We all have a lot of annoyances in our lives. Petty annoyances, none that really are life-affecting, but annoy us all the same. (Hey, life would be boring without annoyance!). But one of my biggest annoyances is not being able to finish a book that I’ve taken out from the library in the amount of time they give me.
I’m not necessarily a slow reader, but I have to be “in the mood” to read. I usually read right before I go to bed. So I’m in the middle of this book, and I notice that it’s due on Sunday. I go to renew it, and it says I can’t because someone else wants it. So I try and read as much as I can so I can at least partially finish the book. Which leads to frustration because now I’m not enjoying, I’m reading it under a time constraint, and that’s just not cool. I could just go buy the book, use one of the millions of coupons I have from Borders and Barnes, but I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy books this year (nowhere to put them, let alone time to read all them). So, as much as I hate it, I throw the book in the bag and disgustingly head off to the library with Ollie in tow.
It’s muggy out. I’m in a sweatshirt and Ollie is pulling at the leash. My sinuses are draining into the back of my throat, and I start to sound like one of those people on the bus you avoid because it sounds like their hacking up a lung.
I’m just a bundle of fun, let me tell ya.
So I walk to the library, annoyed, hot, and bothered, and throw the book into the slot. There. No late fee for me. No ending to the book either. Ah, well.
Ollie starts pulling me the opposite way of where I want to go, but I’m so bothered by this point that I don’t care so much. That, and I have two poop bags that I need to unload. We find a garbage and all of a sudden, I hear bagpipes playing. There’s something about bagpipes that are so soothing that you can’t help but feel relaxed and zen-like. It almost sounds like the clouds had parted and the heavens were singing…and no, I was not hallucinating. Turns out, Ollie has steered me towards the church at the end of the block, and bagpipes are playing. I’m assuming wedding (since a photographer was there taking pictures), and Ollie and I stop and listen to the soothing sounds of random bagpipes and as we venture our way back home, I can’t help but think…only in Chicago could I walk to return a book, annoyed as hell, and end up running into bagpipes that zen me out, all on a hot, muggy Friday.
Here’s hoping that petty annoyances bring out the zen in all of us.
