Cat-astrophe

Remember the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Poor Alexander wakes up one morning with gum in his hair. And so begins the awfulness. No window seat on the bus, reduced to Paul's "3rd best friend", a cavity at the dentist, lima beans for dinner, soap in the eyes at bathtime, least favorite train pajamas...it is certainly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Alexander decides he wants to move to Australia and escape bad days forever (I can totally relate to that one!) but his mom explains that bad days happen to everyone, even people in Australia. (Though from personal experience I'd like to point out that bad days seem to happen less frequently in Australia.)

Here's a little nugget of information for you: Wikipedia told me that in the Australian and New Zealand versions of the book Alexander wants to move to Timbuktu instead. Just in case you were wondering.

On September 22, I lived through "Becky's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"

I wake up late, as usual. This is a problem because I had plans to look presentable for Pi Phi composite pictures that afternoon. While I am rushing around trying to get ready, I decide to turn on some music. I don't notice Frankie, my roommate Lisa's cat, scurrying past me as I come back into my room. I approach my computer and notice the screen is blank. Strange since I was just on Facebook a few minutes before. I click the mouse. Nothing happens. Then, I notice where the problem is coming from.

MY COMPUTER IS RESTING IN A LAKE OF WATER. A LAKE!!! IT'S PRACTICALLY FLOATING!

My first thought is that the ceiling is leaking. I look up. No leak. Then my foot kicks something. It's the cup I had sitting on my desk while I was studying the night before. Last  time I saw this cup it was filled with water. It is now empty on the ground. Suddenly my brain starts to click and things fall into place...I left my door open for 2 minutes while I was in the bathroom...I passed Frankie coming out of my room...THE CAT! It's a CAT-astrophe of epic proportions!!!! Picture this: Frankie jumps on my desk and spills  the water directly on top of my computer, leaving everything except for my precious MacBook completely dry.  Just my luck.  Whereas Alexander woke up with gum in his hair, I woke up with a drowned computer.  My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day has officially begun.

I frantically start screaming for Kendal, my other roommate, and burst into tears. Kendal finds me in a sobbing mess trying to use my duvet cover to soak up my dripping computer. Being the genius she is, Kendal grabs a box of rice from the kitchen and pours it all over every crevice of my computer. Soaking my friend's phone in rice worked once when I spilled a few drops of water on it so surely the same trick can save a computer right? ...right? We leave the rice covered computer in the sunlight for extra drying and cross our fingers. (Hint: it didn't work)

The rest of my day falls apart as follows:
--Lisa's car is parked behind mine and she carpooled to school with her only set of keys. I'm trapped!
--Kendal drives me to the Zoo. I'm late. She's late. And I'm definitely not photo-ready.
--I don't finish half of my to do list at work. The cashier at Hobby Lobby sends me hate vibes when I make her ring up $250 worth of fake grapes. She then gets in an argument with her boss in front of me over the Zoo's non-taxable customer card.
--I open a bag of M&M's at work to make myself feel better. Spill them all. Later that night, I tempt fate again and break into my secret stash of M&M's at home. Spill those too.
--I go to take my Pi Phi composite picture with frizzy hair, minimal make-up, and a sour attitude. I'm sure that picture is going to turn out fantastic.
--To try to salvage my day, I attempt to go to McKinley's for lunch. I've been thinking about eating a strawberry cupcake and chicken salad all day. McKinley's is closed.
--I go with two of my friends to Potbelly's instead and order an Oreo milkshake. While handing me my milkshake, the lady at the register lets one of the precious Oreo cookies slide off the top of the lid. I really wanted to eat that Oreo.
--My shoes give me blisters.
--I drop my phone at least four times on concrete over the course of the day.
--Thief! In my 2:00 class, I realize that I accidentally stole the keys to the Zoo's Honda Element. Since my car is still trapped at my house, I have no way of returning the stolen keys.
--I decide to try a new recipe of "salmon cakes" for dinner.  Disasterous. They fall apart and turn into a mess of crumbles on the frying pan.
--It hits me as I'm about to leave the house that I forgot to drop off something really important for the Zoo that needs to get printed for Zoo Ball. I scurry over to the printers and apologize profusely for delivering something at 5:30 p.m. that needs to be ready the following day. Oops.
--I go to my first career fair and have a freak out because I have no idea what I'm doing. To make matters even worse, I start sweating out my nervousness and produce two lovely armpit sweat stains on my brand new silk blouse. Bet that impressed the potential employers.
--I leave the career fair and it starts pouring rain. I pitifully run to my car (in heels and silk, mind you) and the rain immediately stops once I close my car door. I look up. There is a huge black cloud situated EXACTLY over my running path and nowhere else.
--It starts to rain again the second I open my car door and set foot on my driveway. Typical.
--Did I mention that my computer is completely ruined? R.I.P. Macbook

As you can see it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But at the end of this day, all I could do was laugh. Surely I've used up enough bad luck to keep me in the clear from bad days for a while now, don't you think? Still haven't ruled out Alexander's idea of moving to Australia, though...

I wish each and every one of you many happy days free from water-logged computers, spilled M&M's, embarrassing armpit stains, and unintentional thievery.