Today

Hey everyone,
Well, today on the walk to and from school I got some thinking done. I'm just gonna go over a few things that crossed my mind.

First off, I don't get angry very often, but today I did. Here is what happened.

I was in the school cafeteria. I was in line to get some Italian food. As I'm waiting in line I'm reading my metalogic textbook. I step up to the register to pay, and as I'm paying, right next to me, there is a girl using the soda fountain to fill up the drink that came with her meal. As she pushes the cup into the fountain to set off the trigger to pour her drink, the soda filter (you know, the fine wire mesh that the water goes through so it comes out straight) flew off, and sticky soda shot everywhere. So, soda shot all over the poor girl's blouse (maybe it was a shirt, I can never tell the difference), and soda got on my shirt, my pants, my shoes....but most importantly--on my textbook.

Now, I really love my books, and I just don't handle water damage on a book very well. I was so furious. But, unfortunately, I couldn't direct my anger anywhere. I mean, the girl who poured the drink was a victim also, the girl at the register was most likely not the person who didn't fully screw on the filter....the person I wanted to talk to could have been anywhere, so I just got a really annoyed look on my face. The girl at the register could tell I wasn't very happy (she must have thought I was annoyed at my damaged clothes) but I wasn't mad about my clothes...I wasn't even mad for myself...I was mad for my poor defenseless book.

I took the book to a table and tried to use water to make sure the pages wouldn't stick or get stained, but it was too little and too late...my book will forever be damaged, hideous...oh, so sad. It was a young book, I hadn't even read it all the way through yet.

As I made it to my table to eat my meal I tried to read more of the book, but I just couldn't, cause every time I turned a page I heard the crinkling sound of the damaged page (you know how paper when it gets wet gets all brittle and crinkly...that's what happened). Every time I moved the book it made a sound and reopened the wounds I felt at having my book wounded.

I think I'm going to have to retype the damaged page and have the book rebound, or maybe I'll just pull the page and out and memorize the information on it very well then throw it away, or maybe I'll ....oh, I don't know. Maybe I should just put my book OCD aside and let it go. I just don't know if I'll be able to.

Anyway, as I sat fuming at the injustices of the world I thought back to a time a few years ago when I was taking a history of philosophy course. On the last day of that class my professor brought us all drinks and sandwiches to eat while we took the final. The girl behind me was drinking grape juice and she rested her cup on the edge of her desk. It was perched precariously so I asked her if she'd move it, but she said it would be fine and I didn't want to argue with her, so I forgot about it. I was sitting immediately in front of her, and my backpack was sitting on the left side of my desk where I could easily reach in with my left hand to pull papers out. I finished my final early and went up to talk to the professor and hand it in. We get into an animated discussion. After our conversation was done I went back to my desk to put my things away and go home. But as I picked my backpack up to put it on my shoulder I realized something horrible had happened...purple liquid started to pour out of my backpack and onto my shirt...there was grape juice in my backpack.

This was a huge problem for the following reasons:

Since it was the end of the semester I had just written a long research paper and I had 4 library books in my backpack that I needed to return.....books now covered in grape juice.

I had all of my notes for the semester in a 5 subject notebook, the drink landed directly on the notebook and the juice seeped through every page.

When I put the backpack on it the juice inside my backpack dripped down my back as I swung it on my shoulder effectively staining a white shirt.

And...well, I'm sure there are more things that went bad but I can't remember what they are right now.

So, what happened was (piecing things together from someone who saw the accident) that the girl had picked up her things and finished the test, had left the drink on her desk, and as she went down the aisle her backpack hit her cup and knocked the cup into my eagerly awaiting backpack...where the cup rested on its side on top of the large collection of library books (that were so wide that the backpack sat upright with the mouth open...just waiting for someone to pour a drink inside).

About half of the drink stayed in the partially upright cup, the rest pooled at the bottom of my semi-waterproof backpack....I say semi-waterproof because my moving the thing definitely made the material permeable enough for it to get all over me.

Anyway, I immediately ran to the bathroom and washed the books, tried to dry off my notes, but nothing doing...they were all damaged. I returned the books and they said they'd fine me. I argued with them for about 20 minutes (although technically I was responsible) and they let me slide on replacing the books, but the real problem was my notes.

To this day I never read my notes from that semester. Every once in a while I have a question and I refer back to my previous notes...and then when I realize I had taken that class during the grape juice semester I stop looking, cause the notes are disgusting...they're purple and they stick together, and the pages aren't flat ...it just makes me sad.

Anyway, that was the story of the grape juice in my backpack, and I was reminded of that incident by today's debacle.

As I thought about these two incidents I realized that I really have problem owning books around thirsty people. I also noticed that I don't get mad very often...just when it's a loved one or a book that is injured (but in a way they're the same thing).

I think today was the first day I've been mad in a long time, I think the last time might even be when the grape juice incident happened. I get annoyed almost every day, but I rarely get fuming mad. Today was one of those days, and the last time was 2 years ago...so I guess I'm doing okay.

Anyway, right after all this happened I sat down and started to eat and my friend stopped by. We had a long conversation and I already wrote a post about it...but if I post both together I'll go over my set limit of 2000 words...so I'll publish the rest of the post tomorrow as a second installment of today's adventures. Hope you're all doing spiffy.