Nu-uh!

So I usually try not to sound like a hick when I speak. Not that I have anything against hicks. I do some pretty hickish things in the right circumstances, but usually only in Fool Creek. If you've heard me talk about hooding or about driving the dune buggy through a mud puddle, you know what I'm talking about. Nevertheless, I still sometimes say nu-uh. For those of you who are (a) city people or (b) too sophisticated to use language like this, let me interpret this word/phrase for you. I'm sure it has a multitude of uses and meanings like all non-words do, but for my use, it is said with the same intonation as "no way!" and is used in much the same manner, meaning either good or bad depending on the context. While my life has been largely the same in the latter part of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, others that I know have had major crap happen to them recently, so I have said it a lot in the past few weeks, wondering why people or circumstances are really sucky sometimes. As it turns out, it's woefully inadequate as a curse word for the injustices of the universe. However, it does a pretty decent job as an exclamation for items of minor ridiculousness as well as for really great things that happen. So I figured I would just give you a list of times in the past little while for which this term was the appropriate response, and you can decide for yourself whether it was a good "nu-uh!" or a bad "nu-uh!"
Here you go:
- Finding out that my dad got a pretty big promotion at work. What a guy!
- Having our flight delayed two hours when we were heading back from California over New Years and getting home at 2:30 a.m.
- Receiving a $50 flight voucher for our two hours of waiting at the airport (because, let's be honest, it wasn't really that bad since I had some good reading and Blair had the TCU game). $25 an hour to wait--I'll take it.
- Deciding that I should give up sugar and dairy again for real for health stuff. Now I just have to decide when. Hm.
- Getting tickets to Michael Buble from Blair for my anniversary. He must like me.
- Feeling like I'm 80 because my knee hurts when I run.
- Having a pretty sweet little virus this week that has forced me to live on Tylenol, saltines, and Coke and has made me moderately (or highly, depending on who you talk to) unpleasant to be around.
- Discovering a recipe for peanut butter cookies that I can finally make without ruining and that makes incredibly tasty cookies. Now Blair will like me even more.
- Learning that there could be an easier and more cost-effective solution to some medical issues.

So really, our lives have been really good of late, especially when you consider the major problems that some people have. There was a young guy in our area, probably the same age as Blair, who committed suicide a couple weeks ago, and I can't wrap my head around it. My life is so easy when there is stuff like that going on since it's devoid of major problems like losing a family member or spouse to death or divorce, having life-threatening or incredibly painful medical conditions, or experiencing catastrophic natural disasters. It definitely makes you grateful for your own problems, even if it also makes you feel like you are a soap opera when you get uptight over stupid minor things. Gratitude and humility work in mysterious ways sometimes. Some healthy perspective really makes all the difference.