A gorgeous slab of awesome taken off a chunk of "Whoa"

Made you look!  ok..  So I haven't anything specific today to talk about.. just kind of letting the letters fall where they may.  But then..  rarely do I have anything specific to talk about..  eh.. devil in the details..  This past week was a pretty good week.  Which makes me concerned..  I do better in stress and difficult situations.. I know that doing that tears me up physically, mentally and emotionally..  but I have trouble trusting when things are going too well..  It is that whole "Ok.. this was easy... too easy..." and then THWAP... poison dart into the side of the neck.. THUD..  end scene as a heap on the floor..  Perhaps that is why I tend to stir things up.. I need something to figure my way out of.. or find a way to fix something..  Such an attractive quality, eh ladies?  Fortunately, I have a VERY patient wife who has a gunslingers speed in popping the "Quit being a dumbass" bullet into me..  I love her for that. 
So anywho..  Though I am a very young at heart guy... (sometimes to a fault)..  I have been in some situations that have made me realize.. I don't pass as a young hipster..  (just by saying that.. I am proving my point)  I went with Rach after a date to a coffee shop on Denton Square..  we walk in and it is filled with a people..  (though not a ton of variety of people)  It was your high school artsy kids (there because they can't get into a bar or buy those fancy clove cigarettes..)  and the studying college student with his pc based laptop..  and then the granola munching mid -20s douches and douchettes working with an air of contempt on their macbooks..  and then there was Rach and I...  the coffee bar is a looooong skinny rectangle...  the entrance is on one end and the coffee purchasing area is on the faaaaar other end..  So..  here we were.. walking this gauntlet of people who are staring at us like we are some alien life forms who have walked in on the middle of a dinner party.  Had there been a record player..  the needle would have scratched across the vinyl.  I started to sweat and pulled Rachel to walk faster down the corridor of judgement.  I had the sudden, nauseating realization that perhaps..  just maybe... I wasn't the coolest guy in the room..  it made my knees weak..  We pushed forward to the coffee maker stand..  hours had passed it seemed.  There was no line.. so we walked up..  me being stooped over from the pilgrimage across the self-realization valley of dread.. I did not see at first what was in front of me..  A frikkin, honest-to-God Viking..  Thor was my creator of caffeinated ambrosia..  I kid-you-not..  this guy was 6 foot 87 inches..  more broad than two Me's..  long blong hair and a blond beard.  And then Thor says (and as he opens his mouth I wait for an echoing of thunder) "Hey guys.. what can I get for you today?" with a big happy, doofy.. possibly baked grin..  You could have knocked me over with a feather at this point.   I mumbled something about how the God of Thunder gig wasn't working out with the economy.. he looked confused.. but still happy... So I spoke up and ordered Rach and I a couple of Latte' drinks .. TO GO.  He happily took out order and started making our drinks..  and to top it off.. Thor made shamrock emblems out of our foam..  So we went back through the gauntlet of judgement..  and they looked as relieved about us leaving as we were about leaving.  We got to my car and buckled in..  and started laughing.. Ugh.. we used to be cool.
On Tuesdays nights..  we have family night..  We go out to eat..  everyone in the family as a turn in picking the restaurant.  Afterwards, we go grocery shopping together..  Me, Rach, Chloe, and Sammie..  It is family time together..  We like it.. it is something to look forward to.  Well..  the other week..  It didn't work out for whatever reason.  I had to go shopping during the middle of the day on Tuesday.  ( I am off on Mondays and Tuesdays) .  So, I drove to Kroger Signature in Denton.. I started shopping..  Now..  anyone who knows me... knows that I can be comfortable in most situations..  I adapt well... have a chameleon-like personality.. and have the annoying habit of picking up the dialect and speech patterns of people I speak to immediately without realizing I do it.  For some reason... Kroger made me lose my cool..  all of a sudden I couldn't make eye contact with people..  I got antsy.  I headed over to produce.. it was crowded.. but I have to follow my list completely.. I soldiered in.  I don't have the layout memorized for the produce at this store, so I am going back and forth..  there were an inordinate amount of the motorized chair baskets in there..  .. and most of the good produce was at higher levels..  Usually.. I am helpful and will assist people in need..  These people for whatever reason seemed like hostile little trolls in go-carts today..  I wasn't about to step on that landmine..  so I would weave and speed past them.. back and forth due to prior mentioned non-familiarity with the layout all the while craning my neck back and forth like a frikkin loon to avoid eyeballing the tubby troll motorized basket biker gang.. My hair was standing on end on the back of my neck..  my hackles were up..  My mouth was dry..  I said "Screw it!" to the cucumbers on the list due to the high concentration of basket trolls...  and heading up and to the right to place me on the dairy/ meat aisle.  I headed towards meat and saw this push-basket moving seemingly on its own..  That did not help my freak out at all..  as I got closer.. with a sack of oranges in hand in case I needed to wing it at whatever hellspawn might be moving the cart.. I noticed the driver..  It was a VERY short old lady..  covered in coats.. mega white hair.. and ear muffs..  yes.. ear muffs..  85 degrees outside.. earmuffs..  The smell of my apprehension and fear mingled with her generous use of perfume..  I moved past..  looked back.. didn't see her.. and looked forward to the meat case where I was heading and BAM..  there she was again.. asking about why the trout special wasn't still going on to the attendant.. I decided I would go check out the dry goods first that I needed..  I went past her on every other aisle.. I am not sure how she pulled this off as I was moving a good 3x faster than her.  For whatever reason, it was the ear muffs that flipped me out..  I just could not wrap my mind around it..  I could deal with her obvious teleportation skills.. and the rows of sharp pointy teeth..  (ok.. perhaps I imagined that part)  but the earmuffs..  those damn muffs.. I finished my shopping as quickly as possible.. and headed out.. I had spent well under my weekly budget and had gotten most everything on the list (sans cucumbers) ..  which goes to show that I am a very cheap bargain shopper, even in the face of a grocery based post apocalyptic universe that seemed to open a portal in Kroger that day.  I went and picked up the oldest daughter from school right after that due to me being right next to the highschool..  She was less than supportive..  She got a huge kick out of my freakout..  laughing to tears..  I think it is time she start paying rent.
So... I started back in Karate just recently.  I also got my youngest, Sammie, into it..  Sammie is an interesting case..  It amazes me how two kids with the same genetic makeup can be so different.  Both of my kids are ridiculously smart..  comes from having two intelligent parents.  Chloe is very social, adaptive, musically talented, athletic, in the gifted programs.. Sammie seems to transcend everyone else in the family in the sheer brain horsepower.  Me, Rach, and Chloe all have a very healthy respect (fear) of this kid and her mind. LOL  She has always been the one they move to classes to help the other kids with grasping their studies..  She is a fantastic artist and was made a Docent for an art show, It is eery the grasp she has of ideas and thoughts.  The things that come out of this kid has me gobsmacked.. but her hyper analytical mind has its downfalls, too.  She over analyzes EVERYTHING.  Whenever we want to try something like bike riding or swimming or the such..  she has already figured out all the things that can and will go wrong.  She has trouble just letting go and doing stuff.  If it isn't academic or artsy, she doesn't want to do it for fear of disappointing or not being immediately adept.  I am not sure why she is so hard on herself or why she is so critical of everything she does.  She does not handle embarrassment well AT ALL.  I am not sure where she gets that..  being that Rach and I are pretty darned laid back.  Anyway..  there is the back story..  I signed us up for Karate because I loved it before..  it was great for stress.. and it was exercise I liked to help me drop some of these pounds.  I knew Sammie needed something althletic to do.. to help her get into shape and to expand her interests.  I was fully prepared for a melt down.  So there we were..  she got her gi on.. and headed to the mat.  She absolutely loved it!  She even fell down and hurt her pride at one point..  but as soon as she pulled it together, ran out on the mat to rejoin the group.  (That is SOO not her style)  She had her first sparring match recently and won.  All she does is rave about it..  she practices her patterns and forms more than I do.  I am so thrilled she is down with something like this.  I think maybe that she might get the same thing I do out of it.. when I spar, I feel free..  I don't have the worries of bills, work, life in general.. 
Ok... that is enough for you guys to digest for now..  talk to you, my minions, later.