It's The Little Things That Piss You Off

Last week came and went, and on paper, I got a year older.  I'm not one for public reflection, but I suppose I tend to do a lot of it in my own head.  And as the time goes by, I'm pleased by the improvement I've made in controlling my temper.  I don't know exactly how I've done it, but things just don't bother me the way that they did at one time.

Except that I still get pissed off once in a while.  Pissed off is a little different than anger because it occurs quickly and departs just about as fast.  Yesterday, I got pissed off twice, but just for a little while.

The first time was while I was getting my hair cut.  I've been going to the same woman for years.  She does a decent job and is very nice, even if she does dumb things like getting punched out in a bar and stepping out of a moving vehicle and breaking her leg.  Anyway, we were chatting and she had asked me a question.  I was in the middle of answering it, when her next appointment came in, one of her girlfriends, and she cut me off in mid-sentence and started gabbing with her.  So, I trailed off and listened to them talk about some shit ... and then I started to feel ...  let's see if I can describe it ... trivial and insignificant.  Yeah, that's it.  And I absolutely hate feeling that way.  And to top it off, she was looking back over her shoulder at her girlfriend as she was talking to her, so I knew she was fucking up my hair.

After a few minutes, she ran out of things to talk about with the girlfriend.  She looked back at me, glowering at her, and tried to make some small talk, but I just grunted.  She finished, I paid and left without a word. Bitch.

Later in the day, Jan and I went out looking at furniture. I'm going to go off topic for a minute ...  It's odd how getting one seemingly inconsequential thing can end up snowballing into a major overhaul.  Jan's been after me to move an old arm chair from the basement back upstairs.  But it had a stain on it, so we ordered a chair cover.  That came in and we put the chair in place, which made the living room look lopsided.  So we went out looking for something to "even" it out.  And we came upon a coffee table and two side tables that we liked and the price was too good to pass up, so we bought those and carted them home.  Those three items didn't fit right in the living room, so we spent the rest of the day rearranging every goddamn thing in the living and family rooms until everything looked correct.

One innocuous thought turns into a major deal.

Back on topic ...  We were at the furniture store and had spotted the items we wanted to buy.  The sales person had been following us around for 15 minutes, but as soon as we had made up our minds, she was no where to be found.  When I tracked her down, she was talking to a couple of numbskulls who couldn't make up their minds whether or not they were coming back to the store at fucking Christmas to buy a particular item and wanted to know if it would still be available then.  Once I figured out what utter bullshit they were talking about, I motioned to the sales person that we needed help, and it was still 5 minutes before she broke off with the numbskulls and came over to take our order.  I've seen this so many times.  Why sales people won't break off conversations with people who are obviously not going to buy anything to help people who are obviously straining at the fucking bit to buy something is beyond me.

Two episodes in one day.  I guess I can't have anymore for a while.  But I will give myself some credit by saying that during both of these little mini-dramas, I never threw a shit-fit or even made a snide remark (out loud).

So, each day, in every way, I keep getting better and better.  If I keep telling myself that, maybe one of these days, it will actually come true.