I don't know what you think I mean, but I'm talking about: the "F" word: frustration. It sure can bring out the worst in us. What do you do when you get frustrated? Eat? Cry? Whine? Slam something? I blog.
After all, aren't all of life's frustrations just one more funny story to tell?
Can you identify what's on the wooden box? It's not road kill. I'll give you a hint ... I combed the dog for the third time this week! (No, I'm not exaggerating.)
I ask you ... are you feeling or expressing distress and annoyance, especially because of the inability to change or achieve something? Do you feel as though you are being prevented from progressing successfully at something? Then you're frustrated.
We can all relate ... but, if you think you're frustrated? I lend you my dog for a week. By the way, it's not my dog! It's my son's dog. So, don't tell me I should have thought about this before I picked him. I'm the innocent by-stander, dog-sitter, watcher, and cleaner-upper person. Oh what we do for our kids!
The last dog my son had was a Walker Coon Hound named Babe. Poor Babe. We sure had our issues. She ate my couch, the wallpaper in my bedroom I'd waited ten years for. She ate my stash of candy I hid in an old purse in the pantry so my boys wouldn't eat sugar! She was the source of multiple hang-up calls at midnight because she howled at the moon. She ate Halls cough drop wrappers and tissues from the garbage. She ate two boxes of rat poison, had to have her stomach pumped twice costing nearly $400. She had gas that would clear out a stadium. But we loved her ... ish! When she went to doggie heaven I looked forward to a canine-free, frustration-free environment. It didn't happen.
I was voicing a few feelings one day concerning Oden when my son said, "What's the matter, Mom? Are you feeling left out because he has papers and you don't?" Lucky for him I thought it was funny.
For all you "animals-are-better-than-people" folks, I love my dog, but this week has proven difficult in the ongoing Mim-and-Oden saga. I call him: Odie, Boo Boo, Honey-Bear, Big Beast, Big-lug, Shed-meister, Big-Boob ... you can see my digression!
Frustration is: the futility of sweeping your floor when you have a beast that sheds a small dog every day!
Frustration is: a 135 pound dog who suddenly decides it's time to cuddle and jumps on your bed sending it sliding across the bedroom floor!
Frustration is: eating breakfast and finding a dog hair on your spoon!
Or, worse ... eating breakfast with a friend and seeing a dog hair on her spoon!
Frustration is: stepping on a giant dog bone in the dark, in your bare feet ... especially when you've still limping from the first time you stepped on it when you got up to go to the bathroom!
Frustration is: getting licked-up one entire side of your face because you keep your eyes closed when you pray ... and the dog gets jealous cause you're giving God attention instead of him!
Frustration is: sitting down with a hot cup of coffee and the dog lets you know he wants you to pet him by wiggling his head under your arm ... thus sending your coffee flying in the air!
Frustration is: being HOT and your dog is the only one in the family who has a pool!
What's even more annoying is complaining to a friend about the dog hair, or that he still smells from the skirmish he had with a skunk a month ago ... and all you hear is, "But, he's so beautiful, and he loves you."
Come on ... give me a break ... Somebody pet my head for a change!