Trader Joe’s Lavender Hand Soap is making my life a little less brighter for one very simple reason — it is frustratingly difficult to open. All you are supposed to do is twist the nozzle and, at some point, the nozzle should spring open and then let you push down on the nozzle so that soap is dispensed.

Except that the nozzle, at least for Bob and I, never springs open. At least not easily. It turns and turns and turns and never springs open despite twisting it for minutes at a time, chewing on the nozzle, banging it against the table, pulling the nozzle up with great force, or using a knife to shimmy the nozzle open. Nothing seems to work until it mysteriously springs open usually at the exact moment that I declare it is impossible to open and I am giving up. It opens.

I don’t know how I did it. So, instead of moving onto a new product, and because Trader Joe’s is a frequent stop in our shopping, I try it again thinking that the previous container was somehow defective. It wasn’t.

This makes me relive the previous frustrating experience where I struggle to open the spring using every bit of muscle and brain I can muster. Nothing works and, then, somehow after frustrating minutes trying to open the damn thing, the spring activates. But why is still a mystery.

I am convinced that it is a simple solution and, because I am determined and thick skulled, I keep buying it in hopes of discovering the mystery of the Trader Joe’s Lavender Hand Soap spring. One day my friend. One day, I swear it.