Sunday, December 11, 2005

Week 19-How to avoid holiday stress

My stepfather told me a great cure for headaches when I was a kid: go over to the wall, and kick it as hard as you can. Your foot will hurt so much you'll totally forget about your headache.

I have a similar kind of solution for holiday stress -- pack your life with so many other concerns so that the holidays are the least of your worries.

This past week, my dad told me he won't be able to come to the wedding. Then, my wedding coordinator found out her father has cancer, and had to leave for the Mainland. I'll have to work with her replacement to get everything set.

But that's not all. On Thursday, I was traveling down St. Louis Heights, and hit a wet spot in the road where water had drained off from someone washing their car. My moped's front wheel lost traction and destabilized, causing me to fall off and skid merrily along the asphault. That's how I got these delightful little bits of road rash and a sprained wrist. Aside from similar looking scrapes, my moped was fine.

Fine, that is, or so I thought. For the three days since the wipe out, it's been working just like normal. Today, as I was about to go home from lunch after church, it wouldn't start. The starter seemed to be working fine, but the engine just wouldn't kick in. I have no idea what went wrong -- I got to church all right -- what could have changed?

I walked fifteen minutes over to the moped repair shop, but guess what? They're closed on Sundays. I had to leave my moped overnight at UH (where church meets) and walk home. I'll have to catch the bus to school in Hawaii Kai tomorrow, which requires tripling my commute from thirty minutes to ninety so I can get there on time.

Grrr!

My consolation came today from a classmate, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation of people with rotten, unsafe jobs. Here it is. Classes, wedding preparations, and getting ready for Christmas may be rough, but at least I don't have any of these jobs....

[Don't have PowerPoint to view it? Download Microsoft's free viewer here.)

1 comment:

- said...

Oh it's there. It's a problem with the engine.