Things That Piss Me Off

(RIP, GC)

Minivans
Laziness
Diet soda
Stupid little import cars with on-purpose loud exhausts
Thistles
Slow drivers
Teenagers who borrow the car and don't put the damn seat or mirror back the way they belong.
Whining
Sleepy goobers in my eyes
Toilet paper "under"
The fact that so much of my hair falls out every day
Cold coffee
E-mail and text message forwards that promise gloom and doom if you don't forward to x number of friends
Whining
Gray hairs
The dry cleaners van that was supposed to deliver Scott's uniform shirts a couple hours ago
Dust bunnies (although here, they're more like dust sheep)
Whining
Crooked or misplaced throw pillows on the couch and loveseat

I'll continue to update this list until I regain the good nature to write another post.
:-)

A really great day

Kids and I had a stellar day today, checking out the wonders to behold at the May Museum of Natural History and the Space Exploration Museum of the same proprietor... The tropical bug and creature collections at the Natural History museum were pretty cool, and pretty creepy at the same time (who knew, a beetle so large it would knock a man down if it flew into him).  The space museum, well...Kyle found it "super cool" and I found it to be three musty trailer houses full of a loony old man's space posters and old newspapers.  To each his own, I suppose.

We hit the coolest place for a treat before we came home - Squeak Soda Shop, across town, is a joint that makes their own flavored soda pop, whatever color you want it, with regular old sugar syrup and some pretty interesting flavors (one day I might gather up the guts to try the cucumber or the buttered popcorn, but I think the lavender won't make it onto my taste menu).  They have food too, and ice cream, and rows and rows of bins of candy they sell by the pound.  It's kind of a funky Candy-Man-from-Willy-Wonka kind of place, and Kyle was in seventh heaven because he got to play Wii in between sips of his float.

The combinations we tried were as such:  Kyle had blue-colored Black Cherry soda over Death by Chocolate ice cream.  Yum.  Ugly but tasty.  Hayley had yellow-colored marshmallow soda over cookie dough ice cream.  Tasted good, but smelled fabulous and even made the house smell yummy for a couple hours when we brought half of it home.  And I had raspberry soda (red colored, how pathetically normal) over jamaican coconut ice cream.  Yummy too.

We came home, took a sugar-coma nap, and then after dinner went over to the stadium to see the post-game fireworks show; laid in the back of the truck with blankets and a whopping bowl of fresh buttery popcorn and mexican cokes.

And now - it's bedtime - we're getting up an hour before the crack of dawn so we can venture down to the Colorado Springs Balloon Classic.  

Random things that make me smile

So I saw something interesting happen the other day. I was driving, not in the greatest part of town, and pulled up to a stoplight behind several cars. Two cars ahead of me was a small car full of teenagers, and the passenger door of that car opened and a young man got out. He looked like trouble, plain and simple, every bit a young thug, and I watched with curiosity as he moved around the front of the car he'd gotten out of and toward the driver's window of the car in front. Now granted, maybe I'm cynical and jaded from too much time caring for the underbelly of society - but I assumed he was up to no good. Imagine my pleasant surprise when he made eye contact with that car's driver, then moved back a couple of steps and replaced the car's fuel cap and closed the little door. It made me smile.

Ran across a picture I took a few years ago, after I'd climbed the Incline and was running down the Barr Trail...

and it reminded me of Christy's pictures of her feet.

And I've been thinking about how lucky we are to know some of the people we know. We went out for sushi and gelato with some dear friends the other night, and I got thinking about how much we adore this couple, how we would do darn near anything for them, and how we've come to learn we can expect the same from them in just the relatively short time we've known them. N&E, we love you guys and appreciate your friendship more than we can say.

The ER has been unusually busy lately, which is kind of a refreshing change from the slow past month. Good job security for both of us, it's true. But a smattering of minor events, both involving patients, visitors, co-workers, etc...give us cause to question our motives and occasionally despise the human condition. And nearly every shift, a reason to laugh, and to feel fortunate.

The weather is cooling off, I'm wearing a sweater and jeans today, and I want to throw a little tantrum: Summer, I'm not finished with you yet, don't go!!!