Jump Back Jack

It was an early morning here in Philly. Despite not getting to bed until pretty late, I bounded out of bed at 6am. I was restless anyway. And it was already getting sunny and nice outside. I love getting up earlier than the rest of the city. It's so quiet and the birds are still singing, which you really don't get to hear after the 42 buses and the morning traffic gets going.

Although I did manage to send two bowls crashing to the floor, which sort of shattered the early morning calm in my apartment. There was a pretty serious amount of dishes in the dishwasher when I loaded it up this morning, so I grabbed a bowl out to wash by hand. Then I grabbed another bowl out. And another. I don't know why, but I was listening to the story about striking oil refinery workers in Nigeria, and my mind was elsewhere. And I wanted cereal, too.

As I stacked up the wet bowls I didn't realize that I was putting them on a corner of the dishtowel, I guess. So when I went to grab the towel and start drying--four bowls later--I managed to send the entire bowl-tower tumbling. I saved two of the four, one saved with my foot even. But the other two went off the tips of my fingers and broke all over the floor. The bummer was that one of them was one of my favorite big bowls. :/ boo.

As odd as it sounds, I am actually getting happier with my reaction to situations like that. Instead of flying off the handle as my parents have been known to do, I end up saying one expletive and go on with cleaning it up.

Although this morning it kind of made me smile to remember what my dad has done in the past when surprising (less serious) things have happened. My dad would say, "Jump back, Jack!" And he'd jump back on both feet, with his hands out like, whoa. I think originally it was from James Brown, but I'm not sure.

The whole thing is actually:
"Jumb back, Jack,
follow that star,
get a little further
but you're still too far."

I think it pertains to the three wise men following the star to Bethlehem, but I'm not entirely clear on that either. Has anyone else out there heard this? It still makes me laugh.