today, I was inspired by a pigeon...

Back to school leaves very little time for blogging.... I still owe you a little more of the Ohio trip.... in the interim this will have to tide you over....

So after a bit of a long and unusually hot day, I found myself on the way back to my apartment.  Class had gone well, but I had intended to stop at the Urgent Care to see if they could do something about my sinuses.  It took three unsuccessful trips up and down on the elevator for me to realize the Urgent Care was no longer where it had been before I went home for the summer. Well actually it took someone watching as I pushed Floor 3 several times with nothing happening to ask if I was lost, then direct me to the front desk with the new location of the Urgent Care... Turns out it had moved several blocks.

As that plan went up in smoke, I gave up, went back to school to fill out some paper work, grabbed a few necessities from Walgreens along with some take out from New Mings, and made my way to the school shuttle stop. Yesss, I could have walked... but it was another ten blocks and it was hotttt, so I succumbed to the air conditioning of the shuttle.  Well... I thought I was succumbing to the air conditioning of the shuttle, but once I actually got on and made my way to the only available seat way way way in the back, and sat down, I realized there was no air conditioning.

I finally made it to my stop and was quite eager to get home, when I came across a one footed pigeon hopping along on the sidewalk.  Believe it or not, this pigeon appeared happy.  I know how crazy that sounds, but it was with other pigeons doing pigeon things and it wasn't letting the fact that he or she only had one foot get it down.  I'd like to say I stopped and helped it out, but I was partly in shock and partly fascinated. I did stop myself from taking a picture because I felt that would be crossing some sort of line and definitely not respecting the pigeon.

I know we all get annoyed by pigeons.  I have this one particular memory of being in Disney with my family. Although the details are hazy, I can picture my grandmother's ice cream bar suddenly missing a large portion in the shape of an upside down triangle.  So that was traumatic for everyone involved.  However when you really think about it, I mean really, really think about it, we have it way better than pigeons and we shouldn't be so harsh with them.

And like my pigeon friend, who I've since decided was a male and have named Gus, it is important to not let the big things or the little things stop us from enjoying our lives.  The minute you start thinking about how you're having a bad day, remember there is someone out there having a worse one but making the best of it anyway.

I said before, I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of Gus, but I have since googled a picture of a footless pigeon (well technically this one is missing a leg too), just so you can get an idea of what the little guy was dealing with on the sidewalks of San Francisco.

Xo,
Lauren

just because it’s illegal, doesn’t make it a bad idea!

Disclaimer #1: Don’t get to excited by the title, no jail worthy crimes were actually committed.

Disclaimer #2: This is only Part I, even if you don’t find it interesting you have now committed yourself to sticking around for Parts II & III.


So without further ado..

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it” and as they say, life is what you make of it. It can be enjoyable regardless of whether you’re at a private celebrity packed post Oscar party or a ten hour car ride with your sister.  In the interest of not hurting anyone’s feelings I am not going to reveal which one I’d secretly rather be in attendance for :)

Two weeks ago I drove my sister, Nora back to Ohio for her senior year of college. Wellll, technically SHE drove us :) The drive went by too quickly and we literally counted down, by the mile, to the official end of our summer vacation.  After a couple stops and a bit of traffic, our seven hour car ride quickly turned into ten and yet still seemed not quite long enough.

We headed out Friday around noon in the King Ranch (courtesy of our dad). Skies were blue, country tunes were playing on The Highway on Sirius XM, and the navigation system had our complete trust (but only after we realized it wasn’t taking us in a circle as we had originally thought).


After stocking up and spending five minutes wondering why a guy would need to bring a horse to a gas station, it was time to return to the open road.  “We” drove on for a couple hundred more miles and sang out of tune to a few dozen more songs before we hit stand still traffic. Solution: abandon the thruway for the back roads!

Side note: When traffic started to slow down, we passed this ridiculous woman in the picture on the right.  She was texting like she was on the floor at the stock exchange handling millions of dollars, not driving her car on a jam-packed thruway!!!! The semi behind her kept having to hit his breaks, so of course I needed a few snapshots! Strike one for humanity.



Attempt one of "abandon thruway" failed as by the time we illegally rode the shoulder to the exit, traffic had picked back up and we changed our minds.  Unfortunately we were tricked and just on the other side of the overpass we hit worse traffic than before.  What to do? We just passed the only exit for the next several miles and we were moving at a rate of one five feet every ten minutes. Solution: Ride the other shoulder illegally to make an illegal u-turn through the grass, all the while keeping our fingers crossed that there were no cops lurking nearby.  And if there were, the car that did it ahead of us would be the one to get caught!

Operation “turn around” was successful and we finally had the opportunity to make Rodney Atkins proud by ditching the “backed-up traffic” to “tear down some two lane country" roads.

After miles of farms, charming no name towns, and several more strained vocal chords, we returned to the hustle and bustle of the thruway, with just a little over two hours left to go.

So back to my issues with humanity. I’m saddened the way people are trying to take God out of this country. Thank goodness He sticks around regardless :) My point is that humanity redeemed itself ever so slightly when we saw the below sign standing proud next to the thruway.

But as the saying goes, “The Lord giveth and He taketh away”... and humanity has some more work to do because this is what we saw next:

How is THAT not a seat-belt violation?  Strike Two!

This part of the story ends with us arriving safely at our destination, unpacking half of the car, and sharing a pizza before crashing in our hotel. Stay tuned for Part II which includes a retina damaging picture from Walmart...

Happy Labor Day!

Xo,
Lauren