Murphy's Law

I've become quite an expert in Murphy's Law. I think I may even be the defense lawyer in its courtroom on most days. Its rules shower on my head, first thing in the morning and keep at it until the next morning, when I'm finally exhausted enough to sleep.

This weekend has been no different.

Those who know me are aware that sleep, although an activity I very much enjoy, is not something I do as often as most people. Not just in length - in frequency as well. Most weeks include at least 2 sleepless nights, oftentimes three. If I don't have three, then I'm likely to sleep no more than 5 hours a night for the rest of the week. I'm a busy guy, but also one who needs to be entertained in between the activities I'm doing.

In that vein, it is now Monday, September 15th, at 5:35AM for most humans in my timezone. To me, it's past my bedtime, Friday night. You can call it a busy weekend, I didn't have enough time to see it pass by properly.

You see, Friday was my boss' last day at the office; he's moving onto bigger and better things - better paying, surely. But we all appreciate him enough, so we went out for a celebratory/goodbye drink. It was a very good evening. Heading home,though, I had friends I hadn't seen enough of lately who decided they needed taking care of, so I rightfully did. Then they headed home and went to bed, I presume, but I was still awake, so I spent the rest of the night online, catching up on news events, reading sports analysis, listening to music, playing Scrabble on Facebook... the usual.

Saturday came along, and my friends decided it was perfect to set me up for a SECOND surprise birthday party in the span of two weeks. We went out to dinner, 30 or so of us, then went to a club, everybody went home. So did I.

But by the time I got home, we were Sunday, September 14th. It actually was my birthday. My 30th. I had long planned to make it a special day, so I relaxed, surfed the web a bit, read up on David Foster Wallace's suicide, played some GTA4, then went on to my planned activity: having two friends over for some afternoon birthday champagne.

Thing is, I learned Friday that despite my boss leaving his position and thus having more work to do in the upcoming week, I also had a deadline for work that was to be handed in on Monday, before (or at... I tend to be late) 8AM. 10 hours' worth of work. So what's a guy to do? Fuck sleep, when my friends left, I headed to work. I'll soon be done, ahead of time for once. But I have to come back in at 3PM, for a shift that ends at 10.

The point of this is, this has been just one very long day for me. Lots of things happened, many people are pleased with it - as am I - but it was just my luck, wasn't it: a reason to celebrate in a grand way, people to celebrate with that I really wanted to see - but a deadline looming just above my head.

Just like I haven't had more than 5 days straight off work in the 7-plus years I've been here, and my family offered me a trip to Cuba, 1 week, all expenses paid, four-and-a-half-star hotel, starting this Friday, for my 30th. And it looks like it'll rain all week.

Every day I go to court challenging Murphy's Law, and I haven't even met the judge yet.