Ungrateful

At this time of year, many folks post about what they are thankful for, some even doing so the entire month of November until Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for much in my life, especially since I know how quickly life can change. However, I think it's healthy to explore the other side, the side no one ever talks about. The ungrateful side...

What are you not grateful for?

I know that I tell myself I'm grateful for co-workers who make my job harder because I learn to be stronger and more resilient because of them. After several years of this, though, I can't even convince myself this is true. No, the truth is that I'm not grateful for colleagues who make my work life harder. It would be much better if I didn't have to deal with them. I could accomplish something, anything, and feel satisfied in my work environment.

Another thing I'm not grateful for is really bad entertainment. Yeah, I know that it could be worse. I could be watching ancient Norwegian scream-singing in my front yard, but that doesn't make me feel any better when I have some well-earned veg time and can only find "Say Yes to the Dress" in all its nauseating variations dominating every cable channel on the planet.

Flu shots. Yes, they help me avoid getting the flu. No, I'm not 100% grateful for them, especially when they make my arm swell and give me light flu symptoms. Bah.

I'm also not grateful for slow Internet connections, no matter where I encounter them. Yeah, I know that my forebears had to chisel out letters to their families on rocks and carry them to the catapult to be delivered. However, it still ticks me off that my connection sometimes makes me wait two seconds to do what it could have done in one millisecond if my boss' bosses hadn't been too cheap to get a good ISP with service provided in some other manner than gerbils running on a treadmill.

Finally, I'm not grateful for some online articles. You know these articles; most of them are on Yahoo. They are the ones that use really catchy headlines that give hints about Mr. Famous So-and-So's bad onion-eating habit destroying his marriage and then once you click on them you realized Mr. Famous So-and-So isn't even married and the article is about his favorite recipes or what might happen if he were married. An article titled, "Republican and Democratic Senators Marry; Sparks Fly," might sound like it's about a great romance when, in fact, it's about a fire starting during the nuptials of two Congresspeople because someone parked his cardboard bicycle next to a candle. Yahoo's headlines are notoriously bad about this, and I'm not grateful to have to plow through tons of gark to find a bit of news.

What about you? What are you not grateful for?  Do tell in the comments section.