jackpot!

You know how when you're used to something being one way, you never even think about another possibility?

Well, at my past two workplaces (the Department of Taxation and the Department of Job and Family Services) I would keep change in my desk drawer for vending machine purposes. (Usually for pop, even though I "gave it up". But sometimes for when I forget my lunch or for dark chocolate.) About every other month or so, I would take a $20 bill to the change machine and get twenty $1 coins and put them in my cache. This method is easier than trying to scrounge around for change when needed.

Yesterday, I wanted a diet coke so I headed down to the break room. I figured I might as well get some change while I was there. Imagine my chagrin when I put my $20 bill into the change machine and instead of getting change in dollar coins (I think you know where I'm going with this) I got it in quarters. Quarters! As impractical and annoying as it is to have twenty coins rolling around in your pocket from the break room to your cubicle, it is much worse to have 100 coins. (Specifically, it is four times worse.) Okay - really it was only 95 coins since I did get that diet coke.

And of course there were other people in the room, so I had to act all nonchalant and pretend that this is exactly what I had wanted to happen. Yeah I wanted a boat load of quarters. Maybe I'm doing laundry later. Or perhaps I'm on my way to Indiana to try my luck at the slot machines. Just back off, okay?

Then when I got back to my desk I couldn't get the cap off the bottle. I tried for seriously five minutes. I had to give up and ask my neighbour to open it for me. That was pretty humiliating too. (Also, why is my spell checker set to British English instead of American English? So it recognizes "neighbour" but not "neighbor." It's a mystery.)

I think the universe is combining against me to have me truly give up drinking pop. But if that was the case, why would the universe make pop so good? I will leave that question as an exercise to the reader to figure out. I will be over here sipping pop and calculating the driving time to Wendover from here.