An Accumulation of Petty Annoyances

Weekly Update - September 29, 2023

A couple of days ago I was in a bad mood. I was irritable, my head hurt like hell, I had a terrible night of sleep and I was just generally grumpy. We've all been there.

The thing is, it just kind of came out of nowhere. There wasn't anything big happening. In fact, when Barb asked me what was going on, I really didn't have an answer for her. There wasn't one single thing that I could point to and say... THIS. This is what has me feeling pissy. And while there was no one BIG thing that I could identify to explain my bad mood, it felt like there were 100 little things that I could point to.

There was an accumulation of petty annoyances.

Our days are filled with petty annoyances. Someone riding our bumper when we drive, or parking so close to one line that they are, in essence, double parked. That one guy at work. That one friend who is always just a little extra (and knowing that if you can't identify that friend it probably means YOU are that friend). The toilet seat being left up. People who leave their grocery carts in the middle of the grocery aisle. People who don't use turn signals.

And kids. OMG. Kids. They are the masters of low level annoyance. Barb once described parenting as being pecked to death by a duck and it is still the best description I have ever heard. No single peck from a round bill hurts. Heck, most don't even register. But 400 million of them? That's something else entirely.

Petty annoyances are, well, petty. They are not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. They are small, most bordering on completely insignificant. Even so, they bother us. They may be petty, but they are also very much annoying. And when you start stacking them over the course of a day, a week, a month, even a year (and if you aren't humming the Friends theme right now, get help), it can become challenging.