Murphy's Law, The Chronicles of Jack, and Chili Con Carne

Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Little known fact: Murphy was an optimist.

I had one of those mornings where nothing seemed to go right. My first clue was the fact that I woke up ten minutes before my alarm. That's just cruel. When that happens I'm trapped between the limbo of not worth falling asleep again vs not wanting to get up, so I'm stuck in bed staring at the clock till the alarm does go off. And when the alarm did go off something inside me screamed "Don't get up! For the love of Zeus DO NOT GET UP!"

I got up.

First, I dropped my cereal bowl, shattering it, spilled the cereal all over the place. I know, accidents happen, but for some reason this felt like another bad omen, mainly because it was Cheerios that I spilled, the cereal I've eaten since I was two.

Second, on my way to class I realized I left one of my books behind (which I later found out I didn't need). I attempted to turn around. I pulled into a driveway and backed out, except I went a little too far and my back tires fell into a small ditch. My front tires were still on the road but the back tires couldn't get enough traction to pull back on the street. So there I am (did I mention that it was below 20 degrees outside) stuck in a truck trying to pull out onto the street like a champagne-colored, mechanical beached whale. It took me well over fifteen minutes to contact Triple AAA (whaddya mean you don't recognize my @$% number, annoying automatic female voice!!!) and even then they said they'd be about an hour, meaning I'd for sure miss my first class for which there is an exam tomorrow.

Thankfully, the universe decided to throw me a bone. Another college guy with a truck drove by asked what was wrong. I explained and he drove off and returned with a cable which he kindly attached to the back of his truck and the front of mine and pulled the back tires up onto the street. I shook his hand, thanked him profusely and drove off, my faith in humanity restored.




I had you going with that last line, didn't I? Hehe, couldn't resist. The only thing it restored my faith in was the idea of the occasional good Samaritan, the one person take the time to help a stranger in need out of the other hundred jerks who drive by without even giving the guy in need a second glance, or a first one for that matter.

Anyway, I made it to school, and one of my classmates let me copy her notes to catch up on the lecture. So the day wasn't a total loss.

As for the rest of this week, it's been interesting, though I've been eager to skip ahead to England this whole week. The best part however has been the chance to read Surprised by Joy, the autobiography of C.S. Lewis, or Jack as he preferred to be called (you would too if your name was Clive Staples). I've read a biography about him ages ago, but it's been really to cool to read the story in the storyteller's own words.

Turns out I have more in common with him than just a birthday. He had a fascination with mythology (which I already knew but didn't realize till now just how much those stories meant to him, or how much they influenced Narnia) and as a child he hated formality, dressing up, meaningless party conversations, etc. He also had several schoolteachers who caused significant damage psychollogically and spiritually. He had an aching desire for a world beyond his own, which in many ways drove him to mythology and later back to Christianity. Anyway, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You wanna know the rest, turn off your computer and go read the book.

Back to the present, the day ultimately ended on a pleasant note. With Uncle Mike's help, I prepared chilli con carne for dinner, and to my surprise I managed to do so without burning the house down. This means I can now cook two dishes, pancakes and chilli, so as long as there's never a world shortage of Bisquick or Bush's Beans, I will never starve.