Perfect Example of Irony

As an English teacher, I was always looking for good examples of different literary terms: foreshadowing, flashback, irony. I often went blank when trying to coming up with a good example of of irony and tried like the dickens (get it, Charles Dickens?) to make sure the kids could figure out the difference between irony and coincidence. Finally, I have the perfect example so I'm sharing.

Lit a candle in the bathroom yesterday morning to...uhhmm... how do you say, mask the smell. I went about drying my hair and had to bend over to get something between the counter and the toilet bowl and completely forgot I had lit the aforementioned candle. Do you see where I'm going? My head upside down while being dried, my bending over, the candle lit. Sure enough, as I lifted my head, I saw floating droplets of fire on the counter and kept wondering, "What the hell is that?

Sure enough, I had lit my hair on fire. Now, if you know me, you know I have a lot of hair... thank God. Because now I have torched part of it. Thankfully, I caught on to what was happening and started slapping the fire out of my hair. (I think I hurt my widdle head.) Black ashes everywhere. And the ends of a wad of hair fried. And the smell. Damn, it's true what they say about the smell of burnt hair. I Febreezed the hell outta the apartment, spray air freshener, nothing would eliminate the smell. I left on my errands hoping time would evaporate the horrid smell. I could smell it in the car and realized it was coming with me wherever I sent.

Upon my return that evening, the apartment just reeked of burnt hair. My burnt hair. So it was a good friend of mine who remarked, "Isn't it ironic that you lit a candle to mask the smell in the bathroom and caused a smell far worse throughout the entire apartment?" Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Very perceptive of him.

Ahhh, the perfect example of irony.