Its a "Small Ring" Kind Of Day

So I was listening to the radio in my car the other day - which in itself is quite a rarity. Anyway, I stopped on a Christian station and one of the gentleman was discussing a low point in his life and what he did to regain his joy (not happiness- happiness is circumstantial. Joy is something you hold inside you; also a fantastic point). So, what did he do? He went to a friend's ranch and as he was taking a walk he found a tree that had been cut in half. He started looking at the rings and noticed how some are big and some are small. Obviously the small rings were times of drought, infestation, etc. and the tree lacked substantial growth. However, just next to these small rings were very large rings. During this time the tree thrived and grew. Just like life. While life can give us times of "small rings", its after those that we are able to learn, and grow, and thrive. The man also said he has learned more in the valley than he ever has on the mountain top. So true.

After quite a tangent I have to say that yesterday was a "small ring" kind of day. One of those days when you want to go all Jim Carey on God and scream about an ant and a magnifying glass. I won't go into details but lets just say even after I thought things couldn't go downhill any more than they already had a wonderfully sweet police officer shoved a ticket in my face... SUPERB!

I know what some of you are thinking - seriously? You couldn't get out of a ticket? That's what I was thinking. I am proud and ashamed at the same time to say that I have been able to smile, cry, or flirt my way out of at least 5 tickets. I know, sad. However, when you're scared of your mother you do what you can to survive... {I know mom is just loving that statement right now. haha}

I must say that this guy was obviously having none of it. And, to be honest, I was too distrought to even give it a good performance. As I pulled out of my driveway to go get MC at daycare, I was still bubbling over the events of the day. I ALWAYS put on my seatbelt, however, today I was more focused on not engaging my own self in an argument just so I could yell at curse at SOMEONE. After driving LESS THAN ONE MILE (thats how close MC's daycare is) I put on my blinker to turn in. My blinker wasn't the only thing that blinked. Those friggin' blinding flashing lights reflected in my mirror and told me my day was about to get even better. Oh joy! I knew exactly why I was being pulled over. I tried my best to perform to the standard I have previously held myself to, but it was hopeless. I was so mad at the world and officer stupid head I couldn't even do it. To really put the cherry on top of everything though was hearing on his CB that my was expired. One month. I knew officer ruin-my-day would call me on that one too - and he did. However, I suppose he cut me some slack and just wrote the ticket for the seatbelt. Guess he figured even a half ass performance deserved some credit. Thanks. Half a gold star Jess.

But ya know, even though my "small ring" day made me want to curl in the fetal position and cry, when I got home I remembered those large rings. I had called Adam crying and said I needed to talk to him about stuff when he got home - after I explained everything he just said "well Jess, at least you and MC are safe." So wise. I looked at my sweet husband and precious baby and realized how ridiculous my complaining had been. What if I didn't even have a baby to go pick up at daycare? Life is good. (Let me just mention that at this point I decided I needed to lighten the mood and broke into song. Chorus of "had a bad day"? - check. Mood lightened? - check. Confused and slightly scared husband? - check. PS - if you ever want to totally freak out your spouse, just burst into random song pretending your wine glass is a fancy microphone. Works every time.) Needless to say, I think tomorrow is going to start a "big ring" day :)