Wrangler Dani

Today I got up early, I had a blissfully hot shower, pulled on my favorite khakis, and threw some random odds and ends in my lunchbox. I desperately need to go to the grocery store, but in the interim I’m stuck eating baby clementines, BBQ Pringles and instant oatmeal left over from last weekend’s camping trip.

Work is full of little episodes like this:

Scene: Every-day-looking office supply room, full of highlighters and pens and Kleenex boxes. Two middle-aged men are standing, staring blankly at the shelves holding said necessities, when I walk in, in search of a pink highlighter. (Give a girl a break, I need some reason to edit stories… this week it’s pink ink.)

Me, feeling funny and quippish, fresh from the weekend and already tired of my desk: “Don’t worry, guys, the screen’ll come down in two seconds… the cartoons are about to start.”

Guy #1: “Actually, we were waiting for a sideshow.”

Guy #2, smiling at me: “And we just got it.”

Me, thinking: “Exit, exit, pink highlighter! Yes! Exit, exit, laugh, OK. Aaaaaand scene.”

Other than random encounters with creepy men, the day has gone fairly smoothly. No big catastrophes, no major triumphs, just one long vanilla milkshake of an afternoon.

This weekend a group of us went camping in the hills by San Diego, and while we weren’t very hard-core about it, we definitely had a good time. It’s the little things that make up a trip like that – Bum Steer BBQ sauce, (watch YouTube for it, it’ll be a big hit) hot cocoa in the mornings, “secret” fishing spots on the lake, endless firewood gathering, and Man-lympics, which mostly consisted of growing facial hair and throwing large pieces of trees back into the forest, accompanied by war cries.

Definitely silly. So much so, in fact, that I’ve already lost half my readership (now we’re down to one, thanks, Mom, for hanging in there,) and I feel ridiculous for even writing it down. But the truth is, we are pretty silly people after all – we’re a whole lot nerdier than we’d like to think, and the best belly laughs come from an honest acknowledgment of our own and each other’s quirks.

So I’m going to steadfastly continue to get a kick out of you… and you’re more than welcome a giggle in my direction as well. Life is just funny... and so much better when we look at it that way.