Irony Becomes Her

A Series of Unfortunate Events

When I was a kid, we had an author come to our house to make a presentation to our home school group. He read us a story he had written; I think it was called "Fortunately/Unfortunately." The structure of it was clever and pretty funny, so I'm going to borrow it for today's story.

Fortunately, we had access to a boat, a lake, and a large group of people of our own age.

Unfortunately, it was a large group of people of our own age.

Fortunately, Mikey's truck had no trouble hauling the huge boat trailer to the lake.

Unfortunately, the truck did not haul the keys to the boat.

Fortunately, after ten minutes the boat owner recalled the extra keys in the compartment.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find them for another ten minutes.

Fortunately, Mikey jumped in the car and raced off to get the keys.

Unfortunately, he didn't hear the cries of "Mikey! Mikey! She found them!" as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Fortunately, Mikey has a cell phone.

Unfortunately, he did not bring it with him.

Fortunately, Paul was willing to jump in his car and catch him.

Unfortunately, Paul took a wrong turn and caught him all the way back at the house.

Fortunately, there were clouds to keep it cool and shady while we waited for them.

Unfortunately, large drops soon began to fall from them.

Fortunately, one of my companions lent me a swimsuit.

Unfortunately, it was soaking wet before I put a toe in the lake or the boat.

Fortunately, Mikey and Paul made it back safely with the keys after what Paul termed "the most unsafe driving he had done in that car."

Unfortunately, thunder and lightning immediately followed the boat launch.

Fortunately, the rain let up shortly after returning.

Unfortunately, two of our party had disappeared by that time.

Fortunately, they came back just in time to claim seats on the boat before we left.

Unfortunately, it was a large group of people of our own age.

Fortunately, some people would rather swim than ride while the poor boat towed wakeboarders and tubers.

Unfortunately, after dropping them off, the boat wouldn't start.

Fortunately, Mikey and the gang got it running.

Unfortunately, two of the cylinders weren't firing.

Fortunately, it had enough guts to get us back to the launch dock.

Unfortunately, it has not yet been fixed.

Fortunately, I had a choice of two cars in which to ride home.

Unfortunately, I had a choice between two couples to ride with.

Fortunately for me, none of the "unfortunatelies" except the last one posed any trouble or inconvenience to me. Unfortunately, they probably were quite a bit of trouble for some of the others. But these kinds of days make for much better stories than the "perfect" ones. I think they all agree that it was a great deal of fun. And after all, wasn't that the object?

posted by Lynn @ 7:47 AM