Practical Jokes from the Universe

In the last few days, the Universe has played not just one but two good practical jokes on me. A little history first. One of the shows I love to watch is 'Scare Tactics' on cable. Its a pretty tame and silly show. Kind of like Punkd but with regular people. The catch phrase on the show is "Are you scared (they ask after they have scared the sh*t out of someone)? Well, you shouldn't be (the person either says 'why?' or are too flipped out to even be coherent at this point) because you are on Scare Tactics." Everyone laughs, the victim usually starts cursing, and the accomplice (the victims friend or family) comes out and also laughs.

I find the whole thing funny in a kind of sick masochistic way. Well, the other day I went home for lunch, made myself a sandwitch and watched a bit of Scare Tactics. As I was driving back to work, I was laughing to myself about what I had seen. I was almost to work when this car which had been waiting to turn left, lurched in front of me. I would have hit it but managed to avoid it by swerving out of the way. My heart was beating like crazy. At that very moment, I heard the following lines from an old Howard Jones song:

And do you feel scared - I do
But I wont stop and falter
And if we threw it all away
Things can only get better

It didn't occur to me that the joke was being pointed out to me until later that day when I made the connection. I know, I know some people will say its just coincidence. Maybe but I think it was a pretty funny joke.

The other funny joke was a few nights ago. I was cleaning up downstairs when I thought I saw a man standing outside swaying back and forth. In the darkness, I could make out an enormous head and a faint hint of a maniacal smile. It definitely made my heart jump once or twice. In the end, it turned out to be a balloon (pumpkin head for halloween). Ha! Another good one.

Here is to my favorite holiday...Halloween (which I will miss this year because I will be in class). Rats!