, for the gaping laceration on my leg. They had sent me a big carton of supplies, including some 2.5" spongy blue squares to put on the wound. Every day, when I change the dressing, I complain about having to line up three squares to cover the wound. When the nurse saw this, she asked, “Why don’t you use the 4x5s?” They make 4x5s? Then why the fuck did they just send me 2.5s?
I should be getting some 4x5s in the mail, any day now.
Epic fruitless search, for important shit, lasting 2 hours in which I rummaged
repeatedly through contents of assorted bins, shoeboxes and drawers. To no avail.
Then the self slap of ffs! And right there under my nose eyes visage the important shit I deserved that no nap for me.
HR (yet again) sent me a new hire that is completely computer non literate. For a freaking job that is 50% done on computers!
And when I say non literate, I mean: Doesn’t know how to copy and paste, switch between windows, the difference between right click and left click. Ugh!!
Fecebook’s logarithms have decided I need to see a lot of movie vid clips where bullies get their asses kicked. After a few of these, it just got to be depressing. I’ve started fast-scrolling past them. Yeah, I know, one more reason to dislike Fecebook.
I was putting away a cooking utensil in the old sourdough jug I use to array such things and briefly sprawled my left hand over an old (much too old but apparently irreplaceable), somewhat rusty metal spatula. I realized it had cut me, not very deep, in the web between thumb and forefinger.
Goddammit. So dumb.
I’ll be vaguely (albeit irrationally) concerned about tetanus for the next couple of days. I’m scheduled for a flu shot on Friday… maybe will have them do a tetanus booster just in case.
People crossing the center line while driving towards you. At least pay attention enough to stay out of my lane. That shit irritates me so much because you never know for sure they are going to jerk over at the last second and not kill me. One of the major roads now has rumble strips on the center line, and I hear people hit them all the time.
And the drivers who swing to the right before they make a left or u-turn. If you’re in the lane immediately to their right, like I was today, it can give you heart failure. I still don’t know how they missed clipping me.
I’ll label this “irratated but satisfied”.
I have a weekly meeting with people who are important to my little training project. I have a boss who, when stressed, becomes a micro-manager from hell. Boss is stressed about big project that mine is a part of and the behavior of others and tried to use my team to influence their behavior. Then, boss started inviting everyone to my meeting and dictating the agenda, basically stealing the meeting and its purpose out from under me. Last week I called boss on the table and said “you want this meeting under your control so it’s yours now and I will work with my important people in a different way.” Very frustrating but also a big headache gone because I no longer have to set an agenda that boss approves and then ditches the moment the meeting starts. So this week one of the people boss invited to join the cabal, invites more people and then announces they are taking over the meeting because it’s the only time they can find to get their questions answered.
Did the meeting answer any of my questions? Absolutely not, so I’m working on getting them on the down low. Was my boss surprised and frustrated? You bet. Too bad.
In the general scheme of things, not a big deal…but “irritated” is apt.
An old friend, “Bob,” was briefly in town and several mutual friends decided to get together with him while he was here. The organizing couple, “Mim” and “John,” chose a rather upscale restaurant, more upscale than I would have chosen but whatever, to have dinner. So it wouldn’t go “too late,” Mim and John decided we’d all meet at 4:30. (4:30 for dinner? Hmmm…) My schedule made it impossible for me to get there till after six, but I was told that’d be okay.
I got there and everybody else was finishing up their dinner. “Order from the appetizer menu, Ulf,” everybody said. “We all did. They’re good and they’re filling.” I rarely go out to eat and this place was definitely sticker-shocky for me, who can’t remember the last time he spent upwards of $20 on a meal including tax and tip, but I ordered a $15 appetizer and it was just fine. Just water to drink, no coffee or anything let alone alcohol. Talked for a while with Bob and the others–seven of us altogether–and it was good, nice to see Bob, the works.
Then it was time to pay. Before I arrived they’d apparently agreed that the bill would be split evenly seven ways. Well, okay, if they all had appetizers how bad could it be? Turned out everyone’s share, including tax and tip, came to…$39. Thirty-nine bucks! IOW, about twice what I would have owed if it had been just me. Maybe some of them ordered two appetizers? Or an appetizer and an entree? Or two alcoholic drinks? Or three?
I didn’t feel I could say no–maybe I should’ve anyway–but man I was subsidizing people right and left. The appetizer left a pretty good taste in my mouth, but this “equitable” division, not so much. I guess I’ve learned something for next time, anyway. Ouch.
Today, I’m irritated by my water heater. Some days, you turn it on and it’s like magma from Hell and you have to fiddle with it to make it not scald all your skin off. And some days, particularly when you most need it hot, it’s barely over tepid. I live alone and don’t have a washer or dishwasher and there’s no other apparent pattern that lets me predict when it will happen.
Also, the knob is finicky. It’s one knob that turns 360 degrees. About 300 of those are pure cold. About 50 are pure hot. And about 10 are somewhere between. So on the days when hot really is hot and you have to try to adjust it down so that you don’t scald to death, there’s like a millimeter of “just right” (or anywhere near it) and good luck hitting it.
Also, my sheets are old and the fitted sheet ripped all the way across while I was sleeping on it last night. I don’t have enough sets to really have spares, so now I have to go get a new one.
My gas water heater has a big dead band too, and so if I don’t catch it at the right moment the water will be not quite hot enough for my liking. Here’s the thing: I’ve found that adjusting the water temperature to a hotter level doesn’t really help in this situation. Dead band is when the thermostat in it is lazy or slow to react, and so the water temperature seems to have to drop quite lower than the set temp before the burner re-lights.
What I do then, is about 12-15 minutes before I want to shower, is run a gallon or so of hot water in the sinks in the kitchen or bathroom sink. The incoming cold water from the heater supply inlet will lower the water temperature enough to “shock” the thermostat so that it tells the burner to light. 15 minutes later I have copious hot water. A band-aid solution I know, but it’ll get me through till I have to replace it due to whatever reason.
How petty and passive aggressive some members of my closely extended family really are.
I declined to go to my cousin’s wedding in September because of the host of international COVID travel hoops I’d have to jump through. I was just there in July at their insistence for another family function. It was great to see everyone, including the cousin and spouse-to-be in question. But I just didn’t want to go through the hassle and expense again.
In December it’s my daughter’s wedding. Much smaller affair. They are going to be in the country & state just 3 hours drive away - so no additional COVID testing theater required. But they have declined. Didn’t even offer an explanation for not attending. Literally just texted a, “No, sorry”, as a reply after having spammed everyone with pics of their kid’s wedding.
Well, you are free to feel irritated but this definitely sounds like tit-for-tat and you asked for it, even if that wasn’t your intention. I do hope that even though you didn’t attend their wedding, you sent a gift.
All that said, it could simply be that they have other plans for the date in question. It does happen and explanations are not required.
