Ok, so

I have a story.

As a preface, I will tell you that I am not a very careful person. I'm clumsy and I tend to break things, and usually it's big and/or expensive things that end up broken. I don't do it on purpose, but I'd have to say it's my biggest problem in life.

A little under a year ago, say, Christmas time, I asked my housband to hang some Christmas lights outside. Which he did. They were nice for a day or so, and then the next day, I got home from work. It was dark outside, and our porch light was off. So, I tried plugging in the lights, and because it was dark, I couldn't see, and therefore I jammed the prongs into the outlet. For some reason, they didn't fit. Then. THEN. One of the prongs went in the wrong slot.

There was a magnificent moment of luminary excellence from the string of lights, and then: nothing. I couldn't tell if it was the lights or the outlet, so I tested it. Sure enough, the outlet didn't work. So we tried resetting it, testing it, resetting it, testing it, and then resetting all the breakers. Nothing. We called the landlord, and they said they'd come check it out.

The next morning, I realized that the bathroom outlet didn't work either. I did my hair in the hall (which was interesting), and hoped they would come take a look soon.

Month after month passed, and nothing happened. I got used to doing my hair in the hall, and I resigned myself to the fact that we'll never be able to have cheery Christmas lighting.

Yesterday evening, I was sitting on the couch, working on photos and watching So You Think You Can Dance. The doorbell rang. Crap, I thought. Our house was a mess. It was the fix-it guy for our apartments, coming to check the furnace filter and smoke alarm. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. I let him in, wincing at the mess, and then I remembered: our outlets. I told him the situation, and he opened the breaker box. "Just push the test button, then move the breaker completely one way, then back again."

He told me to test the hairdryer to see if it worked. Part of me didn't think it would, but I plugged my hairdryer in the long-out-of-use outlet, turned it on, and VOILA! It worked. I felt kind of silly. Nearly a year of doing my hair in the hall, and that's all I had to do?

I did my hair in the bathroom this morning. I realized as soon as I turned on my hairdryer that I began to wander into the hall, and, a thought occured to me: I don't have to do that anymore. It's a Halloween miracle! I've forgotten what it's like to be able to fix my hair in my bathroom and not the hall!

Now if only there were an easy fix for all four windows I've broken since we've moved in.... hmmm...