Surly Thursday: Microscopic Version

You know when small stuff bugs you, and it's small, so the fact that it bugs you also kind of bugs you?

Crabtree and Evelyn has discontinued my very favouritest body lotion in the whole entire world. I can't use stuff that's too greasy or I just end up needing to wash it off - I can't even go near body butter just because of the name - and I can't use stuff that's too strongly scented because it gives me a headache, but I like a faint pleasant scent. This lotion was perfect - soothing but not gloppy, with a really nice light scent. The salesperson at the C&E said a bunch of people had been asking for it and it was always extremely popular, which makes the whole thing perplexing as well as annoying. I bought this instead, and it's okay, but slightly heavier, and the scent is nice enough but kind of disappears as soon as I walk out of the bathroom, plus Eve hates lemons so I keep thinking I'm going to be repulsive to her while wearing it. And yes, I am aware that this is the Firstest of First World Problems.

Photo credit Chris Hawes
Eve was on a field trip to some kind of conservation area a few weeks ago and it was raining. They were walking down some stairs and a boy ran past her, knocking her down so that she fell backwards onto the stairs. She's been having lower back pain ever since. I don't really think the teacher needed to call me or anything, I'm just sort of inarticulately upset about the whole thing - why was the idiot boy running on slippery stairs (because grade six boys are idiots), why didn't anyone make sure she was okay (because she doesn't typically kick up a big fuss when she gets hurt because she finds it embarrassing), and, as someone who has experienced back pain for years, I keep thinking is this going to go away or continue to plague her into the future? Will she one day be thinking, everything was fine until I fell on that field trip? And yes, I realize that I am catastrophizing and proportion-blowing and there's no reason why I should be crying while typing this, and it's just November and dark and the very air just seems to be peering at me and finding me wanting. Mostly it's just a stupid thing that happened that is making me feel crummy.

I also feel like we've attracted some kind of financial evil eye curse thing. A month or so ago we got a flurry of notices from Revenue Canada saying we owed a huge amount of money. They also seemed to think that we hadn't filed tax returns for the last five years, which isn't true, so it will probably get sorted out in time. Then, last Saturday when I was at the comedy club, at some point between my paying for my ticket downstairs (with my credit card) and paying for my drinks upstairs, someone used my credit card for an internet purchase of a $1500 microscope. Visa has to open an investigation, and it will probably be sorted out, in time. This means I have to be patient and unhysterical and accept that the problem is not instantly fixable, which I am bad at.

On the other hand, the fact that there's $1500 dollars on our credit card that we didn't spend doesn't mean we can't buy our kids Christmas presents. And the house across the street from us caught on fire on Monday night and is probably a write-off, while I am still sitting in my own kitchen, which is messy but unburned. And I have friends with cancer. So I am aware that, in the grand scheme of things, these are small problems.

Small problems that would seem even smaller if I smelled faintly of lavender and goat milk. Dammit.

Comments

Swistle said…
I don't know if this will be helpful or make things worse, because we live in different countries so things might be different, but maybe they're NOT different, in which case it might help, so I will tell you this: that when Bath & Body Works discontinued THE CONDITIONER THAT KEPT ME SANE, I found it on eBay. I did a saved search, so that eBay would email me whenever that conditioner was posted, so that I wouldn't have to check every single day. And sometimes, because that conditioner is discontinued, some seller will post it for, like, $50 with $10 shipping, when it was originally $10, and then I just ignore that. Because OTHER times, someone posts it for something like $15 with free shipping, and I have to swallow hard and get used to that idea, because I COULD HAVE BOUGHT IT FOR $10 IF I'D KNOWN THEY WERE GOING TO DISCONTINUE IT, but do I want it for $15 since I CAN'T HAVE IT FOR $10, and since I use only a tiny amount, mixed with plain conditioner, when I really really want to? Yes. Yes I do.
Hannah said…
The body lotion thing would drive me batshit because it's like "dammit, it's a tiny thing that makes my day a little happier, and NOW I CAN'T EVEN HAVE THAT WHYYYYY." Plus you are reminded of it every time you put on the inferior lemon lotion.

It's like the pizza shop next door changing hands. Now my happy pizza lady isn't there anymore to make me off-menu veggie pizzas. And even though all the food is better and the service is happier & faster, I'm still mad because those veggie pizzas were the best thing ever, and now I'll never have one again, and that is a small sadness that I have to feel over again every time I get hungry.

The other stuff - poor Eve's back, the credit card fraud, those are very very shitty too. (We've been through the credit card fraud thing. It did get sorted out fairly quickly, but it is still an almighty pain in the ass to deal with.)

November. November has been a sour, cold, rainy bitch again this year, and every year I'm surprised all over again at how rotten I feel. I wish we lived closer. I'd drink bellinis and eat snack mix with you until we both tipped over.
Pam said…
Well, you know how I feel about November and I have to remind myself that it is a month that, too, shall pass and I don't have to dread it 24/7. I DO love Hannah, even though I have never met her, for lots of reasons, latest being that her comment is KiCK ASS AWESOME!

You are awesome too. Kharma is a bitch, microscope-buying-fraudster-guy! You will get a gross mutant bacteria resistant virus for your evil deed.

Hugs to Eve. May her back have speedy healing.
slow panic said…
I am very very very very bad at accepting that any problem is not instantly fixable.

Very bad.

You know the person that discontinued that lotion has a secret lifetime stash in her closet. Just because she can.

StephLove said…
Sometimes the small things add up.
Maggie said…
Yes, I feel stupid even complaining about my most first world of first world problems: that they have discontinued the zumba shoe I've worn and loved for three years. Yet I am bummed because I don't want to have to try a bunch of other shoes to find ones that fit and support and don't break the bank and all of that crap. I the scheme of things this is NOT a big deal, but still, boo.
Julie Harrison said…
Huh. I didn't realize until just now that I have never had the satisfaction of a body lotion that is just the right texture and the right scent. It's just not right that I've been deprived of this. And it's just not right that what I didn't even know I was deprived of, you are now being deprived of. The whole thing just smells of conspiracy. I better if we sat with a bottle of wine we could get to the bottom of it.
Lola said…
Ok so I lied! Sue me:) Have you tried Bliss moisturizers???

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