Sometimes, things come out of left field and end up being good. Be it a movie, a book, a party, whatever. This thread is a place for those things.
As some of you may know, I eulogized (is that a word?) my grandfathers, and one of funeral services was filmed and put on DVD (I was unaware at the time). After I got over the initial discomfort, I came to prize this DVD as one of my favourite things ever. A funeral on DVD sounds weird, but it maintains an odd closeness with the deceased. Do it.
I once visited an old friend from music college, now a clarinetist, in Bratislava. He introduced me to his best friend, a Hungarian cellist, who I immediately distrusted, for he displayed all the obvious characteristics of a galant lothario.
Three months later the clarinetist was supposed to repay the visit. I was standing at the station, looking out for him to no avail, when he phoned, telling me he was on a plane to London for a last-minute engagement. He apologised profusely and told me he had sent me a "substitute". That moment I already saw the white cello case in the crowd. He had sent the Hungarian to spend an entire weekend with me! To say I was annoyed would be a crass understatement.
I was silently furious and treated my "guest" as icily as possible. He seemed unfettered and cheerily gabbed on, eventually introducing me to Hungarian music. I fell in love there and then - with the music, that is.
Long story short, the cellist eventually became my boyfriend, and I've seldom been happier than I was then. We split up when he wanted to get married and I didn't; but my affection for all things Hungarian remains to this day.
My, should I have killed this thread, too?
As some of the good old fellows from INTPc may remember, I spent a rather long and dreary time working in British hotels while I studied. When I moved to Berlin and had to look for means to support myself, I was told that one cannot work in German hotels without a three-year professional training (which is ridiculous, considering that the mental capabilities necessary to perform the tasks of a head receptionist barely exceed that of a starfish). - I was quite desperate (and once more penniless) until it crossed my mind that I might be able to live off what I'd studied, or to at least teach the piano. Until that day, that possibility hadn't even occurred to me.I put up ads with what I then perceived to be a good salary, and was run over with requests. This also marked the beginning of an actual musician's career, and the contacts I made led me to places I'd never dared dream of.
In other words, if ze Germans weren't so uptight about ze rules, I might still be slaving away at a hotel job today.
Doing my master's degree. After I finished my Bachelor's I was drifting. I worked in an undemanding bookkeeping job and did very little work. Just sat there and played on the internet most days.
I decided to do my master's degree in the evening to progress a little - but it was mainly for fun, not for career purposes but as a means of using my free time in a constructive way instead of wasting it. At the end of my first term it became obvious the company was going under. So I hurriedly looked for work. I applied for a local software house and - lo and behold - my interviewer was on exactly the same degree course as myself. I got the job. A couple of weeks later the company I was working for filed for bankruptcy.
Since then I've pretty much doubled my salary and it I've got a clear plan to achieve the things I want, including an academic career, and something like a professional existence. Not due directly to the masters degree - but simply because of the stroke of good luck at having done something in my free time that exactly dovetailed with my interviewer and got the foot in the door.
Die Logik ist keine Lehre, sondern ein Spiegelbild der Welt. Die Logik ist transcendental. - Wittgenstein
Wrong thread for me, I expect too many good things.
Originally Posted by Hephaestus
Well, the other day I found out that the best pizza place in the country is within walking distance of me.
I meet guys when I least expect it. Not that they're always good things. But there you have it.
Yeah, same here. Barely two months ago I was feeling kind of lonely and not having much to do with myself. Now I'm seeing two different people and having to turn down invitations all the time,wtf.
A badass sound system for my car. People with good sound systems filled me with vitriole, who the fuck drives through the suburbs with their music cranked at 3am? Eventually my hatred transferred to sound systems in general. Then I bought a car with a good one, and holy fuck, you have not heard all the subtleties of a song until you have FELT it through the bass. Michael Jackson is amazing! If it would get him to rise from the grave and create another album, I'd have a kid, just so he could allegedly molest it. I typically only crank the volume on the highway, but occasionally, I am that asshole who wakes up all the shift workers in the city.
I've had quite a few good turns of fortune that were only possible because of losing something I thought I really wanted. Mostly with regards to work (opportunities coming up after applying for jobs that didn't pan out) and love (meeting someone awesome shortly after something else fizzled out in a disappointing way).
Or maybe this is what I tell myself after a major disappointment, and then merge it with a positive event that happened after the fact.
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