The unexpected

Last week at the dinner at Eldest's school honoring the kids who participated in the Intel competition, the speaker said something I liked. "Expect the unexpected, because even if you don't, it will happen anyway."

Yesterday we received an unexpected letter from Intel, saying Eldest's submission had been rejected because they didn't think she met the application requirements. Apparently they'd emailed her in November asking for more info, but she hadn't provided it. That didn't seem like Eldest (any self-respecting teen would freak out upon receiving a note like that, and she's uber-reliable, so I was pretty sure she hadn't gotten it), and on closer look I found the communication problem: Intel had made a typo in her email address.

Fortunately, I was home to receive the letter. Fortunately I did not have a deadline breathing down my neck, and could spend half a day on the phone with Intel trying to explain why Eldest was eligible to compete. Fortunately, as I glanced over the rest of the application I realized that the school had written down Eldest's SAT scores from when she was twelve, not her current scores. Fortunately, I found an express mail place right near Dancer's theatre to mail the submission back to Intel. I'm kind of in awe of how all that worked.

At any rate, I think we're back in the competition. Not that that is important to the running of the world, but I do feel like Someone is watching out for us here.