murphy's analysis

murphy's law basically says that anything that can go wrong at any given moment will go wrong. unless you just have extremely bad luck, you know that murphy's law is incorrect and is "for entertainment purposes only." but unless you have extremely good luck, you must admit that there are times when murphy seems very wise.

yesterday, i attended a workshop to fulfill my obligation to continue my professional development. as murphy would have it, there was a wreck on the freeway i was using to get to the 9am seminar, and i found myself rolling along at 15 mph at 8:45am. i haven't had to travel on the freeway in a while, since my office is in my rural town, as is the college i teach at. i figured the road would be pretty clear at 8:30am on a friday, and thus didn't allot extra time for the drive. besides, i was going to my alma mater for the workshop. i knew alternate routes.

murphy sneered as i finally made it through the back-up (it looked like no one got hurt, thankfully) to see what was causing the real problem. it was the cops! 2 police officers, smiling and laughing, had their cars sitting in the left lane of the freeway for no apparent reason other than they were being lazy. the last car had been towed away. the witnesses were pulling back into traffic. but murphy egged those cops on to pep-talk each other about the astros, or whatever else 2 men in uniform could be so enthusiastic about after witnessing a traffic accident.

the flow of vehicles finally picked up and i made my way to the university. i took the very familiar exit and then...wtf? i felt like i had been transported into bizarro world! see, back in the dinosaur days when i went to this school, it was run-down and resided smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood that you would not want to drive through at night. but before me was a brand new, state-of-the-art glass and marble building boasting the words "recreation and wellness center." there were construction cranes on every corner. the peeling signs in front of the dilapidated buildings were scraped clean, and some of the buildings were even torn down. i didn't know where to go.

to make a long story short, i eventually found the proper parking lot and building, but felt discombobulated all day. i guess murphy had had enough of me because the ride home and the rest of the day was uneventful. but he* can be a little imp when he wants to be!

* i assume murphy is male because 1) who would name a girl "murphy"; and 2) women are not this evil