14 September 2012

Sigh...

Today marks roughly the 5-and-a-half month mark of my backpacking trip around America. I have been blogging about it the entire time (obviously) and if you've read some you will see that while the majority of the recaps are smiles and laughs, there has definitely been some gloom from time to time too.

These last few weeks, this gloom has increased substantially... but at the very least I hope you readers can get a chuckle out my misfortune.

So... first up, I lost my prescription glasses. That's $150 wasted right there. And I forgot to pack my spare pair. Sigh. Luckily I had my spare pair back at home and my parents could mail them to me... so I guess that kind of works out.

During the same time period however my bottom lip all of a sudden got a bad infection. Sigh... none of this ever happens while I am back home in Australia, why does it happen while in a foreign country? And not just any foreign country... I'm in America... one of the most expensive and confusing countries to get medical treatment in. A $75 doctor visit and a $11 anti-biotics course later and it still hadn't gone, meaning I had to go back for another doctor visit ($35 the second time round).

It is pretty much sorted now, although not completely and technically I should probably return but I seriously can't be bothered dealing with them all again so I am going to ignore it and hope it goes away.

Sigh.
 
Now despite those two events, where I admit at times I got pretty angry and down about my terrible luck, I pushed through and got myself into a happy mood again. I would wake up with a smile and look forward to the challenges of the day, simply being thankful for the fact that I have this opportunity to be in a different country and explore the world.

Especially considering things have gone so well so far and it really could be a lot worst!

Or so I thought at the time...

This renewed positive optimism was challenged as I awoke a few days later. It was an average morning, I proceeded to go to the laundry room to collect my laundry (which is a room separate from the main house)... only to find that my big travellers backpack that was sitting in the laundry room had been stolen during the night...

A $300 backpack, gone. Plus all the clothes that were inside.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

Worst. Month. Ever.

All combined I am now over $500 in debt, despite the fact I working at a Bed and Breakfast where my room and food is provided for me thus I should in fact be saving money not losing it!

And I am just so angry because I saw my backpack sitting in the room and I was too lazy to take it back to my room with me once my laundry was finished. If only I had taken it inside with me.

But see, this is where my strange luck becomes even more strange, because luckily I just so happened to have emptied my backpack of all my valuable stuff (passports, flight tickets, photo-album, Visa papers) before doing laundry because I didn't want them to get damaged from the wet clothes, so none of those were lost (the relief at that realization was immense).

But still... it was such a great bag, and I am now down to 1 pair of jeans, 2 shorts and 3 shirts ha...

Sigh.

Who knows what else is in store.


Update:  Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse... two days after the above all happened... tonight (while a little drunk I admit) I managed to spill wine on my Macbook Pro... and it died.

Goodbye $1200...

 Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!

Why was I drinking it? I DON'T EVEN LIKE WINE!

Sigh.

So that was a fun time.

Oh, and just a heads up for people reading: trying to take a serious situation seriously whilst drunk is really hard haha! I honestly think I could have saved the Macbook if I had reacted appropriately... but having downed some wine before spilling it, thus being a little tipsy, did not help in the slightest.

I think when it happened I had a bit of a 'Mr Bean' style moment where I kind of jumped out of my chair, not really sure which way to run or what to do first, arms flailing over my head while shouting "Oh! Oh! Umm... wine! On Macbook! Umm... turn it off, TURN IT OFF!" I held the power button to turn it off, but the stupid Mac operating system simply brought up a screen asking "Do you want to turn off the Macbook?" I tried to use the touchpad to select the 'Shut Down' option, but there was too much wine on the touchpad so the cursor wasn't moving! Eventually I got it turned off, but I had fears it had been on too long already. I ran into the house, grabbed a towel, and came back to wipe it down. I picked it up and did a bit of a primitive cave man shake up and down of the Macbook with it held over my head to get all the wine to drain out of it. Then I ran inside and chucked it in a big bag of rice, shut the bag, and then sat down on the floor as I tried to get my hazy mind to realize the gravity of the situation.

A few hours later I took it out of the rice, tried to turn it on, and didn't get any response.

Why. Is. All. This. Happening!?


The culprit...

3 comments:

Tania said...

Oh, ouch, that's terrible. I can't believe someone just up and stole all your clothes. At least there should be a Walmart somewhere nearby, I hope, where you can get some clothes. Especially since it'll be winter soon, if you plan on getting to NYC, and you'll definitely need warmer clothes.

Maybe leave your computer in the rice for longer? It's bigger than a cell phone, maybe it needs to sit in rice for days rather than hours?

Azz said...

It was quite the annoyance and disappointment indeed, I can't understand why someone would do that. I've brought a new bag now... it sucks haha, is nothing like my old one.

No sadly the Macbook is definitely dead.

Jer Bear said...

That sucks for you buddy. You know what they say, bad things come in threes. But I guess you were on a roll.

I hope you manage to get back on your feet soon, despite the setback!

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