As others have already answered, searching for rules or patterns in English spelling is a futile task.
As already noted, one complication is the differences between American English and English English.
But also, given that you can argue that English is essentially a mix of German and French, at least in the roots of its spelling (or you might say Anglo-Saxon and Norman, to give it some historical context), you can see where some of the more crazy spellings come from. For instance, compare "night" with the German "nacht" and it starts to make a bit more sense.