The One with the Incredible Change of Luck

So, Thursday was the day of defeat and I moped around early in the morning before semi-reluctantly getting ready for work. The training over the next 4 days was going to be pure Hell with Idiot Boy assigned to sit beside me and I wondered who I'd angered to be stuck like this.

The garage still smelled of the burned shirt and I hoped against hope that the linger smell would usher in a change of fortune for me. But I don't think I have that kind of luck.

My stomach growled and grumbled a bit as I got ready to pick up my carpool buddy. Last Saturday's breakfast had been a chore to digest apparently and my "diet" for the rest of the weekend as well as Monday and Tuesday had consisted of the occasional banana or fruit bar, water, and some green tea to soothe the grumbling. The only other person I know with worse "luck" than mine had cooked at the charity breakfast and it only made sense he'd given me some form of food poisoning. This is a guy who used to be a prison guard and got sued by a prisoner after he whacked him in the head while attacking another guard. He'd then been arrested a few months later when his trailer had become unhitched on a hill and he'd called for some friends to help him hitch it back up. He was arrested for being a nuisance (he was tying up traffic, but still...). And here my stomach was still "of a mood" 5 days after his breakfast....

I eventually got to work and it wasn't as bad a drive as I expected. Sure, there was an accident to avoid, but that's a thrice-weekly occurrence these days. The Sun has returned to Vancouver, so everyone's driving IQ has dropped into single digits. Don't believe me? This is my Friday route home...

But I digress.... I'd survived the drive and here I was at work, eating breakfast and watching the sports highlights (our new morning tradition) and praying Idiot Boy wouldn't join us again like he did yesterday when I wore the bad luck shirt. I was definitely in a sour mood, but my workmate/friends didn't much care because they knew they'd see little of me today with the training commencing.

I got back to my office and started getting all my materials ready for the training. I had a 200+ page manual I was supposed to read and had been given 4 hours' notice. I also wasn't allowed to take it home because of all the confidential information inside. So, I skimmed. And the entire I time I skimmed through it, I wondered how Idiot Boy would handle all this material. This is a guy who usually got confused if an assignment had more than one 'step' to get the work done. Sad, really, but then he's an idiot.

The guy who sits at the next desk arrived just before our work day begins and smiled as he told me he heard a good Idiot Boy story. No, we don't call him that at work... well, I try not to.

Idiot Boy was fired.

My luck had turned. I'll never have to see him again.

When I got home, I breathed in the still-lingering smell of what used to be an unlucky shirt.