Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

The image I posted yesterday.

See anything different?

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, where it feels like you are the beginning domino that sets all the other dominos crashing down.

Of course falling dominoes can be pretty cool:

Maybe I felt more like a house of cards with a huge wind about to blow. This is not going to be a whiny, woe is me post, I promise. But I do have to set a little background, so bear with me.

It started with a technical error. I had to drop Sarah off at my sister’s yesterday (they went to the circus) before I headed to teach the theatre classes I’m doing in Chelsea, MA which is basically attached to Boston.  Nervous about the drive, I did what anyone would do, and printed out directions.

Of course, I didn’t notice that the print out skipped from step 1 to step 4 until it was too late.

No worries, I thought to myself. I basically know the way.

Um, right. Some of you may remember that last week I mentioned my complete lack of a sense of direction.

So, I ended up having to pay for GPS and arriving at my class 5 minutes late (after a frantic phone call where I informed them of my idiocy). I HATE being late. I like to be early, so the whole thing through me off.

But I rallied, and the class went well (except for the few students who really have no desire to be there).

My directionless sense led me astray as I attempted to follow the less expensive route home (fewer tolls) so I eventually gave up and just coughed up the money. The drive started out rainy but quickly turned to snow as I headed west toward home. Nathan and I had planned to travel back to Chelsea to see a show but that trip seemed like a bad decision given the predictions for snowfall.

I got home to a phone call from Nathan who finally decided to go buy the snowblower that we had been talking about for weeks. Needless to say he was out of luck on that front.

The night was a little creepy. Lights flickering, hinting at an impending power outage. A sudden crash outside, leading to the discovery of downed trees in the driveway. As my emotions got the best of me, I had a huge moment of doubt about going to Slovakia when we have things like snowblowers and other possible purchases to consider (like the fact that my computer seems to be on its last legs HORRORS!). Nathan talked me down, but eventually I just crawled into bed, but not before I tempted fate by posting the stupidest FaceBook status ever:

As you can see, my friend Barb questioned the wisdom of tempting fate.

As you might expect, the universe decided to respond. In this case a picture is worth 1000 words:

Tree meet power line

I woke up to a text message on Nathan’s phone at around 3 am. Why, oh why, does the University contact system feel it is appropriate to tell everyone at that early hour that all classes are cancelled for the next day, when the next day was a Sunday? That wake up led to the unpleasant discovery that the power was out, but I chose to simply curl up and try to go back to sleep.  In typical fashion I ended up stumbling in the dark to find some matches so I could read by candlelight until I could sleep again. Eventually I went back to sleep but woke as the sun began to filter in and something else came crashing down  and made Nathan call the electric company.

We got up to find:

• 3 trees down in the driveway
• 1 tree down on the power line
• the chestnut tree in the back yard lost its head
• some trees sliding down the hill toward us
• numerous limbs dangling precariously over the driveway.

Surprisingly though, all this has put me in a great mood. Perhaps it was the exercise I got shoveling the driveway and battling tree limbs. Perhaps its the silliness of the fact that we can’t flush toilets or do anything else without power (although we do have a gas stove so I got a yummy morning chai). Perhaps it was watching Lizzy, my older dog, leaping through the snow in a reflection of her puppyhood in Vermont. She seems to love New England weather. Perhaps it was eating bagels and locks in bed before facing the task of conquering the snow. Or perhaps it is wandering over to my book store hangout in search of electricity and flushing toilets to find that everyone else from nearby electricity deprived communities had the same idea.

Maybe it is a combination of all these things, and the realization that I can always rebuild a house of cards or set up a new domino display.

I found myself singing old show tunes as I waited to leave the house. Now I just want to laugh.

Care to laugh with me?

 

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