Today, for the most part, was a stuck-behind-my-desk kind of day. I had a inbox full of messages to sort along with completing a stack of paperwork. These are two things that I really don’t care to do. But my calendar and to-do lists were surprisingly short, so I had no excuse for stalling.

While I’m tap-tap-tapping away on my least favorite spreadsheet, I hear of set of footsteps approach my office. I held my breath and hoped that they would pass me by. Now that I was in the paperwork groove, I was determined to finish.

“Thanks,” I heard a woman say, “for filling my hate cup today.”

The statement was made plainly, and dare I say pleasantly. She just as easily could have been asking someone to pass the potatoes at the dinner table.

I’ve heard a few cup metaphors: My cup runneth over. That’s not my cup of tea. The cup/glass is half full, half empty, whatever.

A hate cup was brand new to me.

Even though I was on a roll with my paperwork, you know good and well I really didn’t want to do it, so I thought about that phrase for a while.

I sometimes let annoying situations ruin my frame of mind. I’m not talking about the big stuff. That’s easily understandable. I’m talking about the small, who-ate-the-last-of-the-apple-jacks kind of stuff. A morning hangnail can set me on a path of grumpiness that lasts the entire day.

I guess I have a hate cup, too, but it’s time I tossed it. My life is full of good things, so my time would be much better served focusing on those.