I preach about gratefulness, living in the moment and not sweating the small stuff… but I allow myself to get annoyed by the most trivial things. In no particular order of importance:

1. If a lemon seed [pip to non-North Americans] gets into my iced tea or, worse, into a gin and tonic, it completely spoils it for me. Even if I manage to fish it out with a spoon, I can’t sit back and enjoy the drink. I know this is very odd and I have no idea why it upsets me so much.

2. Having to replace the paper towels in the kitchen at work. Why can’t the people who use the last bit of the roll take out a new one from the cupboard right in front of them?

3. Not having a penny when something costs $$.01. Getting 99 cents in change annoys the heck out of me. I want my dollar!

4. I drive to South Bend quite often.  The automatic toll booths are on the right side in Illinois but, a few miles later, they are on the left side in Indiana. What gives?

5. I leave my room on the 4th floor and on the 1st realize I’ve forgotten something.  I run up the stairs and get whatever it was.  By the time I get to the car, I suddenly remember something else. Back up the four flights again. By the time I’m done, I’m berating myself so badly you’d swear I was committing the seven deadly sins.

6. I cannot keep the phone cord in my office untangled.  It bothers me every time I pick up the wretched handset.

7. Toilet paper that dispenses from underneath the roll rather than from the top as God planned and intended is criminal. In restrooms where I find this outrage, I often feel compelled to change the orientation of the roll.

8. I own dozens of chap sticks but can never, ever find one when I need it… which is why I bought so many of them in the first place.

9. Pictures that are crooked upset me. I’ve been known to stand up in people’s living-rooms and ask if they’d mind if I straighten their paintings.

10. Un-stapling sheets of paper has to be one of the most annoying and frustrating experiences in the world. And, yes, I have one of those gizmos that supposedly makes it easy.

Oh, great.  I am a petty, obsessive-compulsive loser.  How come none of these things ever came up in therapy?

Anyone willing to “confess” to a stupid thing or two that irks them?

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