I couldn’t fall asleep easily last night because the memory of a month-old annoying incident popped back up in my mind and started annoying me all afresh. Does that ever happen to you? I effing hate that. The worst part is that I will never gain satisfaction because the annoyance is SO stupid and SO petty and I am SO overreacting to it that it would most certainly not be worth it at all to mention it to the people involved, who have absolutely no clue that they annoyed me.
Because of that festering little wound, though, however small it may be, the annoyance has been slowly spreading all day. Little things that normally wouldn’t faze me have launched me on completely vicious interior tirades. Cases in point:
- A few students didn’t get their books for this week early enough, and now the bookstore is sold out. Had they tried to get them earlier, the bookstore could have ordered more copies. The bookstore, meanwhile, maintains it is their policy to order only 15 copies of a book for a 30-student class.
- My neighborhood is turning into a party neighborhood, a neighborhood of cars with giant speakers whose trunks are open to the world as they blast bass music in the general direction of my building from parking spaces fifteen feet away.
- Due to people in the department leaving and new people being hired, they are re-shuffling all our offices once again. I not only have to move up to the next floor, but I also have to move in with a complete stranger who will be teaching the same days as me next semester, meaning we will both always be in the office all the time. Meanwhile, the furniture is being moved around by a team of maintenance workers whose animal-like screeching echoes down the halls all fucking day long. They are worse, even, than the horrible grad students.
- My office mate has already moved out and she has taken her jar of delicious rhubarb candy with her!
- The new school year is fast approaching and I still have not come to terms with the fact that I’ve been assigned a TERRIBLE, AWFUL, NO-GOOD, VERY BAD writing theme. I am in complete denial and refuse to plan the course.
- My ceiling is no longer leaking but the saggy, moldering plaster has never been replaced.
- I wanted to buy two kinds of soda at the store today but I hadn’t opted to get a cart on the way in and had so much to carry that I could only grab one kind of soda. What if I picked the wrong one? WHAT THEN?
Do you have any grievances you would like to air? Please air them here! It’s good for your health, you know. You can’t keep those things bottled up. Simply click “comments” and then leave a reply. I like it when you leave a reply.
Raveling Out 
Speaking as someone who has also been contending with water leaks at my place AND the irritations that come with living in a neighborhood filled with college students, I would just like to note here that these particular brands of grievances are highly annoying, mostly disconcerting and seriously intruding on my Twitter time.
Yanno, you’ve got some great complaints there, but as an old fart once told me:
Resentment is like letting someone live in your head rent free.
So my advice (srysly!) is hang loose. If they’re disturbing the peace, call the cops.
The bookstore’s inane policy is not your problem.
Real True bummer about having to move your office, though, especially so soon.. Go kick something (something inanimate, of course) 🙂 Then try to smile about it. What else can u do?
Glad the ceiling leak has stopped, though.
As your blog sometimes says, “(s)he who perseveres, conquers.”
Hang in there 🙂
Is it time for Festivus already? My how the time flies.
Wait just a minute – there is candy made of rhubarb? Rhubarb candy? Why have I never heard of this? I am rhubarbs Biggest Fan! What have I been missing?
B – I saw your tweets about that – ACK! I hope it’s fixed soon. Plumbing problems are the WORST.
St. A – Thanks for the advice, though I wasn’t really soliciting advice here so much as I was asking people to join me in an airing of grievances.
S.A. – Oh, around these parts it’s FESTIVUS ALL YEAR ROUND!
P – Yes, and it was amazing! The closest thing I can find online is on this site: http://www.fionassweetshoppe.com/hard-candies.htm Scroll down to the Rhubarb & Custard lozenges.
I love it when other people confess their pettinesses and overreactions – it makes feel better about mine.
I do strive to inspire!
Slow drivers.
Slow drivers.
Slow drivers.
Slow drivers.
The ETSU Bursar’s Office.
Slow drivers.
Those yuk yuks with the boom-boom stereos are assholes, as well.