Sometimes I wonder how I end up in the situations/circumstances I do. For some reason, in certain situations...often ridiculous situations, I always seem to question, "how in the world did I end up here?". Case and point: getting locked in my hometown's post office at 11 PM on a Friday night. How did I get there? Great question! I am still trying to figure that one out. I know these thoughts aren't exactly groundbreaking in the philosophy realm, but please bare with me as I try to be deep...
One of these "epiphanies" you might say, occurred one evening in second year. My dorm had taken an exciting trip over to Cloverdale for our dorm meeting. We met in someone's ex-roommate's aunt and uncle's house. I know this may come across as a weird situation, but I have learned in my four years of living on campus that if anyone invites you to their house, you go. Anyways, at the end of the evening, I was driving back to campus with my little car, which is still running on God's good favour, full with 4 other dormmates. I believe we were keeping it holy and belting out a little Michael W. Smith, when I saw it! FREE FURNITURE ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD! See, I had been looking for a chair to put in our kitchen area so I could play my guitar and talk on the phone out there. I only had about one foot across to squeeze this sucker in and would end up only looking at the drawers in front of me, but by God I was gonna find a chair and find it for FREE!
It was at this point that I pulled a u-turn and told my dormmates to make room, cause that chair was heading home with us. The chair, which I would later dub 'Madge', was the essence of the seventies: wood and a plaid burlap weave in orange and brown. This chair weighed about 50 pounds but we managed to shove it in the back of my hatch-back and took off down the road with the trunk open, a chair sticking half-way out the back and 4 laughing girls holding on to the chair to keep it in. Michael W. Smith was blaring once again. As we pulled up to the security booth, the security guard shook his head, probably thinking "those poor suckers who fell for the free furniture".
After we unloaded Madge, my friend convinced me to go back to get the love seat that was also on the side of the road. The two of us stood at the side of the road for about 10 minutes trying to fit the love seat into the back of my car before realizing my back seats folded down. Is there anything a Mazda 323 '89 doesn't do? Anyways, we proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how to make this work and then I looked towards the house and saw something I didn't expect to see...the owners FILMING us trying to put the coach in. At 12 AM. I'm still looking for the video on youtube. We headed back to campus again with the trunk open, MWS blaring and half a couch sticking out the back of my car*. The security guard stared at us speechless this time. The third time I tried to come through the security gate with that couch in a car, they pulled me over and refused to let me in...but that's another story for another time.
Multiple times throughout that experience, I asked that question, "how did I get here?". Perhaps it's because I don't quite think through details until I'm in the thick of things. Perhaps it's because I prefer adventure and chaos than being realistic. Perhaps it's because I think ridiculous= hilarious. Whatever it is, I love these situations and can't wait for more.
Until the next one...
*Please do not attempt this as it is very unsafe and not recommended.