Dealing with life’s annoyances

I’m running late again. I feel like I’m in a perpetual state of lateness. I’ve been late leaving for work. I was late the other day to every single meeting that I had on my schedule. And to top it off for good measure, I’ve been leaving work later and later in the evening.

I mean well. In fact, I hate being late. I try hard to be on time and, of course, the harder I try, the later I get. I get stuck behind slow drivers, I get caught up in gawker traffic, staring at accidents on the other side of the highway. I try but I’m failing and it’s annoying the hell out of me.

For me anyway, getting stuck in traffic ranks as one of the things that bothers me the most in this world, but it’s not the only thing. As I was running late to another meeting the other day, I came up with a list of some of the things that I find the most annoying. They include:

–Driving somewhere important, could be work or school, and you get stuck behind a slower driver or back in the day when I was in high school, an Amish horse and buggy. In a split second, you go from 55 mph to 10mph. You hold out your hand in a question that asks: “Can’t we go a little faster? Just a little?” I don’t see too many horse and buggies on four lane highways that I drive now, but you still get the idea.

–-Having something important to do and you get an error message on the computer. Minor glitch or blue screen of death. It doesn’t matter. You’re stopped in your tracks.

–People complaining about each other. Yes, complain about your job, complain about your house, go right ahead, just don’t bring everyone else down because of your unhappiness.

–You go to take a photo on your phone and you notice that the battery only has 1%.

–Waiting on the phone to get a live person with the fill-in-the-blank insurance company, doctor’s office, utility provider, cellphone provider, etc., etc.

–You sit down to watch television and one of two things happens, 1.) there’s nothing on or 2.) you can’t decide which Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu show to watch.

–You order something online and you have to send it back.

–Forgetting to put out the garbage on trash day.

–You’re at the gym trying to get your workout in for the day. Your to-do list of everything you still need to accomplish before calling it quits for the night is running through your head but you keep being interrupted by the two obnoxious people on the treadmills next to you. You want to shout “get a room,” but, of course, you mind your own business.

Life is full of annoyances. The question is: how will we deal with them. I hate being late, but in the end, I know the best way to deal with heavy traffic and any of life’s annoyances is to go with the flow.