Facing the impossible

cars parked too close in Catania, Italy

It was our last night visiting our son, Ben. He lives in a crowded, noisy, hot city in Sicily, Catania.

We decided to stay in an Airbnb together in the heart of downtown, to give him a break from his normal life.

Problem: there’s literally nowhere to park.

The main parking garage is blocked in by the outdoor market. You can only park there if you arrive before the market stalls are set up or after they are taken down – and the stalls are up for most waking hours.

We finally found a spot, after looking for 20 minutes. Ben stood in the opening so I could drive around the block to access the spot. But then my lack of directional sense meant I could not get back. (A maze of one-way streets conspired against me.)

Ben, who is totally used to living there, was almost as frustrated by the situation as I was.


The moral of the story is, how do I deal with frustration and disappointment?

In this case, things worked out, and afterward, our frustration eventually died down.

(Ben met me in a place I shared via a maps app and then navigated me back to the aforementioned slot, which quite miraculously was still open. )

But a better reaction would have been to just relax and not worry about how long it all was taking. After all, we were on vacation together!

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Parallel murder mysteries

knife and gun - collage

I read murder mysteries on my Kindle some nights, just before drifting off to sleep.

I listen to murder mysteries via CDs that I check out from the library during my car commute.

My problem is that those two running plotlines sometimes blend.

And then, if I add in two or three nights’ sessions of an episode of Midsommer Mysteries on Acorn TV, it gets even worse.

Definitely a first-world problem.


Collage created from two Unsplash images by Yaroslav Đšorshikov and Alejo Reinoso. Copyright and used under Creative Commons license.

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