A Day in the Life

Thursday 11th of March has to have been the most irritating day of my life; and yet I was laughing all the way through.

It ought to have been an ordinary day. No upsets, no hiccups, no unpleasant shocks. Nonetheless, in my own inimitable manner, I managed to turn what could easily have been a good day into a dreadful one.

11:15am. I woke up. The first word to come out of my mouth was "F@$k", for a number of reasons. First, I had missed a class in which we were watching a film only realeased on DVD in America, and on which there would be an exam question at the end of the year. Second, I had overslept on what was initially supposed to be a half-hour nap in the middle of the night, while writing an essay which I had hoped to hand in today. Fortunately for me, the essay is not contributary (i.e. it does not have an effect on my final degree mark), but I had wanted to hand it in today, so it would be done and out of the way. Ah well. I decided to take my computer with me to campus, in the hope that I could finish and print it off there, and get on with the rest of my life.

12:00pm. I've been conned! I thought that since I can't borrow a European copy of the DVD I missed, I would definitely find it online, somewhere. After spending 20 minutes trawling the internet for a streamable version of the film, I found it on a seemingly-cheap download website. Sure, I would have to pay, but I chose the cheapest option ($1.50 for three days), download the film, watch it, and not miss out. So, like a fool, I paid. Ten minutes later, I received an email notifying me of my $41.50 purchase for an entire year. I was pretty angry, but I just wanted to watch the film. Surprise, surprise, they no longer seem to have it available! Well: serves me right for falling for such an obvious con. I wrote to the company, and they said they'd refund. I'll believe it when I see it.

14:45pm. On campus. I totally screwed up: along with my computer and books, I had stored my food for lunch, which was composed of potatoes, carrots, and broccoli all lumped together in a lovely tomato sauce. Food + Books + Laptop = Horrible Bloody Mess.

18:30pm. After three hours taking apart my computer, cleaning it putting it back together, noticing more mess, and cleaning it again, the thing was not working, as feared. I packed up, and cycled to my friend's house, writing the day off as a complete disaster. At my friend's place, we watched a DVD (but not the one I should have seen), and drank wine. I went to home smiling.

The thing was that everything which had gone wrong was entirely my own stupid fault. I had not organised myself properly enough to get the essay finished in time. I had overslept bceause I was pulling an all-nighter. I had overslept because I didn't have the energy or willpower for an all-nighter. I had missed the class because I had overslept. I had wasted money because I had missed the class. I had rushed and packed my lunch up badly because I had not given myself enough time to be on campus. I had ruined my computer because I had not paid attention to what I was doing. Because of all of these events, I had wasted the day.

It was precisely because I couldn't blame anyone, that I began to laugh. The day had been a mess; an absurd joke; if I were a character in a book, or film, I would be laughing to myself as I read or watched such a farce. I had no-one to blame but my own ridiculous self. So I laughed. After all, with the day I had gone through, it was either laugh or cry. Wouldn't you have done the same?