#MicroblogMondays: Annoying things

• 
  Scanning the Old Navy website last week, and seeing multiple women's T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "Mom," "Mama" "One tough mother," etc. (Eyeroll...)
• Ordering some Christmas-themed pajama top shirts from their post-holiday clearance sale, getting them delivered and realizing I hit the wrong button on my favourite one, and got a size large instead of extra large. (The large fits okay, but I like the roomier extra large for their PJ tops.) 
• Going back to the site to see whether there were any extra larges left, only to find the site had (already) been purged of all their seasonal pajamas. Better luck next year, I guess...! 
• Getting a birthday card and (actual, handwritten!) letter from an old friend. (This is not the annoying thing, but a preamble. ;)  ) She travels a fair bit -- has a vacation home/timeshare in California, and spent two weeks over the Christmas holidays at a resort in Mexico. I had mentioned in my Christmas letter that I had hoped to spend my 60th birthday last year on the beach but, hey, pandemic -- and she exhorted me (several times over the four pages of her letter) to go, just GO!! and for two weeks, too!! I'm glad she had a good time, and that she feels comfortable travelling that far away from home during a global pandemic (and that she had no trouble getting back home again...!) -- but I don't (and dh probably even less so).  I know she meant well, but...! 
• (I felt somewhat better/vindicated after talking to my sister and hearing about one of her work colleagues, who also headed to Mexico over Christmas, despite all the warnings, and who loved telling everyone before he left what a great deal he got. His entire family wound up getting covid there -- when they went for the necessary tests before returning to Canada, they ALL tested positive. Their rooms at the resort where they'd been staying were no longer available, and they had to scramble to find another place to stay until they could produce a clear test result. His "great deal" wound up costing him $2,000+ more than planned...!) 
• (Additionally -- as mentioned briefly in this post -- at least two of dh's cousins as well as most of their family members, tested positive while in Florida after Christmas, and had to stay there longer than planned until they could produce the negative tests required to fly home.) 
• Gallstone twinges after eating pizza on my birthday. Not really painful, but nothing I could ignore either. I thought maybe it was exacerbated by the cupcakes we had for dessert (red velvet, topped with copious amounts of cream cheese frosting) -- but I still got some twinges when I ate the leftover pizza the next day, without the cupcakes. I'd had pizza when we were at my parents' and didn't really feel any significant ill effects. But I hadn't had any of THIS pizza, here, since October, before my gallstone issues flared up. I guess it will be a while before I try eating it again. Sigh. 
• A dry scaly patch (eczema?) just below my left elbow. I've been using a gentle body scrub on that area in the shower and slathering it with Aveeno afterwards. 
• It's horribly dry in our condo unit -- lately hovering just above or (more likely) just below 30% humidity. We need to get a new humidifier -- we had one, but (annoying thing) it was so horribly noisy we got rid of it. I suppose I could order one online, but I'd like to be able to go look at them in a store -- and who wants to go shopping right now? (I've been eyeing a Dyson, which promises to be quiet and easy to maintain -- but it's horrendously expensive.)  Anyone have a favourite (quiet) brand?  
• Not being able to find my favourite mints anywhere. Dh checked two different supermarkets and a drugstore last week for them -- no luck. (This happens occasionally... I'm sure they'll be restocked eventually... but I want them NOW!! lol) 
• Had a call on Saturday from our dentist's office asking if (annoying thing #1) we could reschedule our appointments for Monday/today (same day, different time)... oh, and by the way, my regular hygienist has retired (annoying thing #2). We've been going to this dentist (in midtown Toronto, near our very first apartment where we lived in the mid/late 1980s) since our previous one (dh's family dentist since he was a child!) retired in 2005, and I think she's been my hygienist for most of that time (17 years!). Good for her -- but sad for me. 
• Related annoying thing #3: Dh has never liked this dentist (although he can never really articulate why), and has been pressuring me for a while now that we need to find a new one, closer to where we now live. (Of course, we only ever see the guy for for five minutes at the end of a routine checkup -- the hygienist does most of the work -- and half the time he's not there anyway, and one of the other dentists in the practice sees us.) When we worked in the city, it was an easy trip on the subway there and back from the office, and even when we both lost our jobs, it was a straightforward trip into the city on the train and then on the subway -- but it's far less convenient now. Technically, we *could* get there on public transit, but it would be a looonnnnnng trip -- and so we drive, ALLLLLLLL the way down Yonge Street (16-17 km/10+ miles on Yonge Street alone -- the entire trip can take us 40 minutes or more, depending on traffic -- another annoying thing! lol). There are (as dh has reminded me) at least three dental offices within a few minutes' walk of our condo building. I guess maybe the time has come... but -- annoying thing #4 -- it's annoying to admit it, lol. ;)  
• Related annoying thing #5:  Having our appointment cancelled early this morning (postponed until next week) because of a massive snowstorm overnight (that's still going on). (They called us before I could call them.)  The receptionist told me she's a 12-minute drive away from work, and it took her 45 minutes to get there this morning. Yikes! (See the photo at the bottom of this post!) 
• In a similar vein: I recently got a letter from the Ontario breast screening program, reminding me that I am due for a mammogram in February and to call to book an appointment. I have always had my mammograms done -- for 20 years now, since I was 40 -- at the breast health clinic at one of the city hospitals downtown (the same hospital where I delivered Katie, in fact). It's a well respected facility, it was easy to get to when I worked downtown and even after I retired (and even after we moved here), I would take public transit to my appointment, and then walk or take the subway to the Eaton Centre or the Financial District, where I'd worked, to do some shopping or perhaps have lunch with some work friends. The last time I went was Feb. 21, 2020 --  just before the pandemic hit us. (I wrote about the experience one year later, here.) 
• I've been very happy with the care I've received there -- but, needless to say, I do NOT want to be taking a 40-minute subway ride downtown -- or to be anywhere near a hospital right now, if I can help it!  So I'm going to find out whether I can get my mammogram done at a clinic somewhere closer to home instead. Just one more thing to think about (and one more thing disrupted by covid...!). 
• Waking up at 3:30 a.m. and not being able to go back to sleep. (This has been happening at least once a week lately.)  I finally got up and started reading -- first my phone, then my latest book ("The Man Who Died Twice" by Richard Osman, a sequel to last year's delightful "The Thursday Murder Club").  

What's been annoying you lately?? 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

The view from our condo, 8:30 a.m. this morning. 
Our laneway has not been plowed yet, 
and the first car (below the balcony rail, on the left) appears to be stuck.