"The Bane of My Existence"

So I heard this phrase several times over my spring break vacation...
When my friend said it, I had to ask her what the word after "the" was, because I had thought about the phrase before I went to Qingdao, but I thought it was "pain"... :)  Oh me and the English language... apparently we are not well acquainted with each other.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know that at this moment, the bane of my existence is the fact that I have to use a VPN to get on here and that my VPN hates me...