Big and Little Annoyances

Every day there seem to be so many petty annoyances to deal with! I seem to feel them more as a widow. This has been bothering me the past few weeks. For example, I go to Walgreen's for desperately needed eyeglass cleaner and they don't have any on the shelf! None! How can this be I think? I buy the kind that comes in the spray bottle because it lasts longer and is more cost effective. I leave the store refusing to get the little packets because of the cost resigned to the fact that I'll have to use dish soap for a couple more days until I return to the store or another Walgreen's. As I leave the store I notice the new Snickers peanut butter candy bars and decide to treat the boys and I to one. I give the boys theirs after dinner. I take mine and notice that it is a defective package. This candy bar comes in two squares but my package has only one.

Now I can take this as a positive message from the Universe and a fun one at that, telling me that I shouldn't be eating this candy bar in the first place, but I decide I really want what I paid for so I put the candy aside along with the mental note that I need to bring it back to the store for an exchange. Another item on the to do list along with the necessity of not losing a receipt.

I'm at the grocery store and forget the pickles again! So I rush into another store on the way home because we're having turkey burgers for dinner and have already gone too many times without the pickles on top all of us favor.

My son is on a highly regulated acne medication that has ended up being a nightmare to start and then get refills for. The poor doctor has to constantly input data into a computer program and it is confusing to everyone, including the pharmacy at Walmart. This last month, it took two weeks to get the prescription refilled meaning I'm at Walmart so much everyone in the pharmacy knows me. Then I have to end up calling the doctor, going into the doctor's office, returning to Walmart, spending long sessions on the phone with the drug company... Enough to make me want to tear my hair out with frustration!

I can't find the utility bill...

I struggle to come up with a quick and easy dinner idea...

I'm bone tired but my youngest needs help with his Economics project...

I know that when I was married and sharing life with a partner this kind of thing never bothered me the way it does now. I suppose that was because sometimes it was my husband forgetting the pickles. Or that there was someone at home to come home to and complain/commiserate with about the prescription debacle!

Every day all of these little annoyances pile up. Which got me to thinking. What if I just didn't let them bother me? What if I just laughed at them and found them amusing! Because in the end it is the big things that matter the most, like the winter storm we've just encountered. All these other events are annoyances to be sure. But they are just annoyances in the grand scheme of things.

So that is my focus for the month of February (it is a short month after all). To try and let the little things roll off my shoulders a bit more easily. To laugh about the candy bar. To shake my head in wonder that the one item needed from the drug store is sold out. We all encounter these events, I'm not the only one experiencing them. The storm is big news. That is the kind of event that deserves more of my attention, worry and detail. Not the fact that I keep forgetting to buy pickles because I can't seem to get into the habit of carrying a list of needed items in my purse!