Growing Irritations

Increasingly, things are irritating me.  Nothing unusual in that, you are no doubt thinking, but since I was ill earlier this year, I've been much calmer, more mellow.  no doubt on account of all the medication I have to take these days.  But, of late, I've been getting bloody irascible again.  Maybe I've been taking the meds long enough that I'm building up an immunity.  Anyway, stuff is starting to irritate me again.  Not to the levels it did before I was ill, when, fueled by my excessive blood pressure, trivial annoyances could turn into full blown rage.  But some things can still severely piss me off.  People walking too closely behind me in supermarkets, for instance.  The other day, for instance, remembering something I'd forgotten to get off of the shelves, I turned around to go back to find myself, quite literally, face-to-face with some bloody woman who had been walking inches behind me.  I'm afraid her startled look just annoyed me even more.  I mean, what did she think was going to happen?  I had a similar experience in another supermarket when I stopped and turned and was nearly mown down by some toss pot pushing his trolley inches from my heels.  What the fuck is wrong with these people?  Why are they invading my space like this, then reacting as f I'm the one behaving irrationally?  They are the pedestrian equivalents to those tail-gater you encounter on motorways.

Just as irritating are the pillocks who think that they can either text or read texts on their phones while walking through crowded shopping centres.  Inevitably, they collide with me (I've got to the stage where I simply refuse to take evasive action when I encounter fools who can't be bothered to look where thay are walking, they are so transfixed with the screen of their mobile), at which point they try to act as if they are the injured party.  Wankers.  Friends and acquaintances are also really, really beginning to annoy me again.  (No Andrea, if you read this, I'm not aiming these comments at you.  You might well be one of the most frustrating people I know, with your frequent lapses in communication, but, in truth, your infuriating qualities are among the things I most love about you).  We seem to be slipping back into the idea that I do nothing but sit waiting for them to call me - there's no consideration that I might actually have other things to do, that I can't simply drop just because somebody deigns to call me out of the blue.  I do have my own life, you know.  I also don't think I'm being unreasonable if I don't respond immediately to answer phone messages, particularly if they aren't phrased in a way which requires response.  (As you can probably gather, I recently had an exasperating friend-related incident in which the other party behaved in the most extraordinary manner, but I was supposed to feel as if I'd dome something wrong).  There's a reason I keep my circle of friends to a bare minimum - they can be a pain in the arse. 

So, as I'm meant to be avoiding stress and keeping my blood pressure down, I'm trying to ignore all these minor irritations and mellow out again.  Of course, if people stopped leaving messages on my answer phone, making demands on my time and bizarrely walking out of pubs they told me they were going to meet me in before I arrived, then it would all be a lot easier.  And people wonder why I prefer my own company!