I spent an hour excavating my car from a mountain of snow.

I spent an hour excavating my car from a mountain of snow. Then spent twenty minutes grumbling at an imaginary person.

Now that the snow has finally melted and I can walk outside without immediately regretting it, I've had some time to reflect on one of my pettier moments this winter.

Our car got completely buried in the first big snow of 2026. We were on the side of the street where the plows push everything, which, if you've never experienced this particular joy, means we did not just dig out our car. We had to excavate it.

My husband did most of the work, I'll be honest. I helped for about an hour. But when we were done, that spot was immaculate. Room on all four sides. Two doors you could actually open. It was a masterpiece of snow removal, and I was unreasonably proud of it. 🤩

And then we drove away to take my kid to school, and… I knew the minute we left someone was going to take our beautiful spot. ☹️

And I got weirdly worked up about it. Not about losing the spot - what got me was the imaginary person who was going to take it. What if they were someone who hadn't bothered to dig out their own spot? What if they'd double-parked through the whole storm and then just swooped in the second ours was clear?

How dare they! This imaginary person was breaking all the rules of snowy parking spots! 😅

Eventually I caught myself… and took a breath. Yes, I could get all worked up about this person, but the truth is, I have standards. I was going to do a good job digging out that car whether or not I ever got to use the spot again. That's just who I am. And whether the next person to park there was a neighbor who spent two hours shoveling their own spot, or someone who hadn't lifted a finger all winter - I couldn't control that. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The work I did was the work I did. That's it. (And it was beautiful work, let me tell you.)

This “keeping score” thing sneaks up on me sometimes. I’m doing something well and then I get tangled up in whether the right people will notice, or whether someone else will get credit, or whether it was even "worth it" given how things shook out. The answer is almost always the same: I did good work because that's what I do. The rest is out of my hands.

And honestly? When I came home later and saw my least favorite neighbor had snagged my spot… I had a little moment of grumbling to myself. 😉 But I was still super pleased at our exceptional shoveling, and I’d do it again.

Do y'all do this too, get wound up about imaginary people? Tell me I'm not alone.