I taught myself a valuable lesson today. The day started off well, with the promise of Le Market du Farmers and a hearty breakfast. But before I had breakfast, I needed to take some plates out of the incubator at the lab. So, thinking that it would be a five minute stop, I drove up to campus. It turned out that there was a football game starting later in the day, but I made it down the little side road where I double-park for these quick lab errands just before they closed to road to incoming traffic. Once I had done my business and come back downstairs, I hopped into the car and tried to start it. Tried being the operative word.
I attempted to jump start from another car, but that didn't seem to do the job. So I borrowed someone's cell phone for the afternoon and called AAA. The plan was that I would keep the phone until my car was either operational or being towed, then run back upstairs and leave the phone on the person's desk. Unfortunately, when my car was finally on its way to a repair shop, campus security showed up and told me that, since people were showing up for the game with more frequency, I needed to move everything now. As in, they wouldn't even let me go back upstairs with the phone. (the fuckers!)
So, feeling mighty angry and rather frustrated, I drove off campus with the intent to park the car and walk back to return the phone. That's when I realized that 1) there was no place to park because of the game and 2) I couldn't turn off my car, since I wasn't sure it would start again.
Now, feeling very frustrated, I drove to an auto shop, told them the problem, and then walked away to wait for them to fix it. Since I hadn't eaten yet (it was now 2:30pm), I stopped by an Indian restaurant and was delighted to find the absolute best naan I'd ever eaten (including the naan at Gateway to India). After gorging myself, I still had some time to kill, so I walked down the street to a coffee shop.
That was where I discovered the best cappucino I've had since moving to California. I spent most of the afternoon sitting in the sun, reading various newspapers and drinking coffee/tea. And as the day wore on, I really didn't care much about my car anymore.
So where does the valuable lesson come in? Well, as many of you probably know, I can worry and stress about the littlest thing. But I think today was a excellent demonstration of a simple principle: "If you don't want it to bother you, it won't." I was having an absolutely shitty day until I sat down in front of that coffee shop. After a few sips of creamy and delicious cappucino, I was able to think, "Awwww fuck it" and enjoy myself. Which is a rare thing!
In other news, today we also bought a Salvador Dali jigsaw puzzle for the house to complete. I haven't worked on a puzzle in years, so I'm shivering with antici............pation.
But wait, did you ever get the phone back to its rightful owner? Details, Jacob! What about the phone!?
Posted by: jason on September 7, 2003 09:17 AMThe phone made its way back to its rightful owner later in the evening. All was well with the world.
Posted by: Jacob on September 7, 2003 11:51 AMUntil the phone rang later that evening. It was a call from the orphanage with shocking news.
Posted by: jason on September 7, 2003 12:02 PMThey needed Little Timmy's help right away. But Little Timmy wasn't home that night. In fact, he would never come home again....
Posted by: Jacob on September 7, 2003 02:07 PMBecause he bought a charming ranch house in El Segundo and didn't leave a forwarding address. But that didn't matter, since the post office was closed that day and in fact would never be open again...
Posted by: jason on September 7, 2003 03:28 PMBecause it had bought a charming orphanage in Costa Rica adn didn't leave a forwarding address (the irony of it all!). But that didn't matter, since Costa Rica....
Posted by: Jacob on September 7, 2003 06:14 PM...is a country rich in both cultural diversity and natural resources. It's healthy economy includes the export of such products as bananas, cacao beans, coffee, and beef. But suddenly, one of the bananas in the field, which was actually a yellow phone, began to ring. One of the laborers answered it, which was a big mistake...
Posted by: jason on September 7, 2003 06:41 PMthe laborer, named jesus (like the cat), listened in surprise to the dial-up-porn. he was not sure when he would be able to get a word in edgewise but was confident in his ability to bring the banana to climax...
Posted by: michele on September 7, 2003 08:12 PMAnd then poor Jesus slipped. Not on the banana, interestingly enough, but on the banana's frothy man milk (both climactic and lactic). But before the big boss man could come over and yell at Jesus for jerking off the produce on company time, his cell phone rang. It was his mother with his SAT scores...
Posted by: jason on September 7, 2003 10:36 PMSadly, Jesus had failed sitting. Suddenly, his lifelong dream of being a professional bench warmer for a minor league baseball team were smashed. His mother was overjoyed, however, since she was finally able to talk him into....
Posted by: Jacob on September 7, 2003 11:53 PM...babysitting, which wasn't as difficult as regular sitting. All he liked to do anyway, his mother argued, was yap on the ejaculating banana phone all day, so what could be a more perfect job than looking after the Pleikowski twins four nights a week? Little did she know that the Pleikowski twins weren't actually kids and weren't even twins. They were in fact three time Olympic Champion and inspirational speaker
Mar-...
-vin Marvin, of the Czech Republic. He was often mistaken for twins because of his ridiculously symmetrical name. After three hours of chatting with Marvin Marvin while spoon-feeding him his mushy pears, Jesus felt inspired to try again on the SATs. However, Marvin cautioned him to...
Posted by: didofoot on September 8, 2003 08:02 AM"Don't don't fill fill in in the the bubbles bubbles with with semen semen from from that that damn damn phone phone, Jesus Jesus." This saddened Jesus greatly, because he had hoped to impress...
Posted by: Jacob on September 8, 2003 10:07 AM...his mark firmly and damply into the scantron (tm) sheet, as he had been instructed to do. He thought the semen would add a nice personal touch which might prejudice the SAT gods in his favor. Jesus had never encountered anyone who did not love his semen, which was chocolate flavored. He sighed and said, "Marvin Marvin, you..."
Posted by: didofoot on September 8, 2003 03:50 PMreally don't look like much of a dancer. Wanna try to prove me wrong? Unfortunately, before they could cut a rug, the universe suddenly expanded and they went flying into outer space! Luckily for them, they had just the thing for their outer space adventure...
Posted by: jason on September 8, 2003 04:09 PMSam Peckinpah's freeze-dried corpse. Spaceships get awfully musty, but vaporizing little bits of Peckinpah leaves them minty fresh and gleaming like....
Posted by: Jacob on September 8, 2003 07:14 PMthe gleaming blue speedo of three time Olympic medal winner Marvin Marvin. But before Marvin Marvin had even finished vaporizing Sam, a window of the space shuttle broke and all the oxygen immediately found somewhere else to be, which reminded Jesus of an amusing story about...
Posted by: didofoot on December 5, 2003 08:14 PMA suitcase full of grocery coupons, a one-armed day laborer named Sal, and just about the most delicious peach pie you'd ever hope to taste, the secret being the lack of oxygen, which Marvin Marvin the swimmer knew all about, being an expert in oxygen debt. Jesus didn't know how to swim, mostly because of...
Posted by: sean on December 6, 2003 12:32 PMnever having seen water of any kind. "I always wanted to learn how to swim before I died," he gasped, severely dehydrated and dying from lack of oxygen. "And a shower would have been nice, too, or so I've heard." Whereas Marvin Marvin had always wanted to...
Posted by: didofoot on December 8, 2003 10:57 AMhave sex. he figured that oxygen conservation could come in handy during intercourse. although theoretically marvin marvin's thinking was correct, the real reason he had never bumped uglies was due to the prophecy his mother received at his birth in the czech republic. in the life or death situation of the spaceship this prophecy, previously unbeknownst to m.m., would soon catapult him to...
Posted by: michele on December 8, 2003 02:30 PM