Stuff that really annoys me that I should probably just let slide

I have become grumpier as I get older and I think this is common with a lot of people. This doesn't apply to every aspect of my life but it does to quite a few of them. I think as I get older I just don't have near as much patience as I used to for most things in life and get frustrated and even close to blowing my top in situations that are pretty minor if I stop to think about them. I wonder if this has happened to other people as they move into their 40's.

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These examples are going to specific to me and I realize that a lot of this in my life comes from intentionally living in a culture that is not my own. However, a lot of it comes from me just not being willing to tolerate any old thing that comes my way and there was a time that I was a lot more easy-going. These are not ranked.

Staying at parties that I'm no longer enjoying

Now I wouldn't say this is a recent development, I just have less access to parties than I did when I was younger and there would be 3 parties in a night and I could choose the "best one." These aren't really parties in the traditional sense but rather just a bunch of people all gathering at the same place, normally a pub. It's something that is organized several times a week and one of them is organized by me, on Thursdays, after bowling.

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When I saw that meme, I knew I needed to use it because those exact thoughts go through my head on a regular basis when I am at a get-together and have already made up my mind that I no longer want to be there.

I have a tendency to just walk away from people after a while and while I wont stand by myself in the corner, I do kind of distance my self from conversation. This is made a bigger problem if I start to get hungry and I think we have all started to get instances of "hangry" when this mood strikes.

The biggest problem I have been having lately with these instances is that I am trying to drink less because I had a eureka moment not long ago where I decided I am going to start drinking less. When not drunk, these gathering stay fun a lot less long than they would in the past. For the most part these days, I just want to go home after a little while and conversation starts to be something that feels like work. Maybe I am becoming introverted or maybe I have used alcohol as a crutch a lot in the past.

I've gotten to the point where I don't even try to spare anyone's feelings and I frequently leave parties by using my dog as an excuse. Little do the other participants know (or maybe they do) that my dog doesn't actually need anything and when I get home I am just going to sit on the sofa.

Loud music or TV's on in bars

When I go to a bar, it is normally to be in some sort of social environment. Most of the bars that I go to have televisions playing something in them and I think most people, when posed with this distraction, will tend to have their eyes and attention wander to the TV even if they don't care about what is on. When this happens, I kind of wonder what I am doing there? I didn't go to a place that charges 3x what I can get this stuff for at home just to watch TV.

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I can turn my back to a TV though, so this isn't that big of a deal. The main enemy I have in these situations is when I go somewhere and they have the music blasting like we are AC/DC on tour. When the music is so loud that I have to shout at the person who is standing right next to me I just want to get the hell out of there. It doesn't matter if I like the music or not, it's just not conducive to conversation. Keeping in mind that we are never at discos or nightclubs when I encounter this, I really have a difficult time identifying with the pub's decision to blow us out of the water with the sound system. Again, this could be because of my age and how I am less willing to tolerate things. In the pubs that I am a regular I will ask if they will turn the music down and even threaten to leave if they don't.

Children

I don't have any kids so perhaps this is the reason why I get annoyed by their presence whenever I am around them. It might also have something to do with the fact that years ago I was kind of forced into a situation where I had to teach school in order to make ends meet over a decade ago and was traumatized by the incredible foolishness and noise level that youngsters can accomplish.

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This could have something to do with my own childhood. I was the class clown and I am quite certain that I was the one making the noise most of the time and maybe the sensation has gone full circle with me loathing what I actually was many years ago.

When the kids are loud and speaking a language that you do not understand the problem gets even worse for me. I even sometimes wonder if they are saying some snarky things about me because they have already learned that foreigners don't understand what they are saying. Again, this is probably a bit of self-reflection going on because that is exactly what I would have done had I grown up in a situation where there were a lot of foreigners living in my childhood areas.

When I see kids somewhere these days, even if it is just a bunch of them playing on the street while I am going for a run, I tend to avoid them as if they were dangerous.

Waiting in line

This problem is something that is just a part of life and I know that I am being a jerk for feeling the way that I do especially since I have worked extensively in this very industry and I know that normally there is nothing the staff can do to make the process more streamlined. This doesn't stop me from nearly losing my shit when I am in a minimart just trying to buy some milk and there are 3 people in front of me that have one of every vegetable the place sells so that every item has to be weighed as well as rung up.

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I find myself getting upset that the store doesn't have more staff or that they don't at least open another register. Then I take a step back and look at the size of the 24/7 minimart I am in and realize that there is no way that they could do this and still exist as a business. I try to use my inner-voice to calm down and realize that the person behind the counter is being paid peanuts and probably has a lot of corporate BS that they have to adhere to. The also probably really don't want to be there. This is a method that I use to calm myself down in public to realize that "I have it a lot better than most people, and maybe I should just calm TF down."

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I think you could say that a lot of my gripes are first world problems and I would agree with you there. I just think that as I get older I have significantly less patience for normal everyday things and a lot of this is because of the fact that I chose to move to a densely populated city that has tons of tourists in it every year. It's my own fault. This doesn't change the fact that these things do annoy me to the point where if I was a bit weaker, I would probably have panic attacks and just get the hell outta there.

I'm sure we all have little things that drive us crazy and if you have any examples of kind of petty things that really get under your skin, I would love to hear about them.