Thursday, February 8th, 2007  -  Another episode in the chronicles of Erin’s continuing humiliation

Well, that is just disgraceful. Three posts in as many weeks?! It’s really high time to update—otherwise you might think that ridiculous things have stopped happening to me! But don’t you worry your pretty little head. They still hunt me down like pigs after truffles.

Like, for instance, the time when I drove into the gas station and then discovered that I did not actually have any way to pay for my gas. Ridiculous.

Or the time that I stuck the takeout container in the microwave, took it out again and wondered why there were little burn marks around the METAL handle in the paper container. Perilously ridiculous.

But by far the most ridiculous episode in my recent history happened a few weeks ago, on a seemingly innocent Wednesday afternoon. My classes were over, so I headed down to one of Gutenberg’s secondary houses to visit some friends.

I was carrying my precious Macbook Pro in my arms, and as I was walking I started thinking things like, “Hmmm, what if someone came running up from behind me and just knocked my computer out of my arms? Or what if they just grabbed it from me and started running? What would I do?!”

These thoughts absorbed me as I approached the front door, warily eyeing strangers passing by on the sidewalk behind me. In fact, I was still thinking about it as I started walking up to the porch—except that by “walking,” I really mean, “taking one step on the muddy stairs and having both of my feet fly out from underneath me.”

It’s funny how, as you are arching rather ungracefully towards the pavement, time seems to stretch out enough to allow you to have coherent thoughts in the space between standing upright and lying splayed on the ground. My coherent thoughts, in this particular instance, were, and I quote: “SAVE THE COMPUTER! SAVE THE COMPUTER! SAVE THE COMMPPPUUUTTTEEEERRRR!!!!!”

I clutched the laptop to my chest. It was not until my face actually connected with the pavement that I realized, “Oh, perhaps I could get hurt as well.”

So much for coherent thoughts.

Amazingly, aside from a couple silly little bumps on my forehead and the bridge of my nose that stuck around for a few days, I was fine. I consider myself very fortunate, as head-on impacts with concrete steps do not always end so well.

The whole incident made me question my priorities—was my computer really more important than my life? Probably not. Although, as I pointed out to one of my classmates, if I had died I wouldn’t have had to worry about my computer being broken.

In other words, I am still a living reminder of the bittersweet truth that just because one is a college student, one does not necessarily possess any common sense.

Or, as Natalie once put it, “It’s okay, Erin. The world has to have people like you, too!”

:-p