Not Singing in the Rain Today

Forget that Garbage song "I'm Only Happy When It Rains." Today I identify more with the Carpenters, who sang, "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." And when it's a rainy Monday, that's even worse — especially after a good weekend. So in that spirit, here's a list of some of the things on my hate list right now:

* Getting a car wash, and then finding my car covered in pollen just days later

* When my next door neighbor plays one song over and over and over and over (i.e.: Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry"), so much so that I start to think I like the song too

* When a guy who reeks of cigarette smoke stands right next to me on the T

* When my upstairs neighbor decides that 8:30 am on a Saturday is a great time to vacuum

* How the folks at Finagle-a-Bagel just assume you want the chips and soda combo when you're ordering a sandwich and add it to your check before you've even asked for it

* Wearing new shoes for the first time and having the back of your ankle bleed because the shoes aren't broken in yet

* My neighbors who like to smoke right outside the front door of the building, so not only do you have to walk right through it when leaving the building, but the smell wafts up and into my apartment and through my open windows

* When the Red Sox aren't playing (or are playing on the West coast, like they are tonight) and there's nothing else to watch on TV (Monday nights, for example)

* Nestea, for changing their Diet Lemon Iced Tea so it tastes more like actual tea and less like, say, Snapple. Don't they know how addicted I am to that stuff???

* The people who park their car next to mine and have no consideration when opening doors, and thus have nicked my car over and over, leaving an obvious red mark on my back door

* AOL's new webmail

* Needing to do three loads of laundry and having one of the three machines in my building's basement be broken

* Despite the above comments, knowing I might have to look for a new apartment and move this summer because my building's been sold and I don't know if I want to pay the increased rent