A series of unfortunate events

Every once in a while, we all run out of luck. We lose wallets, phones, iPods, and other things that hold value for us. We trip over steps and look like complete morons in front of seemingly countless people. (Or worse, we could fall flat on our faces in front of just one particularly important person. Say, a crush or a rival.) We sleep through our alarm clocks’ screeching and miss classes or are late for work. Yes, we all have brief spells of disaster sometimes. Embarrassing, but brief.

And then there are just really bad days. Nightmarish days when you wish that you had never stepped out of bed at all, because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have tripped over your fallen pillow and nearly sprained your ankle in the process. You wouldn’t have almost missed class because of your injury, only to realize upon arrival that the class was a free cut and that your next one was still three hours away. You wouldn’t have suffered the climbing of endless staircases to get to the particular class that you weren’t exactly excited about attending. You wouldn’t have had to live through the pain, or the far more excruciating humiliation of knowing that, if you took a look behind, you’d see a growing parade of people being held up by your inability to walk faster than the average tortoise.

Believe me when I tell you that these things happen. If you think otherwise, then you are fortunate that these things happen to me, instead. And on days like that, I just feel like crawling back into bed, nursing my poor foot, and falling asleep.

Sadly, we cannot all retreat into the happy realm of ignorant slumber when times are bad. There are deadlines to meet, submissions to make, and altogether too many things to do. This is, perhaps, even more frustrating than bad luck itself. Life won’t stop long enough for you to mope or rage about your misfortune. Life won’t stop at all.

But life maintains some semblance of kindness and sympathy. In lieu of being able to feel thoroughly upset or pissed off, we can listen to people who have felt the same way, or worse, if possible, and eventually get over our rotten luck, move on, and actually get things done. Truly, life is too short to be spent on pointless anger or sadness, but life is also hardly long enough to experience all the lovely music out there.

So, I give you a small dose of my instant fix for utterly nasty days: my Bad Day Blues play-list. No need for loud music to further aggravate your mood, right?

1) Why Does It Always Rain On Me – Travis

This is just one of the songs that makes me sigh. Sure, it’s got a relatively perky tune to it, but the lyrics, well, we’ve all wondered why things go wrong. Was it because I lied when I was 17?

2) Bad Day – Fuel

A lovely song to (attempt to) belt out when times are bad, when you get into arguments with people you love, or when you just feel like yelling it out to the world. "Had a bad day again!"

3) Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of – U2

Eventually, you start feeling compelled to find some positivity, and I find that this song always helps me get to a happy place. If someone has to tell you to get it together and keep walking, let it be Bono.

4) Yesterday – The Beatles

But if you have absolutely no intention of feeling better, you can mope along with this classic, and remind yourself of how much better yesterday was. At least yesterday, you were able to climb two flights of stairs without feeling like an arthritic septuagenarian.

5) Gravity – A Perfect Circle

And if you’re just too exasperated to do anything, well, surrender.

6) Hand In My Pocket – Alanis Morissette

The most positive song she wrote at the peak of her anger era. If even Alanis could be positive back then, why can’t we be positive now?

7) Coffee and TV – Blur

The mere thought of those adorable milk cartons is just pure sunshine.

Of course, if all else fails, you can pull out that tried and tested wild card. The ultimate feel good song, I Will Survive. And if you can’t hit those notes, well, at least you’ll be putting someone else in a bad mood.

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What are your feel good songs? E-mail me at bewaretheashtraygirl@yahoo.com