Equilibrium

So it seems that the powers-that-be have decided that since my Birthday is passed, all sense of normality should return to my life. In fact, in order to keep me from having to big an ego about the last few days, they decided to throw me a few curve balls:

Case in point - Taking a couple hundred dollars from my "play money" stash to buy some games for my new Wii on Saturday... getting to Circuit City and realizing that I grabbed a $20 instead of the $100 bill that I had intended. No matter, I still had enough at the counter. Only today I re-counted the stash and realized that I was indeed missing a $100 bill. So I must have grabbed it on Saturday.... and yet, it wasn't in my wallet when I got to the store. Conclusion: I must have inadvertently tipped the waiter at IHOP with a $100 bill (hidden underneath a $1). Sounds crazy, but it's the only other place I went that day, and I can't be sure that I looked at the tip all that closely.

So... what's the protocol on this? Go back to the restaurant and say "Dude, that was a mistake... can I have my $100 back?" Something about that seems really wrong. Of course, being that I'm a regular, and on first-name basis with the waiter... he might figure it out and offer to give it back to me the next time he sees me. Or maybe, I lost the $100 somewhere else and it didn't even end up at the IHOP to begin with. Who knows. Bummer.

Case in point: This morning, my car decided to completely shut down on me. First I thought I left an interior light on all night, but then I realized that the battery seemed fine (lights were all on full strength.) But it wouldn't turn over. I dragged my wife out of bed at 6 a.m. to try and jump-start it. No dice. So then she offered to drive me to work.

I managed to get here before my first class started, but not early enough to get my usual Starbucks, etc. Small sacrifice, really. Could have been a lot worse.

I'm thinking what may have happened is that I pulled the car up to far into the space, so that the front end hung just above the sprinkler nozzle outside my apartment. (It's happened before). So then the underside and part of my engine gets a continuous barrage of water for... what... an hour or so? The last time it started up after sitting for the better part of a day. I hope it's that simple. If not, then my wife is going to have to get up early for a couple more days while we get it fixed. Bleah.

To make it more fun, we had to push it out of the parking spot in "neutral" to have enough space to try the jumper cables, then push it back when that didn't work (up an incline :-] ) Add in the fact that it was windy as hell, and the gushing air threw the car door against my leg as I sat trying to steer with one leg out the door, gently pushing and guiding the powerless vehicle out of the parking space.... yeah I think I got a bruise from that.l

Whatever. Neither event was enough to ruin the weekend. Bring on the rain... the parade already happened!