And on the 8th day, God created the turn signal...

One thing that has been a little hard to get used to here in the great state of Texas is the awful driving skills that some people have.  I honestly hate driving here (which is sad cuz I love driving) because it is absolutely insane ESPECIALLY during rush hour.  Commuters hardly ever use their turn signals, weave in and out of traffic, and are particularly fond of what I call the 'Texas Dive'. The Texas Dive is when you are in the fast lane and suddenly realize your exit is a quarter of a mile away...or closer.  It is at that point that you glide across three lanes of traffic without so much as looking behind you to get off the freeway.  Daily occurance where I'm from.

I had a meeting until 5 pm last Wednesday, which meant I was driving home in the middle of the crappiest time to be on the road.  Houston has about 4 million people who all tend to get on the road at the exact same time, which means that the roads run to a stand still in 6 seconds flat.  There is undoubtably going to be at least three accidents on any particular highway at any particular time.  As I was making my way home the other day, the traffic slowed down to a stop and then creeped around the corner.  Sure enough, there were four cars pulled over to the side and a tow truck loading one of them up.

The fast lane was trying to merge with the lane next to the fast lane, my lane.  I let my mandatory one car in front of me in, as is standard oporating procedure.  But all of the sudden the car behind the car I let in decided they were entitled to not wait any longer.  They started to pull out in front of me.  Not wanting to be hit, I slowed down.  The passanger in the car rolled the window down and proceeded to very animatedly tell me to slow down so that they could get in.  I was pretty annoyed at this point. Then...the unthinkable happened.  As they sped away in front of me, the passenger flipped me the bird.  ME!  Like it was my fault.  I was so mad I cussed (sorry dad).  And then, I was so mad at myself for cussing, that I started crying.  Yup, pretty standard for a drive home, don't ya think?

So there I was, in rush hour, crying, and why?  Because things just didn't seem to be going my way.  

Today it was something similar.  It had been a long day, I was tired, things hadn't gone spectacularly.  Traffic was awful and despite a great chat with my padre on the way home I was still feeling a little down.  I got home and took a nap because nothing cures a bad day like a nap.  I was awoke by the sound of a text message from my roommate reminding me that we were going to go Visiting Teaching (yeah I know its the last day of the month, don't judge)  We got there and met beautiful Stephanie.  She is a recent convert and it was so fun to talk to her about her very first General Conference and things she could do to prepare.  She was so excited about life and everything that the future held for her and I just though, 'I am so glad I am here right now!'  I am so excited to get to know her better.

After that, I wanted to go running but knew that I had a million other things I needed to do.  My roommate asked if I wanted to go walking with her.  I didn't really have the time, but I decided to go anyways.  On that walk she poured her little heart out to me, and I was subtlely reminded by the spirit that I was where I needed to be.  Life is tough!  But we all have reasons to be grateful.  

I love my job.

I have an amazing family.

I have a strong testimony of the gospel

And right now I'm just grateful that no one flipped me off on the way home.