36-degree humility

my day held a variety of interesting moments (as always, interesting is subjective to my version of interesting :)).

- this morning i was doing my laundry. this can be a stressful endeavor, so i try to select times when nobody else will do laundry, like 8am on wednesdays. thus around 8:17am, i hauled my awkward laundry basket through the treacherous elevator (avoiding getting smashed by the door) and breathed relief when i heard the silence of unused machines. i proceeded to prepare my laundry. detergent in, clothes in, select cycles, push coins in... this worked for my first load. but as i was pushing the coins in for the second load, the lever jammed. i thought this was odd, tried a few more times. no luck. thinking it was the machine, i shifted all my goods to the machine next to it. again, lever jammed. i was stumped and frustrated. so i called my building manager to tell her they weren't working.

her FIRST response??

"maybe there is something wrong with your coins?"

this goes through my head, "i am an intelligent, educated, successful woman. how dare you, an eastern european immigrant whom i can barely understand, how can you, tell me, that my coins are wrong?!?! do you think i'm a naive, girlish idiot? how dare you!" (i know, i know... so embarassingly awful)

but i said, "oh no, i don't think so, i mean... they're quarters."

and she said she was coming down.

then, i looked down at the quarters in my hand and realized, in an incredible moment of humility... that i did not have four quarters... i had three quarters and a nickel.

there indeed WAS something wrong with my coins.

substituting another quarter for the nickel, i tried the machine again.

and it worked.

humbled.

- after that, as i was leaving for school, a receipt in my coat pocket fell out onto the floor, again, as i went to get my keys. so, as any sane person did, i said, out loud, to the receipt, "well, fine! if you don't want to stay in there then i'll just throw you away."

- beautiful, 36-degree day. cloudless, blue skies. so delicious.

- did you know that 99% of batterers in domestic violence/intimate partner abuse are NEVER caught? 99%!!! and the majority of them are normal (meaning not having any mental illness or personality disorders), men who are ONLY violent towards their wife at home and nowhere else in their life.

- i love the show LOST, if you didn't know. well... maybe it's more accurate to say it's a love/hate relationship. but tonight, one of my favorite character's storyline took a terrible twist :(.

- but soon and very soon... i will be in a warmer place celebrating spring break!!! girls gone wild... for jesus!! :)