Mid-Week Grouchies, Part 2

Dirty grocery carts. People who say “Let’s do lunch,” but don’t. Dropped phone calls. When I wrote a list of pet peeves a couple of months ago, I thought I had it out of my system. I was wrong. Here’s a brand new list of middle-aged, mid-week grouchies! Join me and get your grump on!

Grocery Cart Goop

1. Grocery carts littered with other people’s trash get my goat! When supermarket employees collect carts from parking lots, why can’t they also take 30 seconds to pick up the rubbish shoppers so inconsiderately leave behind? Better still, why can’t shoppers throw out their own coffee cups, soda cans, and unwanted coupons?

Let’s Do Lunch!

2. People who say “Let’s catch up,” “Let’s get together,” “Do lunch,” but never follow up with an invitation to do so are high on my list of pet peeves.

What’s the deal? Are they insincere? Insecure? Or just plain mean? Why don’t they call? Are they waiting for me to call? Or would that be pushy?

Even as a middle-aged woman, it makes me feel insecure and confused – just like I’m back in high school or, horrors, junior high school! Not knowing what’s what, I sit and stew, feeling hurt, feeling befuddled.

Renew or …

3. Magazine subscription reminders that start months and months AND MONTHS before your subscription is set to expire drive me insane!

And nowadays it seems the renewal reminders start one week after you first order a magazine! First comes gentle reminders with offers of gifts if only you renew NOW. Next, the kindly tone shifts to dire warnings. Your subscription is ABOUT TO END! Then, you receive the dreaded FINAL NOTICE. Subscription Apocalypse looms!

These non-stop notices make me feel like a deadbeat. Don’t my publications trust me to make payments on time? Or do they think I’m too old to keep track of financial obligations with one simple reminder?

Ironically these multiple reminders awaken the rebel in me. Instead of rushing to re-up my subscriptions, I start living on the edge. I deliberately tempt fate to see how long I can go before renewing a subscription without incurring the dreaded “interruption of service.” And with each new expiration notice, I ponder deep existential questions such as “What would life – and my closets – be like if I missed one month of Real Simple Magazine?” and “Would life as I know it cease to exist?”

Adhesive Labels that Will Not Die

4. Adhesive labels are the bane of the modern shopper.

Who among us has not ruined a manicure trying to remove a stubborn label from a new purchase? Who has not broken a nail, or, at least, the Golden Rule by cursing up a storm in this maddening pursuit?

I am sure that many an inmate in bedlam is there because of a heartbreaking case of Adhesive Label Obsession Breakdown Syndrome! Whatever happened to the good old labeling technique of a string and a tag?

More Mid-Week Grouchies

5. And speaking of maddening labels, what about those CD anti-theft adhesive labels? ‘Nuff said.

Well, except for this: Given the diminishing sales of CDs, you’d think the music industry would do all it could to make it easier for us middle-aged muddlers to buy and play our old-timey CDs!

One Ringy Ding!

6. “All our representatives are busy assisting other callers. Please continue to hold for the next available representative.” Then, comes the music … the obnoxious music… the tinny music that hurts the ear and the soul. If we have to wait, can’t companies be kind and play nice music?

I can’t remember, but what happened in the good old days before automation and computers? Didn’t we just get busy signals and hang up? We probably hated it, but is this an improvement? I don’t think so!

And on the subject of phone waiting torture, can’t companies do something about the problem of dropped calls? The only thing worse than waiting forever to be connected to the person you need to speak to is waiting forever and then getting disconnected. I’m old. My time on this planet, as well as my patience, is limited. Please don’t leave me hanging and then hang up on me!

Chins Up!

That’s it. That’s my latest list of gripes. I’m done. Yes, I said that when I wrote that first list of middle-aged, mid-week grouchies, but I swear, I’m really finished complaining.

I don’t know if it’s just a “getting older” thing that has prompted this need to vent.  Maybe it’s just that as I’ve aged I’m finding it harder to shrug off life’s little upsets. Maybe I just need to feel more in control. But, whatever the reason, it is definitely time to stop griping, get a grip, and get a little more grace!