10 Things That Are Stressful for No Reason

I am not an easily stressed person. I like to think of myself as a laid back and go with the flow kinda gal–I’m sure most people who are actually really uptight think that, but that’s besides the point. Regardless, I rarely find myself getting stressed out. Occasionally when I have a hell week of class with 12 exams and 7 papers and practice for 9 thousand hours with only 3 hours of sleep a night, I might break out into a face full of zits and be miserable. But that’s rare. I’m usually pretty good at managing everything I need to do while still making time to go out and have fun. But there will always be a number of things that are so stupid that they shouldn’t stress me out–but they do. No clue why, but the following ten (in addition to many more I can’t think of yet)  things have always bothered me. I wonder if they secretly stress any of you out for no reason too.

1. When my windshield wipers are going a different speed than the cars in oncoming traffic. This stresses me out the most when my wipers are on hyper speed while the cars in oncoming traffic have their wipers set to the lowest setting, swiping away rain every few seconds or so. I feel as if those people are silently judging me for having mine set so fast. (In a super snooty voice) Welllll look at that car over there with it’s wipers on so fast! That driver must not be as experienced as IIIIII myself am at driving in the rain. Tsk, tsk. 

2. When my car headlights aren’t on but they are on every other car. Okay, Phoebe (yes, my car has a name, and yes, her name is Phoebe. Or Pheebs) isn’t new. It’s a 2003 and whoever owned her before really went the cheap route–manual locks and crank windows. I thought power locks and windows were standard by 2003, but apparently I was wrong. The person who owned Phoebe before me also smoked and got in a lot of accidents, but that’s besides the point. What I’m getting at here is that she doesn’t have fancy schmancy sensors that detect when it’s dark enough for the headlights to go on so I have to put them on myself. And I love Pheebs, I do. She gets me from point A to point B with no problems. It’s just that when I’m driving at night-ish and I see other cars with their headlights on but I feel that I can see fine without them, that I don’t quite need them yet, then I get stressed out a little. THEN, when I decide to finally turn my headlights on, I get stressed out about the fact that some unsuspecting car will actually see my headlights go on. Crazy, I know.

3. Deciding what time to go to the gym. Hmmm, what time should I go to the gym today? WELL, I DON’T KNOW. ACK. Going to the gym always messes with my shower schedule–that’s why I get stressed. Usually I shower at night, so that way my hair can air dry before I go to bed, I can avoid blow drying it (because I straighten it all the time anyway, my hair doesn’t need the added heat damage), and it’ll be ready to go the next morning. But if I decide to go the the gym early the next morning, I can’t shower at night, because, what’s the point? I’m just going to get sweaty soon enough. But then, If I decide to go the the gym around 5 and I have plans later, I might not have enough time to shower, blow dry my hair, and make it to where ever I have to be on time. Ugh. And if I choose to go to the gym in the middle of the day? Well, that opens up a whole new can of worms that you don’t want me to get started on.

4. When Siri starts going off in the middle of class. Scenario: Me, sitting in class, la di da la di da. Me, getting a little distracted and deciding to check my text messages or whatever. Me, hitting the home button only ONE TIME, not pressing it down to invoke the wrath of Siri so I can see what my friend sent me. Next thing you know DING DING (you know, in that way that iPhones do) or SORRY, I DIDN’T GET THAT goes off in the middle of my lecture hall. Everyone stares. Everyone knows it was you who was

Dammit Siri!

playing with your phone. Even the professor. Me, hitting the lock button a million times until the voices stop, my heart–which was going a million miles a minute–only calming down when the screen finally goes black.

5. When I think people can hear my music through my headphones. I think this one is mostly because I hate when I can hear other people’s music through their headphones. Seriously, you don’t need to listen to your music that loud. Unless, of course, you want to be deaf by the time you’re 40, but hey, that’s your call I guess. I always constantly end up taking my earbuds out of my ears and checking to see if I can hear the music from the outside. Why? Beats me. I shouldn’t really care… but I do.

6. That little bit of chalk/marker on the board that the teacher missed. I know this one bothers a lot of people out there besides me. But it’s the worst! Especially when teachers do it on purpose to annoy their students (I had a teacher that would do this all the time, meh). Then, I spend a significant amount of time–more than I’m willing to admit–staring at that little, lonely line. I’ve actually been in classes where my fellow classmates interrupted and asked for that lonely line to be erased. I like those people.

7. When the top of the can falls into whatever you’ve just opened. I really hate this. When the lid of the can falls in, I stare at it for a few moments and cry a little inside. You can’t get it out with your fingers–because it’s impossible and if you could you’d probably cut yourself pretty badly. So, I now have to a get a spoon or fork that otherwise wouldn’t get dirty to pry the jagged piece of metal out of my food. Awesome. And this is the worst part–I HATE getting that can lid dirty. That stresses me out the most. It’s not like I’m not gonna throw it out anyway?! WHY DO I CARE?

8. Dresses with pockets. Seriously, why? Why do we need dresses with pockets? It’s not like we’re going to put anything in them! Especially if it’s a sundress-y type thing. Let’s be real–if we were to put anything in that there pocket, it would sag and pull the dress and make it look ugly. Really ugly. No one wants to see that. So why put pockets in dresses in the first place?! AH.

9. Driving at night in the rain. I don’t mind driving at night. I don’t mind driving in the rain. But driving at night in the rain is one of my own personal kinds of hell. It’s awful! The road is covered with water and the glare from the streetlights and oncoming traffic make it impossible to see the lines. I could be driving in my lane. But I also could be driving into oncoming traffic or in the bike lane and some pedestrian is on the way to their death.

10. Feet. First off–EW. Feet. Are. GROSS. I hate when people touch me with their feet. I hate when people touch my feet. When either of those two things happen, my stress level instantly skyrockets until A) I move a safe distance from those calloused monstrosities, usually in a way that involves extreme amounts of spastic flinching, or B) I hit the person who dared touch me with their feet. I mean, come on. You walk around on only god knows what with those things. They sweat. They smell. The get corns, bunions, callouses, you name it. They can even get funguses! YIKES. Keep ’em away from me, please.