I'm pretty sure we've covered this topic before, but a serious gripe fest is always good for the soul. What puts you in a bad mood? How do you get out of it?

I'll tell you what usually does it for me: cat vomit at 5 a.m. I'm homicidal for the rest of the day.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Answers

Six year old taking that *tone* with me first thing in the morning. (You should have done thus and so for me, mommy.) Makes me guilty and crabby for the whole damned day.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Being woken up when I was expecting to sleep in. I am also one of those people who has to sleep in total darkness - we have very serious curtains in our bedroom, plus I have an eyeshade for keeping out the slivers of light that get around the edges when I want to sleep in on weekends.

Something spilling first thing in the morning usually gets me jarred for the rest of the day.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Mornings put me in a bad mood. The cats digging up the carpet at 5am puts me in a bad. Not getting enought sleep puts me in a bad mood.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

*sigh* when my mother is up at the same time and in a bad mood and insists on picking a fight with me about some ridiculas non-issue like my hair in the sink (before i've even finished in the bathroom - i clean it when i'm done). or she just gripes and gripes or yells at my younger brother. i cannot *stand* agression or loud yelling first thing in the morning. it puts me seriously off kilter. i like quiet, easy mornings. tea, toast, watching the rain, getting dressed. it's the way i prepare for the day. but my mum always manages to throw a crimp in it. thank *god* i'm moving out next month :)

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Being thwarted by public transportation will ruin my day for sure. I am a morning person -- I get to work at 6:30 so I can kind of ease into my day before anyone else gets to the office. If my train is late, it throws me off completely, and I end up resenting the transit authority and the cavalier attitude they have toward their passengers, which can quickly degenerate into a rant about anything and or anyone who has plucked on my nerves for the past few days.

At work, someone who asks why something hasn't been done when they haven't yet asked me to do it is just asking for trouble. I think most of the folks I work with think I have ESP or something.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Ahem. Politics can ruin my whole day. So much so that I no longer subscribe to a morning newspaper.

For example, if I read a report that a certain presidential contender of great popularity but featherweight intellect is qualified to serve - because he knows how to find gifted people to do his work for him - that will put me in a bad mood.

On the other hand, if I read a report that another presidential contender (who moved his campaign headquarters back to his hometown to escape his corrupt boss's shadow) is qualified to serve because he has integrity and good moral values, that makes me mad, too.

What brings me to the brink of apoplexy is realizing that the nation will inevitably be stuck with one of these two boobs. Oh, it's gonna be a long five years and the Dean mood barometer is pointing to "Workers of the world, unite." Be grateful you don't have to live with me.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Don't touch my food.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

I can relate to the politics thing (which can ruin a whole decade, not just a day), and the public transportation thing, for sure.

I used to have a magnet stuck up in my cube here,with a picture of two happy wacky people jumping for joy and it said "Don't let reality ruin your life." I loved that magnet - it just reminded me that life is a temporary assignment and not to get too wacked out about things I can't control, but to focus more on things I can have some effect on in my life, and how I can help other people as well.

One day last week, I noticed that my fave little magnet was GONE. I assume some twit stole it.

Thieves at work make me a little cranky. Not as cranky as politics and the Muni though. I can always get another stupid little magnet, after all, but the parts of my life that have been made incredibly crappy at times by politicians and Muni, I can never get back.

Time to just take a deep breath and not let reality ruin the *rest* of my life. :)

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

not having email from someone i'm expecting email from. or, on the other hand, having petulant and/or rude and/or nasty email from someone i didn't want to hear from. and the nasty people at my job make me pretty homicidal; one pissy customer and i'm a raging bitch for the rest of the day, no matter how nice everyone else is.

i solve it by getting in my car and turning up the radio/my tape/my cd player very loud. and singing. and cutting people off on my way home.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Disgusting, filthy public bathrooms horrify me. The thought of the mess will haunt me hours after the sighting. I will truly "hold it" until I can get home unless there is an extreme emergency or I am familiar with the general (satisfactory) condition of a particular building's facilities. I built up my endurance during my high school years. Yeah, yeah, maybe it's bad to "hold it", but it beats being traumatized by what pig women have left. Damn, I have the willies just writing this.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

My gosh, I've been in a bad mood for the past couple of weeks so EVERYTHING contributes to ruining my day. I would have to say that the jerk who shoved me out of his way at the top of a very tall flight of stairs pretty much ruined my day from the very beginning. Rudeness in general ruins my day because I take it so personally.

Currently, finals are ruining my day.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

What's ruining my day, you ask? Hm...Let me think about that for a second. Okay, I'm done thinking.

Finals. The possibility of flunking out of school. The people that live downstairs. My tea's too hot to drink. The cafeteria food is making me sick. My roommate's a psycho.

I want my mommy.

Meghan

-- Anonymous, December 13, 1999

Also finals. Being jolted awake by the alarm clock while I'm dreaming. Being woken up by a telemarketer. Cats vomiting at 4 am (fortunately not for a while). Having bad dreams. Getting less than minimal sleep (<5 hours, usually).

I can back up Vic's order not to touch his food. Trust me, just don't do it.

Of course, many days simply waking up at all puts me in a bad mood.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 1999

I fully agree with Judy: thieves at work ought to be executed slowly and painfully. Just today I got orders to do an extremely tedious translation job (turn 166 Dutch html-documents into an equal amount of English documents - as of right now I only got 163 more to go). Since there's a lot of legal claptrap contained within these documents, I needed a dictionary - which I always keep in my desk.

Needless to say, when I opened up the drawer in question, I was greeted by an empty space more or less the size of my dictionary.

Other than that, I just got word that the Dutch Railroads have gone on strike AGAIN. Which means that I can't go home tonight and will have to spend the night at the office.

Ask me if I'm happy now. Go on, ask me.....

Oh, chicken, huh?

-- Anonymous, December 14, 1999

What puts me in a bad mood: Getting all dressed up for something and then spilling coffee or dumping my breakfast down my shirt. Put a silk blouse on me and watch the fun! Staining objects will fly towards me. I am a magnet and they are steel.

What ruins my day: Leaving the house with the stained silk blouse on (because of course I haven't anything else to wear and now there's a run in my stocking too and don't have a new pair of those either) and getting caught in traffic on the way to work when I'm already late. Then getting there and finding out that my boss called a minute before I got there and he's in Japan and can't be reached and he needed something I should have faxed him yesterday for a meeting he's in right now.

But... looking around... oh yeah. I don't work there anymore. Hmmm... I wonder why? And I'm wearing sweatpants and talking to the cats.

So now what ruins my day is not having money to pay the utility bills. And writing this message threatens to ruin my day because I didn't realize how completely pathetic I sound until just now.

How sad am I?

-- Anonymous, December 15, 1999