My Seussical Life for 2004 May 4 (entry 1)

(7) Tue May 04 2004 22:29 Fortunately, Unfortunately . . .: I attended an Enrichment Night which featured children's literature last summer. The presenter, a children's literacy specialist, read this great book that followed the formula of something good happening followed by something bad. Every sentence began with "fortunately" or "unfortunately." I can't really remember the exact events of the story, but the format was charming. I really hope I find the book someday, but for today, I have my own story to tell using the "fortunately, unfortunately" convention, so here it is. . .

Fortunately, I have an especially acute sense of smell. Unfortunately, yesterday I felt haunted by some foul odor coming from some area of the kitchen. Fortunately, this motivated normal to extra deep cleaning on my part: doing all the dishes, cleaning out the fridge, throwing out old food, taking out the garbage, moving the fridge and mopping the floor underneath, taking recyclables out to the car for a trip to the recycling center, etc. Unfortunately, this business kept me up until midnight. Fortunately, I got rid of the smell. Unfortunately, in the morning, Samuel was simultaneously feeling thirsty and independent, and he decided to take the lid-less pitcher containing two quarts of apple juice out of the fridge by himself. Unfortunately, a great mushroom cloud of the sticky liquid came crashing down and the juice went *everywhere* inside of the fridge--and outside a little bit, too. But fortunately, I laughed and didn't cry. In situations such as these, little else besides humor can keep a person together.

Comments:

Posted by Brendan at Tue May 04 2004 21:16

I had that book as a kid! It was great! If it's the same one, it involved a person parachuting out of a plane, then the parachute failing, then a convenient haycart, then a pitchfork in the haycart, and so on.

Posted by Alyson at Wed May 05 2004 05:54

That's the one!!! Do you remember the author, or the exact title? I'd love to find it.

Posted by Brendan at Wed May 05 2004 07:34

A google search for "fortunately unfortunately book" turns up this Amazon listing--it's just called "Fortunately," by Remy Charlip, and appears to still be in print. Even if you don't want to buy it from Amazon, the page should be enough information to get it or order it from the library or a local store. Hooray!

Posted by Alyson at Wed May 05 2004 11:40

Okay, now I'm embarrassed. I did search for "fortunately, unfortunately" in the Amazon site, which turned up thousands of unrelated titles that I was too lazy to muddle through. Maybe the comma is what threw the search. Anywho, thanks, Brendan, for saving me from my lazy search habbits.

Posted by Rachel at Wed May 05 2004 20:12

That is a good outlook to have on life

Posted by Susie at Thu May 06 2004 07:33

I don't know, a pitchfork wouldn't make me too happy after having my parachute fail. I'd probably already be dead!

Posted by Alyson at Thu May 06 2004 11:26

Yeah, Rach, a good outlook, maybe, but it didn't sustain me through the hour it took to re-clean the fridge!! :)