Vending Machine 1, Brooke Zero

So today was my third day of college.  It was pretty good- my psych classroom got moved and my chem lab got out super early- but I'm not going to talk about any of that.  No, I'm going to talk about the school vending machines.

First thing you should know is that I'm addicted to Nestle Crunch.  I don't know why, but I just can't get enough of the stuff.  I like pretty much every kind of candy bar, but there's just something about Crunch.  So today, I discover that my school's vending machines have crunch bars: I have already gotten three, and will probably weigh 300 pounds by the time I end freshmen year.

But that is not the reason I am ranting about the school vending machines.  See, I went to the same machine each time, and I am now half convinced that it is evil, or possessed by some sort of vending machine gremlin.

First time I went to the vending machine; nothing happens.  I put in two dollars, it gave me my candy bar and seventy-five cents back.  I left happy.

Second time I went to the vending machine; Highlight of my day.  Someone put an extra quarter in the vending machine and didn't take it back, so I only had to put a dollar in.  I leave thinking that I've won a small victory over life, and who needs to pick up pennies for good luck(I had seen a penny on the ground earlier that day, but didn't pick it up)?

Third time I went to the vending machine: it got its revenge.  I decide to be smart and give it exact change, because now I have quarters and can do that.  It doesn't take my quarter.  I examine the quarter, find nothing to explain why the machine didn't take it, so I try again.  It still doesn't take the quarter, so I try a different quarter(I have three).  It doesn't take either quarter.   Since its not taking quarters for whatever reason, I decide to just put in two dollars, because I'm hungry and I want my candy bar.  So I put in two dollars, it gives me my candy bar, and guess what?  It stiffs me fifty cents by only giving me one quarter back!  Well, technically it was only twenty-five cents, but still, that vending machine owes me twenty-five cents!  The only explanation I can come up with is that this is all part of an elaborate bait-and-switch con concocted by they vending machine to rob college students blind.

So I started this while I was still at college, waiting for my dad to pick me up.  Now I am at home, eating chicken enchiladas, and I have discovered another way I have inadvertently scammed myself out of my own money; I bought to biology lab manuals.  The manual is loose leaf and printed by the school, so when I went to buy my books online, they had it on back log without a price.  I added it too my cart and forgot to take it out.  Then, yesterday, I bought a biology lab manual along with my chemistry lab supplies.  Guess what came in the mail today?  A second biology lab manual!

The solution seems simple; just return the lab manual I don't need.  But some sort of cosmic force hates me, so nothing is that easy.  Because the manuals are loose leaf, you can only return them if the shrink wrap hasn't been opened(to make sure none of the pages are missing).  I already put the first one in my binder.  The second one came with the shrink wrap broken.  This is literally the noise I made when I realized this: skiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.  Apparently, this is my frustrated noise.  So how has the universe scammed you today?  Feel free to share.  If the universe does not scam, you, please share your secret to making life not hate you.