Two things happened to me recently that almost made my head explode.

I’m talking like, flames… flames on the side of my face (RIP Madeline Kahn ♥️🙏)

First: PJ and I recently returned from a much-needed vacation. We did nothing but relax. It was glorious. I felt refreshed and ready to get back to real life.

The plane landed, we waited on the tarmac for about an hour, then went to retrieve our luggage. Our first suitcase appeared right away. We waited for the second, and waited…and waited…and waited….

Finally, when we were the last ones standing from our flight, I told PJ I was going to ask someone.

As I made my way over to an employee, I almost walked right into my bag. On the floor. Not on the belt, on the floor.

Some shithead pulled our bag off the belt, started to walk away with it (the handle was pulled up), discovered it wasn’t theirs, and LEFT IT THERE. Who does that?!?!

Happy to find my bag, but absolutely furious, I had to keep telling myself on the shuttle to our car that I shouldn’t let this ruin my vacation, but it took a while to let it go.

The second thing happened yesterday.

I went on a quick Publix run (or if you’re cool like me and my friends at 17, you call it Pubix.)

I did a quick dash for my yogurt and heavy cream. I got to the first register and see it was open. What luck!!

There was a kid standing by the register, a little more toward the bagging area, but still, at the register. I gave him a cheerful “hello!” and placed my items on the belt.

Suddenly, I hear a woman say “Hello, I’m right here.” in an annoyed tone. By the look on the baggers face, I can tell that as she’s making her way past the gum and Home & Garden mags, she’s rolling her eyes like I’m some kind of dummy.

My first instinct is to make sure she knows that my loud “Hello!” was not to summons her to her place, so I said, “Oh, I thought he was going to ring me up. I was saying hi to him.”

This bitch must have taken one look at little ol’ me and considered me a prime target for expelling the aggression that comes with hating her life. She thought wrong.

She said, “Noooo… I stand at the front and then come and ring you up.” As if I was a toddler and all satisfied that she was going to make me feel stupid.

Not feeling stupid at all, I looked her straight in the eye and in the same tone but a little louder, I said with a smile, “Well I didn’t know that.”

Once this 70-year-old bully saw that I’m not the type to quietly turn the other cheek, she backed down and said, “Honey, don’t you ever shop here? Don’t you know that’s how it works?” So I matched her pleasantry and said, “No I don’t shop here often, not enough to know that.” The poor bagger kid looked like he was going to shit his pants at this whole interaction, like, “Oh no, there are 2 of them.” but then it was over and I left.

I drove home pissed off, trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t let it ruin my day. Thank God for PJ because I got to tell him all about the bitch at Pubix, and that freed my mind a little.

To make a long story short (TOO LATE!), I let these 2 incidents rob me of my peace and calm for approximately 2.5 hours total.

What a waste.

I started meditating a couple days ago. I think it should help with situations this. I don’t want miserable people stealing my time. I’ll let you know if it works.