One day when I was a substitute teacher, I pulled into the school parking lot just in time to see a SWAT tactical truck leaving. I should have just turned around and gone home.
No, it wasn’t anything physically dangerous. There had been an altercation in the cafeteria by two high school students with known gang affiliations, but the police presence had all the kids rattled, which meant that the good students couldn’t concentrate, and the bad students were all acting out. Substitute teachers don’t get to just put on a movie and sit back anymore. We were supposed to deliver the same lesson plan the regular teacher would have. Teaching on a campus I’d never been to before with students I’d never met on a day when learning was unlikely to happen was challenging to say the least. I had such a headache when the day was over.
I believe the saying ‘bad things happen in threes’.
Now, before I get accused of being superstitious or worryingly credulous let me explain.
My theory (and it’s all mine) is that some days you are just fired up to get pissed off by the slightest thing - the car that cuts in front of you, your ticket at the station barriers doesn’t swipe first time, so you have to actually slow down for a split second, you go to the tea room and there’s a queue for the coffee machine - on a good mood day, you’ll laugh these off. On a bad mood day, everything minor is going to rile you, so you may as well go back home to bed, because there’s going to be more.
The alternative theory is that you aren’t concentrating or taking enough care, so you make stupid mistakes. You know those times you have a few more drinks than you should, and go to put your glass on the bench, or move a chair and THEN you realize ‘I’d better be a bit careful here - I’m a bit affected’. Well, sometimes you can have those moments where your concentration or attention isn’t right - could be lots of reasons, maybe the cause is not not obviously apparent, like alcohol - and you are going to make mistakes. So if you make two silly mistakes - like dropping your coffee, forgetting a meeting, or such - chances are, you’ll make another because you just aren’t functioning at 100%.