From the Archives: Stargate: Coach - episode 3 (being the final, er, first episode?), circa 2009

Some Thursday, March 2009.

I saved this for last because it's going to be hard to wrap your minds around. It still is for me. I just don't understand how it could possibly happen. But the quantum physics governing handbags is just different, REALLY different, from the rest of the world of quantum physics.

I arrived at Burkle Hall on a Thursday night. I was there for an odd reason. My friends thought I was crazy. See, last semester I missed an important lecture in Quantitative Methods. And, while I've missed lectures before this one was different. Quantitative Methods is an important class for me. I want to understand the statistics that I read about in journals and papers.

Well, last Thursday was the date that the Professor would deliver that lecture to this semester's class. He had very graciously agreed that I could attend the lecture.

This semester, I haven't been attending school on Thursday nights, so I ran into many school friends that I haven't seen in a while.

I remember vivdly the conversation I had with Rose Gonzalez. We talked about how anxious she was to finish her program. I mentioned that I was taking it easy for a semester in order to reenergize myself. (I tried to take too many units last semester - it was a disaster!)

So, that's how I came to be standing near the water fountain on a Thursday night at Burkle.

You have to remember that I didn't know Stephanie. I wouldn't have reacted to her getting a drink from the water fountain behind me. Instead, while standing doing nothing more than chatting with a friend, I somehow manged to drop my purse (I now believe I was bumped by someone at the water fountain).

Never missing a beat in my conversation with Rose, I reach down to pick up my purse. Also, never missing a beat, Rose says, "Oh...don't..." and points to other items on the floor that fell out of my purse. I glance and immediately interpret Rose's "Oh...don't..." appropriately to mean, "Don't forget your other stuff". I scoop everything into my purse and continue my animated conversation with Rose.

Apparently, at the exact same moment, Stephanie dropped her keys by the water fountain (did she bump me and cause me to drop my purse as she reached for her keys?). The keys managed to be in the same pile of purse debris that I scooped into my purse. How Stephanie missed this, I don't know. How I missed it is a similar mystery.

One of the unsolvable mysteries surrounding the quantum physics of handbags.