I swear I'm not making this up.

This is exactly how much the universe is out to get me.

I'm walking this afternoon to Philosophy Department colloquium talk. I need to be there, both for all the usual reasons and because I want to grab the presenter, Dr. Bueno, to ask if he'd be willing to look at a different version of the paper than the one I initially turned in, since I realized that I made a really ridiculous, basic mistake in the first version and there are after all only two papers in this particular class. This will probably be my last chance to do so before he starts grading. So I feel like I really have to go.

While walking to the building where the talk is going to be, I pass by the tables outside the library. This Impossibly Hot Girl (henceforth IHG) is sitting with her friends, *talking about science fiction.*

This being something I don't see every day, I incline my head curiously as I pass. They're talking (without using the term) about the lack of future-proofing in Ender's Game, how Card assumes the continued existence of NATO and the Warsaw Pact even after the Bugger invasion.

I even hear sf-ghetto-terms like "Hugo" and "Nebula" being thrown around casually later in the conversation.

The IHG sees me listening, and asks if I like Orson Scott Card. I say I liked Ender's Game, we go back and forth for a few rounds of friendly banter about whether it was indeed the bestest book ever or just OK, and she invites me to sit down and join the discussion.

But the talk is going to start in 5 minutes. I need to be there. With gut-wrenching self-discipline, I force myself to make my excuses and leave.

I get there. At exactly 3:30, when the damn thing's supposed to start according to the flyer. And, of course, it hasn't started yet. In fact, I am one of the first people to get there.

Which, if I had remembered every single other Department function I've been to in the past, I should have been able to predict would be just about certain to happen.

But of course it didn't remember, I didn't predict. Why didn't it?

Because I'm an idiot.

Bah.