Rush Hour Zen

Good: Banana Bread instant oatmeal with chopped walnuts and a side of turkey bacon. Mmmm. Zony.

Bad: Morning traffic.

Seriously, driving in traffic is a pretty good illustration of what's wrong with our society. Everybody's rushing to get to where they need to go, too hurried to allow even a second for niceties such as yielding or signalling that we're about to change lanes, mostly, I think, because we know nobody's going to let us in. It's everybody for himself and damn the competition. We treat the morning drive like a race to the finish, much as we treat life. I'm guilty of it too, on both counts. So I'm challenging myself to slow down. To be mindful of the other drivers and the fact that my need to be somewhere is no more important than theirs. To slow down when people signal and let them in front of me. To not get angry every time somebody else gets ahead of me. Maybe if I can do it in traffic, I'll be able to do it in life. And maybe I'll be able to brighten some harried driver's day enough that they too will slow down and pay the favor forward. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to introduce a little kindness into my patch of the world, one motorist at a time.

Okay, that's a little hokey. But really. Is it going to kill me, or even significantly affect my arrival time, to back off a little when somebody needs to be in my lane? No. And it's not going to kill you either, red minivan driver.[/PSA]

***

I hope everybody had a Christmas that was merry and bright and brought you the loot you were hoping for. My haul included a Serenity DVD from Matt, a Phantom of the Opera DVD from li'l sis, and the 1950s edition of the Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book and a soft and velvety red bathrobe from my mom. Meanwhile, Matt was very pleased with the small yet badass-looking pocket knife I got him, as well as the shirts he received from me and my mom. Boy looks good in blue, I tells ya. We had a pretty nice Christmas despite the fact that he had to work that morning, wherein we hung out at my mom's and both ate until we made ourselves sick. Good times.

So this week we're all about polishing off the rest of the sweets so that we can start off the new year eating right, so that, hopefully, we'll look good in our wedding gear. Also, it occurred to me that next Christmas I'm going to be a married woman, which, huh. I don't think that's fully sunk in yet. And if '06 goes by as fast as '05 did, then we'll be married befor we know it. Wow. I should probably start cracking down on that whole wedding planning thing.