The Domino Effect

(This must be read in a fake english accent for added impact-please indulge me, we just finished watching "Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events")


Once upon a time there was a mom who went out to run her daily errands. It was New Year's Eve, 2008, and she was preoccupied with many things. It was frigid outside; the temperature had dipped into the twenties, and the wind chill made it seem much colder; the whipping wind gusts at thirty miles an hour made her anxious to get things done.

When she arrived back at the house, she noticed with mild concern that she had forgotten to bring in her purse. Annoyed at herself, she rushed back out into the wintry weather to fetch it from her car. With a sickening feeling, she realized it was not there. She ran back inside to check again. No purse. She then frantically decided to retrace her steps everywhere she had been that day.

One after the other each place turned up nothing. She finally returned home and made the necessary calls to cancel things. Angry at herself for being so careless, she contacted the local police department and filed the necessary report. She then proceeded to get her family ready for a night out at a friends' house for dinner, trying to be cheerful and positive and putting the frustrating event behind her.

Everyone piled into the car, and as she climbed in, she remembered she had forgotten something in the house. She ran back up the steps, put her key in the lock, and, as she turned it, IT BROKE OFF! She stood there for a moment, her mind not comprehending what had just happened, while almost simultaneously realizing she had no extra key.

Her husband came up behind her and asked if everything was okay. Needless to say, it wasn't. After a half an hour of botched tries-climbing through the basement window which the husband was able to pry open,and the wife gleefully climbing up the steps with relief only to find there was so much stuff piled on the other side of that door that she couldn't have gotten through it even if she wanted to; futile attempts at jimmying a window open like a real live burglar, and then finally just violently shaking on the door knob screaming hysterically "Why me, Lord?", the husband had to resort to carefully breaking a window pane.

After a quick cleaning up of the scene,the husband gathered the family for a second time into the car and FINALLY motored off to their destination.

In the end, it all had a positive influence, really. The next day, the mom decided to clear out the space behind the door where she couldn't get in the night before, which in turn prompted her to throw out alot of unnecessary things that had just been adding to the clutter, which caused her to go through her filing cabinets and update all important papers which then allowed her and her family to become more organized for the New Year.

So, to quote Lemony Snicket, "Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like."

Happy New Year Everyone! May you have all the right keys to open all the right doors and may they never break in the lock!