Bug List
1. Not being able to go back to my apartment in Gainesville, where I can be an independent person.
I am not able to go back to my apartment because of the pandemic that is affecting the United States right now. My parents wanted me to come back home while UF is closed. I have enjoyed being at home, but after a while, I want to go back and be independent.
2. My inability to make good food, other than sandwiches and cereal.
During my Sophomore of college, I found that I had only cooked one real meal (chicken tikka masala in my Instapot). It tasted ok, but it required me to put in a lot of work for little return. I think my problem is that I do not have good recipes. If I find good recipes that require very little work, I won't have to eat sandwiches and cereal during my Junior and Senior years.
3. Not being able to see my grandmom because she is in a nursing home.
My grandmom is getting older and not able to remember as well as she once could. I want to see her as much as I can before her memory gets worse. Currently, she lives in a nursing home, which will not let my family come in because of the pandemic. The nursing home is taking the necessary precautions, but not being able to see my grandmom has made me and the rest of my family sad.
4. Why is The Irishman so long? There is honestly no reason it should be so long.
I love Martin Scorsese and most of his movies/documentaries. The one movie of his that I am not a big fan of is The Irishman. The story that the movie is based off of is a great plot, but the movie is just so long that I became disinterested after about an hour and a half.
5. I wish Netflix would have added more during the pandemic, because I have run out of things to watch.
During the pandemic, I have been watching Netflix when I have not been hanging out with friends, exercising or doing school work, so I have watched it for about two hours a day for the past two months. I have been watching comedy specials, Community, and movies every night. You can only watch so much Community before you get bored. If there was more on Netflix, I would be more entertained during this time.
6. I hate that the gyms are closed because I am not able to do the get the same quality workout doing bodyweight exercises.
I love going to the gym and lifting weights. When I bench, I max out at 235 pounds, which I consider to be the highlight of my weightlifting "career". When I do push-ups, which works the same muscles as bench press, I am lifting significantly less weight. I have been able to get more definition because I am doing more reps, but I feel that I am get weaker overall. I can't wait to get back to the gym.
7. I really need to get my hair cut and I am thinking about growing a mullet.
I made the mistake of not getting my haircut before everything got shutdown, so I have really long hair right now. The place I usually get my hair cut is still closed and I don't know when it will open, so I am thinking about asking my mom to give me a mullet. She does not know how to cut hair, so I very well could have a bad mullet within the next week. You know you are desperate/bored when you want to get a bad mullet.
8. I don't like how people are not taking the pandemic seriously(at least earlier on during the pandemic) because there are many people who would be considered to be a part of an at risk population in the United States.
Both my parents took the pandemic very seriously because they both work with at risk populations and if they were to contract the coronavirus, they could pass it on to someone who could die. I love to bike and when I would bike, I 'd see people in groups larger than 10 not social distancing. Even though you may not be affected, you may give it to someone who could die.
9. My family lives in Jacksonville Beach and at times, it can get very windy. When I ride my bike and the wind blows, it makes my ride that much harder.
I like to ride my bike long distances(usually between 20 and 25 miles every couple of days), so to figure out how far I have gone, I pick landmarks. It always seems like when I'm on the home stretch(a Marriott in Jacksonville Beach) the wind starts to blow hard for the rest of my ride. I'm exhausted by the time I reach the Marriott and it makes my ride that much harder.
10. My dog is getting older and starting to pee everywhere, including on me.
My dog just turned 10 last June, which is pretty old for her breed. Over the last couple of months, she has become more and more incontinent. I love my dog, and I understand that it is because she is getting older, but when you pick her up and she unknowingly pees on you, it can be hard not to get upset with her. My family is looking at some medicines we could give her that might help with her incontinence.
11. My family owns a "janky" lawn mower, which makes mowing the lawn harder.
Now that I am home, I do a lot of the chores around my house. I don't mind doing it, but when it comes to mowing the lawn, I hate it. We have a nine year old lawn mower, that cuts out every five minutes. Luckily, we don't have much of a lawn, so it doesn't take me very long, but restarting it three or four times is frustrating.
12. The neighbors across the street from me rent their house out to people. A lot of the time the people they rent to are very nice, but occasionally there are people who like to play loud music at night.
The music doesn't usually start until about 3am when all of the bars close, so I am usually sound asleep. My room faces the house and it wakes me up. I usually go downstairs to sleep on the couch when this happens. Most of the renters are just there for the weekend so there is no point in confronting them about it. I have accepted that this is just a part of living next to a rental house.
13. I find it very hard to lose weight, no matter what diet or exercise routine I try.
Freshman year of college, I started to take my physical health seriously. In the beginning, I started lifting weight and didn't really focus on what I was eating or the amount of cardio I was doing. Within the past year, I've wanted to slim down a little. I've tried everything from intermittent fasting to Weight Watchers. However, I think I found a good combination of diet and cardio to start losing weight. About three weeks ago, I started doing Keto and riding my bike a lot and now I'm seeing the results I've been after this whole time.
14. This isn't very topical, but daylight savings really bothers me, especially when it jumps forward.
Daylight savings bothers me because it switches the time up on me when I just got used to the previous change. For instance, I get used to the extra hour of sleep when it "falls back", but then I have to wake an hour earlier. I understand it has something to do with farming, but when you don't farm it is pretty useless.
15. Clothes that feel good when you wear them the first time but feel bad after you wash them.
Most of the clothes that do that are the shirts I work out in because they are that form fitting material. I find that the form fitting material shrinks a lot once you wash it and it clings to your body. Many of my workouts require me to move around a lot and the clingy material ends up feeling uncomfortable.
16. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a shortage of paper products. This is really bad when you're out of paper towels.
My roommates and I rely on paper towels in our apartment to clean up our messes. When we ran out of paper towels shortly before the pandemic, we decided to wait and get them later. This was a mistake because there was a run on paper towels once the pandemic started. Shortly, our apartment was a huge mess because we didn't have the paper towels or washcloths to clean up the mess.
17. Roommates who refuse to clean up messes they create. I could probably talk forever about this.
I love my roommates, they are some of my best friends, but they are messy. On is on the club lacrosse team and refuses to clean up the mess he makes when he gets back, they do not do their dishes, etc. I am usually the one who does most of the clean up. I tried to stand my ground and not clean up, but they had the same plan. We eventually got bugs because no one would clean up. I gave in and did all of the dishes, took out the trash, cleaned up our living room, etc. I will be living with them again next year, and I hope they have learned to pick up after themselves. Wish me luck.
18. Gnats that come into your apartment when your roommates don't clean up after themselves.
When my roommates refused to clean up after themselves, we got a pretty bad gnat infestation. I tried everything to get rid of them and nothing worked. I ended up getting this trap from Home Depot that is meant to kill them and it worked pretty well. Sadly, it did not kill them all because they reproduce so quickly. When we thought we got them all, there were probably two left that reproduced, which kept the battle between us going.
19. Mosquitos during the Summer months really bother me.
For most of my life, I lived in the north. I never had to worry about mosquitos because they were only a problem for about a month out of the year. When my family and I moved down to Florida, I got bit all of the time(I am type O, the type they like the most). During my first Summer down here, I found out that I was allergic to them. When I get bit, the bites swell up to the size of a half dollar. Other than the mosquitoes, I love living in Florida.
20. Speaking in front of large crowds is probably the thing that bothers me the most.
I believe that I am a pretty eloquent speaker when I am speaking to between 10 and 20 people, but when the crowd reaches 21 or higher, I just can't do it. For instance, my brother got married last Fall and I was the best man. It is tradition that the best man speak at the after party. I did not want to break tradition, so I agreed to speak. This was the largest crowd that I had ever spoken in front of, about 75 people or so. I went up in front of everyone, ripped up my speech and winged it. Why I did that, I don't know, but what I do know is that it was a mistake. I blew the speech. Luckily my brother and his wife were drunk and don't remember what I said, but the other 73 people do. This just reaffirmed my fear of speaking in front of crowds, and I hope it is the last time I have to do it.
Reflection
I found it pretty hard to come up with this list, it probably took me an hour and a half to come up with them all. I believe that I am a "go with the flow" type person. In some ways, this has helped me in life, but I feel it has also hurt me. This list is an example of a time that it has hurt me. Six of them did not require much thought to figure out, and I had to dig deep into my psyche to figure the other things that bother me. In all, I attribute the fact that I am so "go with the flow" with me not having many things that bother me.
7. I really need to get my hair cut and I am thinking about growing a mullet.
I made the mistake of not getting my haircut before everything got shutdown, so I have really long hair right now. The place I usually get my hair cut is still closed and I don't know when it will open, so I am thinking about asking my mom to give me a mullet. She does not know how to cut hair, so I very well could have a bad mullet within the next week. You know you are desperate/bored when you want to get a bad mullet.
8. I don't like how people are not taking the pandemic seriously(at least earlier on during the pandemic) because there are many people who would be considered to be a part of an at risk population in the United States.
Both my parents took the pandemic very seriously because they both work with at risk populations and if they were to contract the coronavirus, they could pass it on to someone who could die. I love to bike and when I would bike, I 'd see people in groups larger than 10 not social distancing. Even though you may not be affected, you may give it to someone who could die.
9. My family lives in Jacksonville Beach and at times, it can get very windy. When I ride my bike and the wind blows, it makes my ride that much harder.
I like to ride my bike long distances(usually between 20 and 25 miles every couple of days), so to figure out how far I have gone, I pick landmarks. It always seems like when I'm on the home stretch(a Marriott in Jacksonville Beach) the wind starts to blow hard for the rest of my ride. I'm exhausted by the time I reach the Marriott and it makes my ride that much harder.
10. My dog is getting older and starting to pee everywhere, including on me.
My dog just turned 10 last June, which is pretty old for her breed. Over the last couple of months, she has become more and more incontinent. I love my dog, and I understand that it is because she is getting older, but when you pick her up and she unknowingly pees on you, it can be hard not to get upset with her. My family is looking at some medicines we could give her that might help with her incontinence.
11. My family owns a "janky" lawn mower, which makes mowing the lawn harder.
Now that I am home, I do a lot of the chores around my house. I don't mind doing it, but when it comes to mowing the lawn, I hate it. We have a nine year old lawn mower, that cuts out every five minutes. Luckily, we don't have much of a lawn, so it doesn't take me very long, but restarting it three or four times is frustrating.
12. The neighbors across the street from me rent their house out to people. A lot of the time the people they rent to are very nice, but occasionally there are people who like to play loud music at night.
The music doesn't usually start until about 3am when all of the bars close, so I am usually sound asleep. My room faces the house and it wakes me up. I usually go downstairs to sleep on the couch when this happens. Most of the renters are just there for the weekend so there is no point in confronting them about it. I have accepted that this is just a part of living next to a rental house.
13. I find it very hard to lose weight, no matter what diet or exercise routine I try.
Freshman year of college, I started to take my physical health seriously. In the beginning, I started lifting weight and didn't really focus on what I was eating or the amount of cardio I was doing. Within the past year, I've wanted to slim down a little. I've tried everything from intermittent fasting to Weight Watchers. However, I think I found a good combination of diet and cardio to start losing weight. About three weeks ago, I started doing Keto and riding my bike a lot and now I'm seeing the results I've been after this whole time.
14. This isn't very topical, but daylight savings really bothers me, especially when it jumps forward.
Daylight savings bothers me because it switches the time up on me when I just got used to the previous change. For instance, I get used to the extra hour of sleep when it "falls back", but then I have to wake an hour earlier. I understand it has something to do with farming, but when you don't farm it is pretty useless.
15. Clothes that feel good when you wear them the first time but feel bad after you wash them.
Most of the clothes that do that are the shirts I work out in because they are that form fitting material. I find that the form fitting material shrinks a lot once you wash it and it clings to your body. Many of my workouts require me to move around a lot and the clingy material ends up feeling uncomfortable.
16. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a shortage of paper products. This is really bad when you're out of paper towels.
My roommates and I rely on paper towels in our apartment to clean up our messes. When we ran out of paper towels shortly before the pandemic, we decided to wait and get them later. This was a mistake because there was a run on paper towels once the pandemic started. Shortly, our apartment was a huge mess because we didn't have the paper towels or washcloths to clean up the mess.
17. Roommates who refuse to clean up messes they create. I could probably talk forever about this.
I love my roommates, they are some of my best friends, but they are messy. On is on the club lacrosse team and refuses to clean up the mess he makes when he gets back, they do not do their dishes, etc. I am usually the one who does most of the clean up. I tried to stand my ground and not clean up, but they had the same plan. We eventually got bugs because no one would clean up. I gave in and did all of the dishes, took out the trash, cleaned up our living room, etc. I will be living with them again next year, and I hope they have learned to pick up after themselves. Wish me luck.
18. Gnats that come into your apartment when your roommates don't clean up after themselves.
When my roommates refused to clean up after themselves, we got a pretty bad gnat infestation. I tried everything to get rid of them and nothing worked. I ended up getting this trap from Home Depot that is meant to kill them and it worked pretty well. Sadly, it did not kill them all because they reproduce so quickly. When we thought we got them all, there were probably two left that reproduced, which kept the battle between us going.
19. Mosquitos during the Summer months really bother me.
For most of my life, I lived in the north. I never had to worry about mosquitos because they were only a problem for about a month out of the year. When my family and I moved down to Florida, I got bit all of the time(I am type O, the type they like the most). During my first Summer down here, I found out that I was allergic to them. When I get bit, the bites swell up to the size of a half dollar. Other than the mosquitoes, I love living in Florida.
20. Speaking in front of large crowds is probably the thing that bothers me the most.
I believe that I am a pretty eloquent speaker when I am speaking to between 10 and 20 people, but when the crowd reaches 21 or higher, I just can't do it. For instance, my brother got married last Fall and I was the best man. It is tradition that the best man speak at the after party. I did not want to break tradition, so I agreed to speak. This was the largest crowd that I had ever spoken in front of, about 75 people or so. I went up in front of everyone, ripped up my speech and winged it. Why I did that, I don't know, but what I do know is that it was a mistake. I blew the speech. Luckily my brother and his wife were drunk and don't remember what I said, but the other 73 people do. This just reaffirmed my fear of speaking in front of crowds, and I hope it is the last time I have to do it.
Reflection
I found it pretty hard to come up with this list, it probably took me an hour and a half to come up with them all. I believe that I am a "go with the flow" type person. In some ways, this has helped me in life, but I feel it has also hurt me. This list is an example of a time that it has hurt me. Six of them did not require much thought to figure out, and I had to dig deep into my psyche to figure the other things that bother me. In all, I attribute the fact that I am so "go with the flow" with me not having many things that bother me.
Hi Will. I agree that this assignment was a bit difficult- mentally. I am a very positive person and believe strongly in the Law of Attraction- so trying to focus on things that bug me truly goes against my natural tendency to "go with the flow". I also wish our country could just pick a time and stick with it, personally I like the time we are in right now because it gives more daylight hours- being a Florida girl, I love being outdoors in the sunshine (the mosquitos can go though). Now that we have our negativity out of the way- let's hope for positive vibes only.
ReplyDeleteI was able to relate to most bugs on your list. I also noticed that more than a few of your bugs happened due to the virus and the living situation people are in currently. I am also bugged by not being able to be independent, how gyms are closed, and people who price gouge essential supplies; Our new living situation has created new unmet bugs.
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