Five Things From Thursday

Thursday was a full and wonderful day! I went skiing with several ladies at Mission Ridge and then drove to Moses Lake for my Modern Quilt Guild meeting.

Here are the top five takeaways:

• My Big Toe. The life-changing lesson of the day happened on the first chair ride up the mountain. My friend Lesa was sharing some of her knowledge about downhill skiing with me. “You must use your ski tips to guide your turns”, she said. “When you say use my ski tips do you mean as a lever ?”, I asked, because, physics. “Yes, exactly!” Well, I’m here to tell you that was life changing! I engaged my big toe of the the downhill ski on each turn and suddenly, I’m skiing fast and I’m not EXHAUSTED after three runs! We did ten runs yesterday! Ten! My big toe and my friend Lesa changed my life!
• Friends of Friends. After we exited the first chair lift we met up with several of Lesa’s ski friends. As the day progressed our group totaled eight fabulous ladies including yours truly. I’ve always told the kids that a friend of your friend is a friend for you too and today proved my point!What a lovely group of women! I want to be just like them when I grow up!

• Pet Store Concierge Service. As a science teacher with a reptile hobby and a mom with children who now have reptile hobbies I spend a lot of time in the pet store. I go there for live crickets and live mice and frozen mice and fish. I don’t buy dog or bird supplies at the pet store because I can order those online. James wanted to go to the pet store after school yesterday to buy some fish and plants for his turtle tank. We also needed crickets and a new heat lamp bulb for the turtle. At the risk of sounding…surly… I can say that if I had a nickel for every minute I wait for shoddy customer service at the pet store I’d be a majillionare. I mean, seriously! The day that Amazon will deliver live crickets and mice to my doorstep will be the best day. Do better petcosmart…petsmartaco…petwaitforever! Also this, when my eleven year old wants a plecostomus and you ask him how big his tank is and then discourage him because “those get 24 inches long” is ridiculous. Are there eleven year olds with fish tanks the size of a small swimming pool in their bedrooms? Is 20 gallons not enough for a fish that is now 1.5 inches long??? How about this petsmartaco lady, when it gets to 24 inches can we bag it up and bring it back here so we can wait 127,642 minutes for you to take it back?
• Breasts are Best! After the petsore we needed a snack so we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken where I’ve learned that ordering one chicken breast is my new favorite! Do I want the meal deal with a biscuit? No. Do I want the coleslaw and drink? No. Just one fried chicken breast. Delicious!
• Don’t Forget The Satellite Purse! I carry two purses. A purse in a purse, actually. The large one has all kinds of compartments and little zipper pouches inside. I have everything from bandages and antibiotic ointment to lip balm and hand cream. It’s a MASH unit in there! I call it the mothership. Inside the mother ship is a smaller purse…the satellite purse…that has my favorite lip gloss and my wallet inside. The satellite purse goes into stores with me because it’s smaller and more appropriate to carry; it doesn’t cause back problems. Anyway, I was driving to Moses Lake and having a daydream about a large, iced, delicious green tea from Wendy’s for my drive home when I suddenly realized I FORGOT THE SATELLITE PURSE! Hell’s Bells! I was in a flutter trying to remember my round robin quilt, my sew and tell, and my triage unit purse! I’m lucky I didn’t get pulled over!

Life is a continuous journey of teaching and learning and I’m grateful for the lessons that arise on a random Thursday!