Interlude: Dumb Shit

(Note: please read the “Prague” entry before reading this)

Over the years, I’ve done a lotta dumb shit. “Duh,” Anyone Who Knows Me would say. I’ve had to pay close to a year’s university tuition to repair various cars I’ve driven (or driven into). I have lost or destroyed countless expensive material objects my family or I have owned. In Posadas, Argentina, I stupidly got into a cab with two drivers and got hustled down for 200 pesos. And now, in Prague, I drank too much and had to spend most of the next day in bed. Oh, and I also forgot my water bottle at my friend Christoph’s place and my dad’s jacket on a train.

Luckily, I’ve been able to afford to make up for these mistakes. But the “affording” isn’t the real problem. I guess the real problem is learning from these mistakes. Prague was not the first time I ruined my already shitty internal organs (bowel pun!) for a day. And this trip is certainly not the first time I forgot to pack something important for the trip home (I once had to pay $80 to have a wetsuit shipped because I left it hanging in our hotel bathroom). And reading this all back to myself, I feel like a spoiled bourgeois asshole - something I tease my friends for when they spend their money frivolously. As previously mentioned, I am not a religious or spiritual person, so where do I turn for guidance, since all these occurrences are meaningless and “the universe is indifferent” (one of my favourite Mad Men quotes). Well, as Ms. Frizzle points out at the beginning of every “Magic School Bus” episode, “It’s time to get messy, make mistakes, [and something else but I forget what].” So, the obvious question is:

Have I learned anything from all this “getting messy” and “mistake-making”? The answer: Yes, but.

But, because I don’t necessarily learn the things I’m “supposed” to learn. Or at least I don’t just learn that. Because while getting drunk, I could remember why all my friends liked inducing alcohol to reach that proper “nicely tipsy” mind-state - it’s fun! But it’s not for me, and I confirmed that one final time (hopefully). I still don’t know why anyone would want to get “destroyed drunk”, although I can see how it can easily happen when people are handing out unlimited shots or you go to a kegger with a seemingly unlimited supply of booze for the small entrance fee you paid. But, because I didn’t just learn “I should keep track of my things better” (something I’ve been studying since kindergarten) - I also learned that most physical possessions are meaningless. I will be able to buy my dad another jacket that will be just as good. The same for my water bottle. But are those the lessons I’m supposed to learn!?!? I guess... yeah.

And then hopefully I’ll have learned the other lessons for the last time. *winking smiley*