Just Freakin’ Stupid Jinxed &^%^$#$%#$%#!

(Post created at 1:45 AM of August 16)

It is just my stupid luck that for the first time in more than a week I have a really good assignment only for Lady Luck to play with me – really hard. She is probably dancing to whatever tune she set for me because I am freaked out at the sheer unfairness of it all.

I had just been assigned a good assignment – things/topics that are a breeze to write. I should be dancing with joy – well, I was, until stupid fate intervened. The assignment was given out at around 11PM of Friday night, with a deadline of Sunday noon for 20 articles of max 450 words. Attainable? Yes, very! Then why am I ranting?

The Doctor Thing

Well, first there was this thing with the doctor’s appointment. As such stuff goes, it would be about 1 to 2 hours at the hospital, waiting for the doctor to arrive or check on other patients. Well, unlucky as I was, several tests were ordered – several ultrasounds and tests so that even when I started out at 8 in the morning, I ended up finishing the tests at 1 PM. I went to the doctor twice – not including another doctor who also had to be consulted on ultrasound matters.

By the last check-up, the doctor informed that yes, the previous infection was not detected but there were problems with my system so that I have to be given a new medication because it seems that the old one (which was quite expensive!) didn’t work well. Alright. I can handle that, perhaps. Then I was told that it had to be intravenously administered – uh oh!

So, there I was at 2 PM on a bed too short for me at the emergency room. The antibiotic dripped on and on and on for about more/less an hour. With my crazy history regarding IVs, it wasn’t much of a surprise when the hand with the IV swelled – it swelled with the Dalacin medication, who said that Ciprobay would be any different?

The Internet Thing

As luck would have it, by the time I was home and ready to tackle my assignment (at 5 PM!), I realized that the internet card will expire by 7 PM! Plainly cursing now for sheer stupidity and, perhaps, bad luck, I went back to town to buy the card all the while driving the motorcycle with my sore hand!

The Water Thing

I didn’t think that things could get any worse, really. The sun was shining really hard during the day and I checked with PAGASA and no storms are in the vicinity. Good! I had already finished one website, three more to go but by this time it was already raining. It’s 12 midnight and I was on the second to the last file for the second website when the rain fell down really hard.

I was crossing my fingers that the light would hold out – well, it did, but the rain had been falling so hard that somehow the gutter in our room overflowed right into the ceiling. Well, the naturally, the water looked for a new outlet – in the joints between the wood material. Because my computer is in the bedroom (no separate office yet!), it was “hit-the-shutdown-button-or-you’ll-regret-it” kind of thing. I did.

So, by 12:30 and well into 1 AM, I was dismantling computer parts and accessories and moving them out piece by piece, all the while placing basins and clothes/towels on the bed to prevent it from getting soaked. Because there were so many wires to transfer – including those for the internet, it took me almost an hour to dismantle, transfer, then re-assemble in the living room. By 1:30, I was ready to work once again.

The internet connected quite easily – then after a minute, died! *%&^%^%^$$^%$% Just my freakin’ stupid luck! So, to vent some of the anger, I am typing all these frustrations out in a Word document – something that I had never done before because I write blogs at the WordPress space! I should get some sleep now – there is no use, really, to keep vigil and hoping that the internet would miraculously come back. I will sleep on this – but with a really heavy heart.

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Sunday, 6 AM

I woke up early despite the late night rest because I still have some files to make. Naturally, the internet was still out. I just finished some of the outlines of the articles as I thought of last night – I did that so that at least I would have a rough idea as to what I will write about, well, the electricity went out. Funny how I didn’t feel anything when it went out – I was actually expecting it to go out. I called up my cousin’s house and learned that their electricity and internet are alright. So, I borrowed my sister-in-law’s laptop and went there – did I mention that it was raining really hard as we traveled on our motorcycle? Luckily, everything was much better then, except that I will be late again for this publishing deadline! Fortunately, my “bossing” still managed to stretch her patience for me, yet again J

Sunday, 3 PM

To emphasize my jinx mode – well, on the last sentence of the last article of the last website that I was writing, the sun actually broke through the clouds and shone on me. What a really bitter-sweet moment to remind me that once again the jinx mode is over because I was done with the files! Everything went well after then – no rain, no whatever. Bobby and I went home with the same laptop in tow but feeling lighter that the jinx mode was finally over.

Jinxed

This post is long overdue. I should have written this last Sunday but because 1) I was too busy with work, 2) the electricity was often out, 3) the internet went out starting at dusk, and 4) when the power and the internet came back, I was busy again with work.

On being jinxed…

Bobby and I have this long-standing joke – or call it observation – that every time I have a deadline for my online job, something comes up unexpectedly to hinder my progress and to make my submissions late. Call it findng a scapegoat but I prefer to think that I’m jinxed.

With my first freelance job

• Back when I was still with my former freelance boss, I was using a very unreliable internet connection – we’ll call it SB prepaid, it is actually a Smart product which was supposed to give me fast internet because of it being the largest mobile phone provider in the country. Sad to say that my expections were all proven too high because everytime I have a project, the connection goes down. I couldn’t even check my mails! And to think that I am using Gmail 😦
• The power failures would also creep into the last hour – as in when I am still writing my last article. Because my deadlines had been daily, at 8 PM, it came to a point where I was constantly late in sending out projects.
• To add to the dramatic effect, my illness – mitral valve prolapse – would decide to make itself known by making me palpitate 😦 maybe it was just the stress of it all but, in the end, I had to quit that job because of a particular incident where I couldn’t meet the deadlines because I was constantly lying down – it was around the time when Bobby’s grandmother passed away.

With my current freelance job

• I still blame the power failures that the electric company brings every week. I have too many rants about the brownouts – mostly happening when I have a deadline! 😦
• My internet connection is much more reliable these days. I’m hooked up with SkyLineAccess with a grid antenna. While it was new to us, though, the crazy brownouts would come – causing the antenna’s microchip to breakdown, leaving me with no internet access for days. The Engineer was confused as to why, for the very first time in their long business career, an antenna keeps breaking down. The last time the antenna went on a major breakdown, it died. Well, I had to shell out some Php7,000 just to have a new microchip installed. 😦
• Over the course of time, I have developed new illnesses. According to a good friend, Dieter, when the creator was calling for people who were interested in diseases, I must have been calling out me! me! 😀 This time, I had to return some projects because I was hospitalized or had to go to the hospital for an emergency case 😦
• The last major event happened last weekend with the storm, Jolina. I call it really personal – I mean, what’s with Joy, Jolina, and jinxed? 😀 Anyway, we had a major rush project but the weather and the electric company decided to play with us (Lurchie, Maree, and, perhaps, my other colleagues). The power would turn off for several minutes or hours, turn on for some time, then off again, then on again, and off again, until it was too difficult to keep track of how many times the ons-offs happened. It was going really crazy to the point that I just sat near the PC, turned it on when the power went back and worked as fast as I could. When the power goes off, I chat with Maree and Lurchie but sometimes had to just text. When the power comes back, we work back…on and on the cycle went until it became too infuriating that we were grumbling with some *#*#*##* signs and crazy, frustrating messages. My internet connection actually held on through the entire 2 days of crazy brown-outs that Lurchie said were early Christmas lights. 🙂 However, during the last power off, it died, too  – leaving me with a project to pass but no internet connection. Bobby and I had to go to Scooby’s to send the articles – which I had a hard time transfering to the flash drive because the PC acted crazy and wouldn’t recognize the USB (sigh). I had to burn the files in a blank CD – glad I found one.

So, there it is – everything that makes me conclude that I might really be jinxed. Still, Maree said that I have to think positive. Alright, I will try to…but for the meantime, let me blame the electric company, the weather, and my being jinxed 😀