Don’t You Hate It When…

Oh, the list could go on and on and on, especially if I’m in the mood to find fault and complain.   We know when we are being hypercritical.  Simple misunderstandings become pointed attacks on us.  It think it’s important to “review” those times when you totally flip out on someone or some event. For me, that reflection usually kicks in about an hour later (that’s much faster than it used to take – used to take weeks, months, years).

Case in point.  I pulled into a full gas station and the one free pump was on the wrong side of my car. I pulled up a bit into the station to back into the spot, but I couldn’t back up because someone else had also made the left turn into the station.  I pulled up to let him pass, and what does he do? Of course, you know exactly what he did. He pulled into the pump I planned to back into.  You can imagine what part of his anatomy I disparaged from the privacy of my car.

Anyway…I pulled back out and went in another entrance to another freed-up pump on the right side of my car.  I grumbled to myself. Then I see the guy kind of peek around the pump to look at me. He hadn’t heard anything. I was still steaming a bit.  On reflection a bit later I realized, he had no clue what I was trying to do and just pulled into the pump that was available. It wasn’t a personal attack – he didn’t “steal” my pump. He peeked around looking sheepish because I think it suddenly dawned on him that he had jumped me to the pump. He probably was an okay guy who couldn’t read my mind.

And even if he did – do I really want to get myself all in a lather because someone else is rude?