So a week ago I was having one of those days where everything was just going wrong. It all started when I went on my way to a writer's meeting and decided to drop by the bank on the way so I left a good 45 minutes early. At the bank, the transaction was a business one so I lined up in the merchant's line with 2 guys ahead of me. Now I knew the merchant line can take some time but the regular customer line had like 10 people lined up so I took my chances. Well faithful to good'ol Murphy's Law, the regular line just zipped through customers while the merchant line was still on the 1st customer. Meanwhile another customer entered the bank and lined up behind me in the merchant line. After a good 15 minutes of waiting I said "screw it" and decided to go with the regular line. Of course I almost tripped over one of those stupid poles they use to separate the customer lines. When I got to the regular line I was pleased to see the line still moving at a good pace with 4 people ahead of me. Now I'm the next up and the merchant line is STILL on the original customer – so I felt good about making the right choice because there are 4 tellers for the regular line. Low and behold, every single friggin customer at those 4 tellers had some kind of issue from forgetting their PIN number to not knowing what a DBA was. At the merchant teller the 1st guy was finally done and the next guy was up. I'm just grinding my teeth listening in on the regular customers, one arguing against the manager about cashing a check that didn't even have his own god-forsaken name on it. Come on people! Next thing I know, the guy that was in the merchant line behind me gets up to the teller and it's been like 30 minutes of waiting for me. That's not the worst part, some old lady behind me in the regular line decided to go over to the merchant line (mainly to sit down because they have seats for their business customers). She sat down for just 2 seconds and the guy at the merchant teller finished - since she was close to the teller, she got up fast and took the merchant teller window faster than I could have said "beat it grandma, I'm next!" Still, all 4 regular tellers were occupied and I had to wait for that old lady to get done before the merchant teller opened up. I finally got to a window - THE ORIGINAL TELLER I LINED UP FOR 35 MINUTES AGO. And I swear to you I'm not making this up, I got up to the teller to make a deposit and after a minute of banging on her keys the lady told me her terminal froze! So she had to go over to one of the regular tellers and wait for the other customers to finish before she could process my transaction. At that point I started laughing like a lunatic, grabbed my receipt and got the hell out of there.
But I had one more bank run to make (at another bank) and some duffus driving a massive SUV parked their car in 2 spots, so the only other space open was flooded with water from the rains of the previous day. After sloshing through the water, I got to the ATM and while I'm filling out my deposit slip I heard this annoying "hello" from behind me. I was so close to just turning around and telling the person to get lost but it was a good thing I didn't because it happened to be this little 5 year old kid offering random "Hellos" to people. So the charming incident kind of calmed me down but I still rushed to the writers meeting because I was running late. When I got to the diner where the meeting was, no one was there. So I sat down, ordered Eggs Benedict and an Arnold Palmer (lemonade mixed with ice tea) and e-mailed my fellows. Turned out the meeting was at 1pm and not 11am like I thought! Of course I got my Eggs Benedict but the waiter didn't get me my drink until halfway through my breakfast. Luckily a few friends from the writer's group showed up early to keep me company. I had a chance to blow off some steam but that was not the end of my bad day by any stretch. Miho and I were planning to attend an opera (or at least I thought it was an opera) that day at 2pm. But Miho was flying in at 1pm from San Francisco so the plan was to pick her up and then rush to LA. Low and behold, Miho's flight was delayed and she didn't get in until 1:40pm. I was waiting in a nearby parking lot (wanting to use the restroom from the Arnold Palmer I drank earlier) and after she called me to pick her up curb-side, I fired up the car but the engine just clicked. I thought to myself, "you got to be kidding me!" I turned the key over and over again and the friggin car would not start! I started to panic but after a minute of taking deep breathes I realized I didn't have the shifter in the "P" (Park) position which prevents the car from starting. So I finally picked up Miho and while rushing to downtown LA our conversation quickly escalated into a "Who's fault is it for being late," argument. When we got to the Disney Concert Hall we had missed the 1st act and had to wait until intermission to get in. Now I thought we were about to witness some foreign opera of sorts but it turned out to be an orchestral concert with what seemed like teenagers. Now that's one thing but some of those teenagers were in the audience and sitting next to me. The last thing I needed to deal with was a bunch of teens that talked during the performance, moved around like twitchy meth addicts, and made that unbearable crinkling noise while unraveling a candy from its wrapper. I was about to stand up and go ape-shit on those pubescent little pricks. Well, I managed to not loose my cool and Miho and I got home at around 7:30pm. Right then and there I through in the towel and just said, "I'm done for the day - I can't take it anymore." So I just went straight to bed to sleep off my bad luck.
The funny thing was that I had to wake up early the next morning to catch a train to visit my family in Orange County. So at 6am I got to the train station on time and managed to purchase my ticket without rushing. The train came promptly and that's when this lady walked onto the platform digging through her purse for change. In the corner of my eye I saw her look at me and then decide to ask someone else for change (she probably sensed my bad aura). When the other person didn't have change she hesitated then asked me. The train was approaching so I dug as fast as I could and gave her a bunch of quarters and, check this, she handed me a $2 bill! I thought o myself, "Hey that's pretty lucky." So with a smile I boarded the train while the lady I gave change to purchased her ticket. She had just enough time to get her ticket and head for the train doors but when I looked up at her the doors shut on her face and she couldn't get in. We just stared at each other as the train left her cold at the station. In the back of my mind I felt like my bad mojo somehow got transferred to her and that she was about to have the longest day of her life while I enjoyed the sweet bliss of being happy-go-lucky. And you know what, my weekend was really not that bad from that point on.
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