Do you ever have one of those mornings?

Yesterday I had one of those mornings.  You know the kind that you reserve your big swear words for?  That’s right “krauss* !” …the big one.  I don’t know why I get so rattled.  I shouldn’t.  I’m not trying to cure cancer or anything.  And, to be fair, that’s what I should reserve the swear words for – “Krauss you cancer!”  Anyway, it was just a frustrating waste of time.  Here’s what happened.  I told my brother I’d meet him in Seattle to photograph some of his latest jobs (he is a fantastic cabinet maker – www.tamarackwoodworks.net if you need a new kitchen or custom built-ins, he’s your guy! And I’m not just saying that ‘cause he’s my brother! More on that later…) in Eastlake and Queen Anne.  So I loaded up all my gear, dropped off the girls at school and headed over the bridge to Seattle (in morning traffic, btw.  Krauss.) and got most of the way across the lake when I discovered that I’d gathered all the gear except my camera! Krauss! So still had to go over the bridge as you can’t pull a ‘U’y on Lake Washington and headed back through traffic to home (side note: phone almost dead, car almost out of gas and blinking for an oil change #&^!* Krauss!).  Get home and fly into the office where I think I left the camera and it isn’t there.  Panic – “Where did I put it?! “What’s wrong with me?!” “Do I have cancer?!!!” KRAUSS! Do you want to know where it was? IN THE CAR!!! I had thrown my giant bag over is so I didn’t see it.  Krauss.  Krauss.  Krauss.  Back to Seattle.  Get to where I need to be 1 hour late.  My bro is meeting me there after picking up the key for the first shoot at his office.  He gets to the office and the key isn’t there.  So now I’m in Seattle waiting while he is searching for the key.  Sigh.  It was one of those mornings.

But do you ever find a surprise in mornings like this that make it if not just OK but even worth it?  Where God is just telling you to chill out?!  It turned out like that for me.  First of all, drop yourself anywhere in Seattle and within a two block radius you’ll be able to find coffee.  Good coffee!  And I do love coffee.  So I found some coffee and headed back down to the water to wait for my brother.  My frustration from the morning slipped away as I sipped coffee and I was treated to this view.

If all the other stuff didn’t happen I would have efficiently made it though my morning without getting the time to smell if not the roses at least the coffee!  Plus I saw 4 Bald Eagles at close range.  Well, they were the same two Bald Eagles that I saw on my way back in forth over 520 but still.  How often does that happen?

Now a quick note about my bro’s work.  Here are a couple of photos I took of his work for someone who is well known locally in the NFL scene!  My brother’s company did lots of custom built-ins and cabinetry for him and his family – here are just a couple examples (kitchen and closet).

Not bad, huh?!  Oh yeah.  He’s good.

*krauss became adopted as a “bad word” when my daughter was telling me about the bad words she knew from school (she was in 1st grade at the time – before we lived in Ireland obviously!) – “shut up” and “stupid” being a couple she had heard and then she knew another one that she didn’t want to tell me.  I said “It’s OK, Honey.  You’re not going to get into trouble.  I just want to know what you know so I can explain what they mean and why we don’t say them.”  And then I braced myself.  With a little more encouragement she bravely said “krauss”.  So I replied, “Oh yeah.  We don’t say that.”