Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Karma/Murphy's Law Kicks 17People in the Gut

So at the 17people email address (17people@live.com btw) I have started to get some emails from what I can only imagine are creepy blog critics, because they are people I don't know. Some recommendations/requests have been to add some more 'personal story' articles like the one at CVS or at Shell to make points as opposed to preaching and teaching as I often have a bad habit of doing.

Those who know me well know that I am outgoing but a rather private person and since I am not in public life do not feel the need to share my story. However the events of the last 48 hours have put me in a mood to vent because karma and/or Murphy's Law (if anything can go wrong, it will) have both added frustration to my life.

As I noted here on Sunday I was stuck in an airport for around 7-8 hours. In that post I wrote the following:

What did we do before Ipods? Seriously good music (for me of course a lot
of Springsteen) makes long periods of time go by quicker,
Thank God for my wireless internet card. I don't know what I would have done the past 5-6 hours without the ability to surf the web, follow my fantasy baseball teams, and email work and friends.


Well that must have been the straw that broke the camels back as in the last 48 hours my Ipod is dead and my laptop (along with wireless card) were stolen from my car.

So here is the story. When I finally got back to Chicago I went straight to my parents house and spent the night there as opposed to going home. My folks live much closer to my office and after a weekend where I consumed around a fifth of Crown Royal figured that it would be a better move for me to get to work on time.

Monday at work went off without a hitch. I was a little tired throughout the day, but was back in the flow at the office after a great weekend.

Right after work I went straight to the gym and had an awesome workout, yet was starting to wear out a bit. After the gym I made a couple stops and for the first time in four days was back at my apartment. I opened the door and realized that as usual I had a ton of crap to bring in the house.

Two bags, a suit bag, a back pack, my work bag, along with a basket of laundry all were on the list take into my place. Yet when I got home and parked my car there was a moat of water protecting the curb. So I could only really take one bag at a time into the apartment because I had to leap the moat to get over the curb.

I made three trips and then realized that my apartment was an absolute mess. While I was gone my landlord had a dishwasher installed. Don't get me wrong I am excited about this but the result was I lost 4 drawers and the contents of them were in brown paper bags all spread through my kitchen. Not to mention the floor and everything was covered in a film of sawdust from the construction.

At this point I decided to leave the rest of the stuff in my car and try and start cleaning the mess I inherited from the work done at my place.

One of those things I decided to do was a load of laundry which included the gym clothes I wore earlier in the day. Unbeknownst to me,,, my iPod was clipped to the shorts I just tossed into the wash from my gym bag. A point I didn't realize until I pulled my beloved Nano out of the dryer.

For the record, that iPod is toast.

Then this morning I wake up and head to my GMC and suddenly remembered that one of the bags I left in the car contained my work computer. I looked in the back seat where I left it and it wasn't there.

After thirty minutes of tearing threw the car and every corner of my apartment I realized some loser walked down the street saw a bag in the back seat of my car and decided to take it. My golf clubs were in there, a couple pairs of shoes were still there, and a nice pair of sunglasses were still in there. But my computer that was purchased for me by my employer was and is gone.

I have never written this on this blog but have told people through the years how shitty it feels when you have something stolen. I was reminded of that today.

I take all responsibility for it having happened as it was stupid to leave it in the car, something I have not done since I started this job 8 months ago. Yet I can't get out of my head the fact that if not for the moat and the mess in my apartment I would have surely brought the bag back inside.

In that post I wrote earlier where I mocked the lady who said 'these things happen in three's' karma came back to bite me in the ass. As a 5+ hour delay at an airport, destroying my iPod, and having my computer stolen have to qualify as 'these things happen in threes'.

Karma is a bitch. But we learn and move on. Lol.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Finally something other than politics. All those fake emails I have been sending you, finally paid off.

It sort of is creepy when you think about it but also the price of having a blog. Anyone can read it and anyone can respond, even those you dont know. Regardless, who cares what they think?

Patrick said...

That sucks about the computer Johnny. When I am the ruler of the universe and have complete powers of execution, I will chop off the hands of petty thieves just like they did in the good old days.

If you bring your iPod in to an Apple store they will give you 10% off a new one. I know this because my iPod died last week.

They are wondrous machines, and certainly have a pretty design, but I hear a lot of people complain that they break like the wind. I'd buy something less expensive but just as functional, but I am a slave to style. Just like those three old women and their dad on that Sex and the City TV show, but with electronics as opposed to handbags.

Patrick said...

Wow....sentence fragment much? I should be beaten for my crimes against the English language.

Also, critics are the best part of public writing. When I was in high school I wrote something for the school literary magazine that resulted in a complete stranger sending me a letter that referred to me as "Lucifer."

I've never been so proud. The letter still hangs framed in my bathroom.

Sarah said...

That sucks JohnnyC. Getting things stolen is such a violating experience, especially a computer which, now days, is the most reflective portrait of who we are.

I don't really like my iPOD. I have one of those fancy nano's that has about 450 dollars worth of extras to it, the shoes, the chip that tells you how far you have run. But I swear, the thing has a mind of it's own. The chip never works, I've only been able to use it once. And my iPOD craps out on me whenever it feels like it. Temperamental little SOB. Plus I wound up erasing my entire itunes library when I got a new one. I could go on for hours. But I won't.