Tuesday

Today didn’t start very auspiciously.

I bought an iced tea before work, like I often do, only the bottle top didn’t pop when I opened it. So, rather than risk any possible contamination — have I mentioned that I’ve been taking this online course? — I poured it out in the pantry sink.

As I was leaving the place where I bought the iced tea, I snagged my headphones on the door and they broke. These were the ear-bud variety, which is what I prefer — I hope I combat potential hearing loss by, you know, not listening to my iPod at a ridiculously loud volume — so it doesn’t take much of a break to make them totally useless. I tossed them in the trash on my way into the office.

Is it weird that I was almost hoping the yogurt I also bought would be expired or moldy or something, thus completing some kind of bizarre trifecta or hat trick of lousiness and setting the stage perfectly for the day? I mean, obviously I didn’t want or expect that, and was glad when it turned out not to be the case. I paid good money for that peach yogurt and enjoyed eating it for breakfast. But I have to admit, I probably would have taken some kind of satisfaction from its being spoiled along with the tea and the headphones, felt strangely justified in feeling grumpy and tired, the way the first morning commute of the week can sometimes make you feel. Well of course, I’d think, like all these little annoyances added up to something, proved something. It’s maybe a smug of kind of cynicism, and I’m not exactly proud of it, but… Well, I mean, if the universe is out to get you, at least it means the universe is taking an active interest, right?

Which is way beyond what I thought this morning when I opened my yogurt, and almost certainly way over-thinking it now.

Because, anyway, the rest of the day went pretty well — surprisingly well, in fact. I had three phone calls lined up for the afternoon, at least one of which I didn’t have any expectation of going especially well at all. But each of them turned out to be pretty decent conversations. Sometimes, when you ask instructors to talk about their courses, they actually surprise you by being willing to do so.

I don’t know if it makes up for the lost iced tea or headphones, but it’ll do.

Oh, and I also finished reading Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel, which I think is actually the first Asimov I’ve ever read, with the possible exception of a short story here or there. It was okay, I guess. I think I enjoyed it more that I did Rendezvous With Rama, another classic science fiction novel I read earlier this year, but I also found this one a bit disappointing.