"There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe" - Robert Heinlein

Today I had a lunch meeting with one of our bankers.  I was wearing a pair of black shoes with a thin heel whose pad had been lost to the uneven pavement across the street, where everyone who arrives later than 7:00 ends up parking.  When I walk across tile or pavement, you can hear it scratch like nails on a chalkboard if I fail to pick up my feet.  But that embarrassment aside, as we were walking to the banker's car, I managed to step my heel perfectly into a seam in the cement.  Now, those of us who wear thin heels have all had this happen before and it puts a little hiccup in your step, but you pull your foot free and you move on.  Not this time.  I pulled my foot and it didn't give, my forward momentum almost dropping me to the ground.  I stopped and pulled again.  No budging.  Finally I slip my foot out and gracefully reach down to tug it free.  Nope.  So now I am holding the shoe with both hands pulling as hard as I can, making mini-jumps in my attempt to free my shoe.  On one final jump, the shoe breaks free and Laura goes flying backwards, luckily catching herself before landing on the pavement.  Super classy.  Last night when taking off my sweater I tore a hole in it.  Last week I found a hole in a different sweater while wearing it...at work.  I popped a button off the back of my pants when getting into my car.  I regularly walk around with a tag hanging out or some sort of string.  I have broken the heel off two consecutive pairs of shoes within two months.  I have lost a sweater vest.  I have a bruise up my arm from where I hit myself with the string of a recurve bow while shooting an arrow at a target.  I took a huge bite out of a bran muffin I had thought was banana nut.  That one, karma, was below the belt.

All in all, the running joke at work is that if something bizarre is going to happen, it will most always happen to me.  If there is someone who is going to get trapped in the elevator for 15 minutes in the morning with a pregnant coworker prone to panic...all together now...it is me.  And yes, it was me.