Hit and Miss

Hit: I finished my funding application!

Miss: The printer ran out of ink!

Hit: Wonderful husband remembered that he'd bought a second ink cartridge, back when he bought the last one, and had stored it cleverly in a storage compartment inside the printer. He installed it before he left for work this morning, leaving me just to calibrate the printer.

Miss: It turns out that Wonderful Husband took said replacement ink cartridge out of its careful, sealed packaging. Six months ago. The ink cartridge had dried up. Hello, wasted $35. Hello, extra trip to the mall at the last minute, without a car.

Hit: That Bus that runs right from my house to the mall, but runs so rarely that I usually don't bother and just walk to the mall? There was one coming right away, and so I got to the mall right away.

Miss: It started raining as soon as I got off the bus.

Hit: I had an umbrella in my purse, which came free with my new purse.

Miss: Said new umbrella did not pass its inagural usage, thanks to a tiny bit of wind.

Hit: Found the ink cartridge quickly, and justified the purchase of a nice new umbrella from a luggage store (I chose a pattern that's not shown: black with white polka dots). It's small enough to fit in my purse, but so sturdy that it doesn't flip inside out in the rain!

Miss: That Useful Bus wasn't going to be coming anytime soon again, and so I had to walk home.

Hit: New! Umbrella! I didn't care about walking home! In fact, it stopped raining but I kept the new! umbrella! open for the rest of the time (under the guise of "but there's still water dripping from the trees!), and it survived all sorts of wind! It laughs at wind! As an added bonus, the combination of my black wool pea coat (complete with beautiful scarf knitted by Ky and a brand new Remembrance Day poppy) with the black and white polka dot umbrella made me feel extra cute.

Hit: Got proposal printed quickly, and ended up running into two friends on the bus to the University, both of whom were on their way to drop of their applications.

Hit: Travel funding waiting for me at the department office!

Moral of the story: A cute new umbrella makes your day much better. Even a day that involves rain, wind, and dried-up ink cartridges.