So, the other morning I’m scrabbling along in my usual rushed way when I open the door to my tiny studio/office closet and find water dripping steadily from my upstairs neighbor. And I did that doubletake that I always do when I believe for the briefest of seconds that another reality is there if I just look on another direction. Like when I was in college and got the wrong suitcase from the airport. I opened and shut that thing at least three times before I finally admitted the contents were not going to change. Very silly.

Anyway, several expletives later, I am on the phone getting after-hours maintenance to come and stop the leak. Two sketch pads have soaked up hours of water. Several of my son’s drawing are wet blurs. The expensive art paper that I’d found on sale was rippled. The portable DVD covered with water. Pens in puddles. Chair wet. Throw rug soaked.

My son is fascinated and immediately stops arguing with me (before I opened the closet he had refused to get dressed for school). My son thinks about crying but I pick up one of his drawings and while water runs off of it, I say, “Hey, look at how the colors mixed together. It’s so pretty!” He grudgingly agrees, and then I drag him with me upstairs to try not to kill my neighbor. She is shocked, SHOCKED, anything is leaking.

Anyway, maintenance comes, son gets dressed, I speed to work because I’m now forty minutes late for our meeting and I haven’t preped for class, and ten minutes later I find myself crying in the teachers’ room. I mean, I know it’s not the end of the world, and no major projects were lost, and my laptop (thank you all powers that be) was not on my desk, and though I shouldn’t spend money on new sketch pads, they are replacable (and the DVD player still works), but there I was, crying at work.

I am not a person who cries at work. I hate crying in front of other people. There are some ex-boyfriends who’ve torn out my heart, but I was going to be damned to let them see me cry. But there you go. And now I’m writing about it. I hardly understand my motivation sometimes…

But my coworkers were nice about it and one teacher went and got my class started for me, and in ten more minutes all was well. But oh, that invasion of space–fate ruining pictures and pens. Just like that. A reminder that sometimes, no matter what you do, a dribble of water can mess with your world. I think we get so obsessed with being safe–baby proofing, dieting, exercising, warning, warning, warning, we forget that things still go wrong. I know this. I’ve learned this lesson before and many times over…

Over at MommaZen, she’s mentioned trust. I think I trust more than I don’t. But I often trust that someone will do their best, and still, life happens. Things won’t always work out, and it won’t have anything to do with how much trust in that person. Things go wrong.

Here’s hoping for the best for everyone out there…