A Night With Murphy

Have you ever had one of those nights when everything that can goes wrong?

Well, there were probably a couple more things that could have gone wrong for me the other night, but I have a hard time thinking of what else it could have been.

The evening had started well. I’d just gotten home from seeing “Iron Man” with a friend (a great, great film even if you’re not a comic fan — though that is coming from a comic book fan so maybe you want to get someone else’s opinion) and had just enough daylight to mow my front lawn so the neighbors wouldn’t think less of me for it being overgrown and overrun with weeds.

Rocking out to a loud mix from several System of a Down albums, I cut the grass in the front yard with not quite enough sunlight left to also mow the backyard. Only mildly disappointed, I wanted to go get a drink of water before putting the mower away.

Only to discover that I’d locked myself out of the house.

Annoyed with myself and the situation, I was fortunate that a) my neighbor was home so that I could use her phone and b) my friend with the backup key was available to bring it to me. Knowing it would take her 10-15 minutes to bring my keys to me, I decided to kill the time by cutting the grass in the backyard (thank goodness for floodlights).

When my friend arrived I was, understandably, overjoyed. Using her key, we opened the door — only to have my cat Rebecca bolt past us. I usually allow Rebecca a little bit of outside time whenever I can but I don’t like to let her out too near dusk as she gets it into her little furry head that she doesn’t have to come inside within a reasonable amount of time. Not wanting her to run off, we tried to corner and catch my insolent child only to give up and yell after her that I wasn’t waiting up to let her in.

After this embarassing outburst, my friend left and I went inside. I took one look at the dishes piled in the sink and the laundry still waiting to be folded and decided I couldn’t be bothered with any of it until after I’d had a shower.

I thoroughly enjoyed my shower, using the very relaxing and refreshing Eucalyptus Spearmint sugar scrub I got for Christmas. By the time I was done I felt all the better about my misadventures and was ready to tackle household chores before retiring to bed.

This in mind, I reached for the towel — only to have the towel bar fly off the wall at me and land with a resounding clang on the ceramic tile floor. I stared dumbly at the bar for a moment before catching sight of myself in the mirror and laughing, I hate to admit, a mite hysterically over everything.

Considering this the last that I could handle, I put on my jimjams, let the cat in, and went to bed.

It wasn’t until I was regaling anyone who would listen with my not-so-fun-filled evening that I realized that I’d had quite the encounter with The Law that night: Murphy’s Law.