If I Only Had a Brain...

I wonder about myself. Nay, not wonder. Worry.

Yesterday I read for nearly nine straight hours. I finished "War in Heaven", read the first two chapters of "Elmer Gantry", and got momentarily sidetracked by "Jane Eyre" before reading eight chapters of "Wuthering Heights" and two chapters of "Dragonhaven." Yes, my friends, my brain resembled a plastic bowl that gets accidentally placed into a microwave.

Despite that fact, I was in a really cheerful mood when I got up this morning. I even had time to go outside and rescue some of our prematurely blooming daffodils. They're my favorites-so delicate, yet cheerful at the same time. They remind me that spring will someday come. School went well, too, owing to the fact that I had done all my work yesterday and so was pretty well prepared for class. I walked out to my car with Shelby, admiring the beautiful weather and wishing that she would let me roll my window down, but I didn't even both to ask. I knew the answer.

I had just hit Highland when I looked up a little to check my rear view mirror, when I noticed It. There, hanging there by a hideous little piece of web, was a brown spider. It was staring maliciously at me. I loathe spiders; I have ever since my dad took me out one day to the pool, which happened to be covered up at the time, and pointed out the deficiencies and beauties of a black widow spider. The intruder today didn't possess the malevolence of a black widow, but nevertheless, it was Encroaching on My Personal Space. I then, naturally, did the normal thing, and calmly asked Shelby to get rid of it, which means to say, that I panicked.

She reached casually into her bag and pulled out a notebook, and started batting at it pathetically, like it was a pinata that contained candy she wasn't really interested in, but was going through the motions because it was the principal of the thing. Then, horror of horrors, the darn thing started letting down more of its disgusting web and inching towards my face! My encouragement for Shelby to kill it became all the more impassioned, when all of a sudden, I heard this strange noise. I looked up, and we were driving on the curb, inching towards a telephone pole. I'm sure my guardian angel must be tired right now, because I don't know how I avoided hitting it, but I did. (Maybe it was like those old Family Circus comics, where you see all the places that Little Billy has been, with his exhausted guardian angel panting behind him, after having saved from from falling out of trees, tripping into holes, etc infinitum.) Shelby and I collected our wits, laughed a trifle hysterically, and continued on our way.

I was further humbled by the fact that we passed a wreck on our way home, and the girl was just getting loaded into the ambulance. I do thank the Lord for keeping Shelby and I safe today.

Still, it seems my old friend, the black cloud of doom, has settled over my head once again. My computer, narrow misses....hopefully it won't affect my finance grade tomorrow! Mon Dieu!