The day that Lynn got angry.

I know, right? I am completely against anger - I have written about it before, how much the particular emotion is unnecessary in the world and how much it annoys me. What good does it do? Well, tonight my anger helped me get through two spinning classes. Besides that, though, it did not do much good for the world and those around me. I will tell you the two situations that led to my anger (within 15 minutes of each other...that probably didn't help) and the third that simply added to it slightly. Ahhhh, anger, pshhh. It's gone, but I just thought I would share the slight rudeness (or obliviousness?) of others.

First, we all have a personal bubble. Yours may be a different size than mine, but we still have one. You may require 3 inches of space constantly, whereas I may require 1.5 feet constantly. Whatever the size, I think it is usually pretty easy to read cues from others as to whether an infringement has been made. Well, this story starts at the pharmacy when I was picking up some meds. At my pharmacy, there is a "pick-up" window and a "pay here" window. I was talking to the pharmacist a bit about my meds (there was a big insurance debacle apparently), and as I was talking to him, a lady came up and put her purse RIGHT NEXT TO ME and continued to stand there, practically being sandwiched in our conversation. There was no respect of my personal bubble whatsoever. Not only should our bubbles be respected, but I feel that the pharmacy is one place where the bubble should be doubly respected. What if I were picking up my hemorrhoid medication, or some anti-depressants, or medication for the tons of warts on my toes? Well, I wasn't.....and not that any of those should be embarassing, but I am just making a point. I did not want that woman in my business, and therefore, she should have given me a larger bubble. I looked at her, turned back to my conversation with the pharmacist, and when she was still there, I turned and gave her a slight evil eye. Still no movement. I was annoyed.

Shortly after, I headed to the Wellness Center (my gym) to get some spinning in. When I arrived, people were at the front desk doing some paperwork with the lady who was working (it's a gym where the person needs to check you in). So I waited patiently, as it looked like they were almost done and the worker definitely saw me. Well, as I was waiting (clearly in line), a woman came in the door and headed right in front of me - a BUDGER! I thought budgers were taught back in kindergarten that budging is not acceptable, but apparently this woman never learned this. It was no big deal, really....I had to wait .2 seconds longer? No biggie. But the fact that she was a budger wasn't even apparent to her, apparently. The question is, how could it not be? I was clearly standing there. It was like one of those moments where you feel like you're invisible - the clerk helps the next person in line, people leave you out of conversations, etc. I could have said something, such as, "Excuse me, ma'am? There's a line." or "Uh-hem." or "Excuse me. I don't know if you saw me, but I was waiting." There are also some less acceptable things I could have said, as well as I'm sure many more polite things. But I figured I didn't really want to be the loser at the gym who is a baby and can't handle people budging in front of her. So obviously since she checked in first, she went in the locker room first and chose a locker right by the door. As I walked in, she looked right at me, and there it was - I gave the evil eye again! It was not a nice evil eye, it was a "What the hell were you thinking, budging in front of me? evil eye." Uhh.

I thought it was over. And then I headed to spinning class. Wahoooo - I got the last bike! So I look at the class and see who's there (the cycles are arranged in a circle, facing each other), and the BUDGER is right across from me. I had to look at the BUDGER the entire class! Yikes. But, I was feeling pretty good after class (less anger), until I was standing at the paper towels and the BUDGER's friend came up and budged right in front of me (making her BUDGER #2). Am I invisible? She grabbed a paper towel, and yes, there it was again. My evil eye. Not nice. Well, she saw it and backed down a bit. I was so disgusted, and it showed. She handed over that paper towel quickly after the evil eye exchange (grudgingly, I put a smile on and said "thank you"). But then she took the spray bottle first.

Oh, the drama that happens at the gym.

I was ready to leave after that, but then my favorite teacher was teaching the next class AND some of my favorite spinning partners were there - of course I had to stay. There's a happy ending - the anger was all gone afterwards.

Thanks for listening to my griping.