Anecdotal value

Back when I was a travel agent I used to travel A LOT and developed a pretty zen attitude towards travel. When you travel (for work or leisure) you have to just accept the fact that flights will be delayed, luggage lost and passports stolen. It sucks but it happens, so rather than blow a gasket over something beyond my control I would calmly think of the funny and ironic anecdote I'd be telling later. For example a few years back my boyfriend and I flew to San Diego for a wedding, were stuck on the tarmac for hours in Boston because of bad weather in West Virginia and as a result missed the last flight out of Houston by about 13 seconds. Awesome. Due to some spectacular flooding all of the hotel rooms in Houston had been appropriated by the Red Cross, so we had no where to stay. This really nice guy at the counter (he must have been brand new he was so helpful) spent over an hour on the horn trying to find us a place to spend the night, gives us a cab voucher and then hits us with: I'm off work in an hour, do you want to go to Denny's? We decline in case he was an ax murderer (I was already thinking of the anecdote if we had) and go to our hotel, where we see the biggest bugs ever, I mean garbage trucks with wings (outside the room, let's be fair) and rack out. The next morning we call for a cab (which they tell us will take an hour) and jump in the shower. 5 minutes later there's a knock on the door, and sure enough it's the cab. I have shampoo in my eyes, but rinse off lightning quick and jump in the cab dripping wet. My shirt is sticking to my body I am so wet (and yes it was white, but thank god for padded bras) and my hair isn't even brushed, just knotted in some lovely possibly-soapy dreds which I'll have to deal with later. We get through security with a few odd looks, I'm cracking up and we find out that Mr. Congeniality from the night before had upgraded us. Sweet!

So, here's my "anecdote" from yesterday. I'm driving back with my buddies from the dog track in New Hampshire where I had just lost a lot of money playing poker (yes, the dog track - that subtle change in the Earth's rotation is a direct result of my mother spinning in her grave). We're about half-way home when I hear a loud BANG! CLANK! and my car starts to sound like the bastard child of a Harley Davidson and a lawn mower. It turns out that a spark plug snapped and flew off into the night. I call my uncle in LA (who works exclusively on ancient German cars like mine) for the very effective trans-continental consultation and diognostic and he tells me some scary things I don't want to hear. I take it back to the shop where I had allegedly had a tune up three months before and they inform me that no tune up had taken place, I'd only gotten an oil change. I actually had the receipt and sure enough I wasn't charged for a tune up. BUT I WANTED A TUNE UP!!!! How the hell did that happen? Sure I wasn't charged for it, but that's what I wanted. Anyway, long story short (too late) it put my crappy time losing at poker into perspective.