Arrggg, I brought it to the bike shop

and this is what they said

the chainring i had was made in 2002 and isnt made anymore.
the chainring they put on was the "shimano equivalent"

he told me "i dont know what to tell you....." and that that the chainring may be slightly different which why the problem suddlenly got worse

he told me there isn't anything to do

he told me you are not supposed to use the 3 smallest cogs when you are on the smallest chainring because the chain goes too diagonal (looking from above)
he said that all bikes do this

before, i was able to go on the 3 smallest cogs while on the smallest chainring, and there really was not a big problem

basically he is telling me a) bikes arent meant to be on those combinations of gears (and it will wear out my drive train very fast by doing this, he said) and b) they do not make the ORIGINAL chainring for my bike and the new one may be SLIGHTLY different which is causing the problem

i dont know what the hell to do. the added complication of not being able to get an ORIGINAL chainring is what seems to be causing the main problem

AHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG the agony..i cant believe this....what the hell am i supposed to do, search around for a ***ing used original chainring!?!?!? you'd think that the bike shop, a specialized dealer, would have the right parts. but they do not. i dont knw what to do but im pretty pissed off.

i would normally get really pushy in the direction of the bike shop but i am powerless because they don't make that same chainring anymore. ***, this really sucks. so frustrating