Welcome, the Ides of March
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 11:51AM 
I once had a bad(ish)-but-in-a-funny-way Ides of March. March 15th fell on a Saturday my junior year of college. The details now are a bit hazy (as some of that time period is) but basically I left a party early because I had to get up for work at 7am on Sunday (I worked at a drugstore), only to be woken by a dorm fire alarm at 3am, still feeling the effects of the party I had been at earlier. (NB: If you didn't go away to college, you have to imagine that middle of the night fire alarms are a common, but still annoying occurrence. You get up, in your pajamas, wrap yourself in your blanket, and go stand outside, all bleary, with your friends until someone tells you that you can go back in. On a night like this, you'd spend the time outside convincing your friend, no, you cannot go back to the party; you need to sleep for work.)
Then, after work the following day, I typed out the whole funny story for friends - except I ended up mistyping one of their email addresses and sent the whole tale to a very staid and nerdy classmate, who wrote back to let me know and thanking me for the laugh. I avoided her for a week. (Or more than I usually did. She was the type of nerdy that looked like it didn't shower regularly, not the cool kind of nerdy.)
Okay, so anyway, it wasn't a terrible Ides of March. But, you know, having to get up at 7am because you have to walk two miles to work by 8:30am on a Sunday as a college student is bad, period. It was for me, anyway. The cheery part was that Mike (best friend and thrower of said party I left early) got up early and drove me to work (and picked me up and took me out for coffee after my shift ended). He's always been a great guy.
So I never fear the Ides of March - if anything, it makes me look for the funny little things that go wrong. So far today has been fine. The only issue has been someone practicing their drumming on the other side of the wall of the library/tutoring center I work at. Yes, seriously - drumming. I called to complain and they said it must be the Verizon guy doing work. I told them that he should be complimented on the rhythmical nature of his work as well as his excellent cymbal use, then.
I know drumming when I hear it, people. 1 - I've been to a zillion concerts. 2 - My brother-in-law is a drummer. 3 - Who doesn't know the difference between drumming and telecom work????
Thanks, Ides of March, for that frustrating chuckle.
But a stranger today gave me an odd look when I told him I've been driving for almost 20 years. He said, "You cannot be older than 24 or 25." "34, actually - so, driving 17 years." "I would never think that. Good for you!" So, Ides, seriously thanks for that. Feeling young and springy now.
Reader Comments (3)
i must be a loser, i never really heard of the "ides of march" before. i must have lived under a rock (eating of course!) all this time.
thanks for the giggles and i don't think my feet would be hitting the ground if someone told me i looked 10 years younger. :)
It's a Shakespeare thing (Julius Cesar) so we English major nerds have to know it. :)
Yeah I've heard of the ides of March but never really taken the time to figure out what that meant. I've read a lot of Shakespeare, but not that play, I guess. I will have to add it to my list of things to read!! :)
Funny story, btw. I can empathize. We once had a dorm fire drill that turned out not to be a drill, and we had to wait outside in the snow for 3 hours while the fire department came and investigated a faulty wire than had not, in fact, caused a fire; it only looked suspicious. Sigh...