Turds, Coffee and Mantras

Today had its unfortunate moments as well - keeping with this quarter's theme.

First, in my Art History class, I had been sitting there for an hour when I decided to check the time. I don't wear a watch so I pulled out my phone. I unlocked the screen and noticed that I had a new email so I checked it. Just then the teacher went quiet and approached my desk. I looked up with a slightly confused, slightly terrified face and she asked me: "Are you busy?"

"No...I'm sorry."

"You're only in here for an hour and a half. If you want to be talking with someone, just don't come to class."

I wanted to justify myself by saying that I wasn't talking to anyone but stopped thinking that would just be even more disrespectful, so I just sat through the remaining half hour of class feeling like a grade-A turd.

In my next class, a discussion, I felt like I should make a concerted effort to pay attention and get as much out of the class time as I could so I made my way to the front of the classroom and claimed one of the frontmost seats. Every couple of seconds I would get a really strong whiff of coffee, but I just assumed that a classmate had brought a cup of joe to class. I was right...sort of.

About thirty minutes into the class period, I noticed that my left sandal was oddly stuck to the ground. At first I thought, "Great! I stepped in gum". I turned the bottom of my foot up to get rid of the gum but there was no gum to be found. I then began my investigation.

I put my foot back on the floor and found that it was still somewhat sticky. I tried sliding it back and forth with increasing force until it actually un-stuck from the floor and shot out at high velocity. I received a funny look from the girl next to me. I still had no idea why my foot was sticking to the floor.

Another whiff of coffee.

I looked back farther under my seat to find a lake of brown liquid - partly liquid, partly dry and gummy. That's where the smell was coming from. That's what was making my foot stick to the ground. Someone had spilled coffee all over the ground under my seat.

"Gross," I thought. And then I realized it was even worse. I had unknowingly laid my backpack and laptop case (luckily my laptop wasn't in it) in Lake Starbucks.

"BAAAHHHH!!!"

I moved my dripping stuff out of the coffee flavored sludge and propped it up to dry for the rest of class. I wish there had been something there to wipe it off with but I just had to let it dry out on its own. By the time class was over, my laptop case had mostly dried off since it is made out of duct tape (gotta love that stuff), but my backpack on the other hand had only absorbed the liquid like a Bounty-quicker-picker-upper.

I made my way back to my car once again, thinking about my bad luck streak that started 3 weeks ago on January 3rd. I was trying to figure out why these things were happening.

Was it because I've been unorganized? Was it because of my laziness? Or was it just actually bad luck?

I opened my car door, got in and sat down. Just then I realized that my brow had been extremely furled all the way back to my car. It was also then that I decided to try on a new perspective:

"I don't care!"

I even said it aloud to myself while unfurling my furled brow and forced a little smile onto my face. It's weird, but I actually felt better! So I have a new philosophy or perspective or philospective for unfortunate things occurring. "I don't care!"

The drive back to my apartment was chock full of morons with driver's licenses, whom I would normally get mat at, but I would just say my new found mantra: "I don't care!" and move on.

Of course, this philospective won't and shouldn't apply to important things like assignments and relationships with friends and family, but I see great potential for it to relieve stress about the little things that boil my blood. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I still smell coffee.