Snowball Inconveniences

They start small, but they grow. And fester. And rot. and before you know it your whole mood is tainted with an annoyance blizzard. I coin them as snowball inconveniences because they start tiny—tiny enough that when you explain how it annoys you to someone, they respond with a face riddled with "So?"

SOOO I'm gonna label a few real quick and detail how they manage to make my eye twitch.

• When you buy something (usually from a souvenir store) and they give you a bag with no handles. It's literally a cookie bag with no handles. And it would be a book or trinket I bought and you give me a bag that is quite literally the ANTITHESIS OF A BAG. I still have to hold it with my whole hand I might as well have just held the book?

• iPhone poisoning. You know the process, when you dare have an older phone when a newer one comes out so they slowly poison the older versions? Done in small glitches—there's one in particular where I will be reading on my phone, and when a word comes up that I want to hear how to pronounce it, I highlight it and use the speak feature, AND FOR SOME REASON, my iPhone voice talks in freaking 3x speed. So she says it so freaking fast that I can't even hear the pronunciation. It's such a random annoying glitch that of course no one in the history of Apple has ever posted having this problem thus no conceivable way to fix it, except of course buying the newer phone.

• This is another iPhone one but iCloud photos. I genuinely have no idea if all of them are uploaded to the Cloud or whatever the hell is up in the cellular sky but normally, when one has no reception, you go through old photos and videos. Maybe just me, but I have saved thousands of TikTok videos that crack me up for that exact purpose. But why the hell MUST I WAIT FOR IT TO LOAD? Same thing with old photos, I was scrolling up trying to find a photo to show friends but all of them were gray boxes with the little cloud at the bottom saying I needed reception????? to view my own pictures???? This random feature essentially defeats the purpose of having pictures if I need Wi-Fi??? to see them???

• Spam calls—SPECIFICALLY when you have applied for a new job. I feel it's a comical joke from the universe with how the spam calls TRIPLE after you have applied for a job you want and are eager to hear back. I answer them anyway. JUST IN CASE.

And countless other snowballs but it seems the most prominent could be resolved if I bought the Samsung Flip. Man I want one so bad. My current phone is enormous and fits in 3 out of 80 of my purses. I digress, snowball inconveniences come in varying forms and normally I would follow this with some advice on how to handle them but I fear I haven't figured that out yet. The best route I try to take is to take a deep breath and continue because if you approach tasks angry, your going to get an angry result. Most likely with something broken—whether it be your patience or your toe from kicking a wall, up to you.

I used to have a dwelling problem honestly. I would make a mistake and dwell, and wallow, and trudge about my day for hours. It wasn't until I started college that I learned what it is to accept it. Not accept it in a way where I don't allow myself to be upset, absolutely not—but in a way where I ask myself if there is anything I can do about it. No? Then that's it. There is no point in wallowing and ruining your day for something you can't even fix anymore. Then it becomes about the plan afterwards—how do you move forward? What is the next plan of action following said mistake? Locking in, essentially. I do want to rewind a little to allowing yourself to be upset. Some do try to minimize the agitation following a mistake, so it only bottles and festers up until you burst out crying because you dropped an ice cube on the floor. You are allowed to be upset. Handling how your perturbation is received among others is a completely different ball game—I don't condone flipping out over something small or making a scene, but quietly allow yourself a moment of space if you are upset. Even if you deem it to be over something stupid, allow it anyway. Better to dissipate the snowball when its at a stage you can handle, rather than the boulder it is bound to roll into if you don't let yourself feel it.