Way better than raindrops on roses...

THESE are a few of my favorite things...and oddly enough, even the clipboard that snuck into the picture is one of my favorite things...I love the two-toned wood. So, the reason for the pic is that after a too-eventful day, a cosmo was in order. Why was it too eventful, you ask? For starters, took a professional exam thingy this morning (4 hours of the morning, anyway), and it did not go well. I knew I was not well-prepared going in, since I had started serious studying way too late in the game, but I was frustrated at how poorly things went even on the topics I thought I did know well. Checked a discussion board tonight and found I was not alone...even the well-prepared peeps were extremely unhappy about the exam. Even though the bar has apparently been lowered, I am certain I'll be back at it in 6 months. Ugh. But, at least I feel like I know where to go when I start back up, so hopefully I'll get 'er next time.

I got to take the rest of the day off (the company knows you'll be worthless if you go back to work after that), so the afternoon actually was uneventful. Did a little shopping and a half-hearted attempt at picking up the house (not cleaning mind you, just picking up). When velo-dude got home we decided he should mow the lawn while Curly and I went to pick up some dinner, and that's when the excitement really picked up. We got the food, and were almost home (within feet of the house) when I stopped at a stop sign, waiting to turn left and another quick left into my driveway. As I waited, I saw the car facing me pull out into the intersection, and right into the path of a large pickup truck. I wanted to tell him to stop, but I couldn't figure out how, so I just had to watch the whole thing in slow-mo, as the truck t-boned him HARD on the passenger side and his car spinned a bit and slid sideways, closer and closer to me, thankfully stopping about 2 feet from my front end. Yikes. Since we were essentially in front of our house, Velo-dude and Pinky came running out after hearing the big crunch sound, as did a whole lot of our neighbors. The ensuing helping out of those involved, submitting statements, chatting with the neighbors we never see, and the boys wanting to watch till both cars got towed away, lasted over an hour. Luckily it was the ONE night of the week when we had no activities or other commitments. Scary stuff. The passenger was the only one hurt, but I think it was not too serious, a hit to the head which is hopefully not a big one, and banged up a bit. The driver at fault was a high school kid, and I wanted to hug him, he was so shaken up. When his dad finally got there he was all matter of fact and let's get this business taken care of , and I felt like screaming "for the love of Pete, just give your kid a hug!" He finally did get hugs from the mom of the kid that got hurt, once she was done in the ambulance with hers.

So, now that the intense studying is over (for a while), I'm going to try to get back into writing every once in a while. I've had plenty of stories to tell, but I've been hesitant to write about my trivialities when I've got good friends dealing with some really serious shit right now. But I know that's not right, and I also know that if I were dealing with things half as serious as they are right now, I'd probably want some diversions. So, divert I will, when I can carve out the time.

And now, I think I hear the second half of that beautiful steel shaker calling my name.