Tuesday, October 21st, 2003
I’ve got a little anecdote that is a perfect cross section of what being me is like on a daily basis… here goes:
Halfway through my 6 to 9 pm class the other night, me and some people from my class are on are break coming back from hodgepodge when we see a lady on the ground, she has obviously fallen. Around her is a group of people taking care of her, in one of their arms is a little baby girl who is wailing. In my ‘man-of-action’ way, I ask if they need help, well as it turns out the woman was coming over a curb in the parking lot across from PLC, when she slipped (editor’s note: you may not want to read the next little part if you are easily grossed out -ed), breaking her leg right above the ankle causing both her tibia and fibia to break in a compound fracture. They broke inward with one of the bones threatening to break through the skin of her leg. (ok, you can read from here on out without being grossed out) In my surprisingly calm (and not grossed out, go figure.) manner, I help direct what should happen, calling both the woman’s husband/boyfriend, calling DPS, and trying to keep the woman from going further into shock. When I hear the fire engines coming closer, I run to show them where to go… basically after that, I stay to hear that the woman didn’t fall on her baby and that the baby was just freaked out and not hurt–and I mosey back to class.
That should be the end, but, of course, it wouldn’t be my life if it stopped there. So, I get back to class 30 minutes late and as I am sitting down, I notice that my wallet isn’t in its usual pocket… or any pocket for that matter. So, I excuse myself from my class and run to my car thinking that my wallet could have fallen out there (maybe it was more of a prayer that it had fallen out there). No such luck, no wallet in the car. So I decide to run back to the parking lot at PLC where the previous mayhem previously took place… as I get back the ambulance and fire trucks are just leaving but thankfully, two DPS officers, one of which is Jed, are still there. I walk up to them and explain my situation and ask for help, which they politely gave. About this time it is 8pm, with only an hour left of my class and no daylight left, the DPS officers and I are out in the dark parking lot looking for my dark colored wallet. The whole time we were looking I was calling my roommate at home and on their cell phones, of course, no answer. Since my prayer for my wallet to be in my car was overlooked, I moved on to praying for it to have jumped from my pocket during my various runs through the parking lot. However 20 minutes later, no wallet. Frustrated and defeated, I resign to the notion that this is my punishment for trying to do something good. I am a moment away from calling Jessica and asking her to find the phone numbers of my credit card companies so I can cancel them before no good comes to my credit rating. In one last, vain and useless attempt, I call to my house I get one ring, two rings, three… and then the my stupid voice on the answering machine…. half way through me yelling into the phone, “Hey guys, it’s Wells, Please go upstairs and…..”, Miller picks up the phone with the wailing protest of the speaker of the answering machine. At first I was bitter to his calm and cool, “Hey Wells, what’s up?” So I ask Greg to see if I had forgotten my wallet in my room.” Which he does. With a couple minutes of rooting through papers, I hear “yeah, it was under a bunch of your papers.”
So I figure that the fates or the gods, have your choice, don’t hate me… they just think I’m riot to screw with. Anyways, that’s a day in my life… pretty much every day is a varying degree of noble effort coupled with the mocking trials of my very own reality. In my mind I’m pretty upstanding, but I think I’m just tilting at windmills. sheesh.