Much Ado About Everything

I had a bad day on Friday. Well, not really that bad, but several infuriating things did happen to me.

I woke up and went to work, only to realize right in front of the office building that I forgot my security card at home. It was in my laptop bag, which I rarely take to work – but I did it the day before. So I had to go back home and get the card, wasting an hour in the process. Luckily though on Friday mornings we have a “coffee and donuts chat” where – in the addition to food and drinks, various managers talk informally about what was going on in the last week and what will be going on in the next. Therefore I only missed the freebies – which I planned on missing anyway due to my want to get rid of a pound or two I acquired in the last week due to Thanksgiving Day visit to the bakery shop. I didn’t need to make up the time as it wouldn’t have been productive anyway. But I really hated going back home and then back to the office.

Then I decided to get a haircut after work. I got there at around 5:35, they close at six. But – there was a lineup! The biggest one I’ve seen at that place, 5 or 6 people were waiting for the two barbers. I just popped in, took a look and decided to leave immediately – there is almost nothing that I hate more than waiting.

Then I managed to miss the bus – it left right in front of me. Oh well, not a biggie, the next one showed up after less than 5 minutes. But then, after I arrived at the Main Street Skytrain station – the Skytrain was not operating! I saw the train suspiciously sitting at the station while I was still in the bus waiting for the
traffic light (by the way one of the longest waits in Vancouver is at Main and Terminal, naturally). When I got to the platform, I waited for a while and an announcement came – but it was useless, as I couldn’t hear it! Usually I can make out at least a few words (I have trouble understanding speech with high level of background noise) but this time I couldn’t make out anything. So I decided to go downstairs and get me an espresso – and a butter croissant, as I was rather hungry and I did not know when I’ll be able to get home.

Luckily, after I ate and drank, the trains got running again, so I got home on time.

Oh and Friday is the “flyer release day” in Future Shop and Best Buy. My friends know how much I hate the idea of flyers being release on Friday – instead of being able to go there after work on, say, Wednesday – and encounter very little competition for the juicy stuff that just got on sale, you have to face many more people which might already cleaned up isles by the time you can get there. In other words, people who love shopping there get screwed by causal shoppers, just because whichever moron runs the show decided to release flyers on Friday. It didn’t use to be the case! I loved it when they did it on Wednesday or Thursday, but alas those days are gone – at least for now. The worst part probably is that they keep bunching everything during the weekend, when one hardly needs any more competition for time. Why not during the weekday, to provide something to look forward to in the middle of the tedious workweek? But nooo, idiots just don’t care to use their brains when planning flyers. Oh well.

What was I saying again? Oh yes, flyers on this Friday sucked. There was nothing worth oogling, no good deals, nada.

Only on Saturday did I realize it was Friday the 13th. So it all made sense.

Of course, it’s not like I believe in stuff like that. I recall a long time ago I actually had a fabulous day on a Friday the 13th. And most of the time it’s just a day like any other. If anything, it tends to be better than average.