Thursday thirteen things I've learned this week

1. When you send a good bear to school, he just might come home as a ninja.
2. One day, a kid will go to the school lunch line with the choice of mini corn dogs that he knows he likes or a lunch lady made hot pocket with egg, cheese, and bacon.  And even though he knows he doesn't like eggs (even though he's never tried them), he will pick the egg option and discover he actually likes them.
3. On that same day, that kid's parents will learn of said choice and rejoice with an astonished conversation over the phone and rounds of hugs once everyone's home.
4. Later that day, those same parents will laugh at the fact that they never thought they'd be celebrating over someone finally choosing to eat eggs.
5. As crappy as the insurance system in the US is, a good doctor is invaluable.  I have found an excellent rheumatologist who listens to me when I tell him something isn't right.  And for that, I am super thankful.
6. Stepping on the doctor's scale after 2 weeks of a wheatless-dairyless life isn't so scary. Almost enough incentive to keep on with this.  (Then I eat dairyless cheese, and remember why it sucks.)
7. Which might change now that I'm back on loads of prednisone.  Which to the normal person sounds awful, but to me, is like giving an alcoholic a gift card to the liquor store.  The only time I've ever felt decent is on the stuff.  Weight gain and constant needing to pee be damned.  I'll feel decent!
8. I'm only on it until my doctor gets the test results to figure out if I am a candidate for daily self-injections, though. While thrilled at the prospect of a new medicine, I'm scared out of my mind at having to inject myself every day.  Maybe Beerman can do it for me.  He's good at that kind of stuff.  (Except watching me put my contacts in.  After all these years, it still grosses him out.)
9. Getting a passport for a 6 year old is a real pain. You have to apply in-person between 10a.m. and 3 p.m., and provide copies of the parents' passports, along with the parents being there in-person. Apparently because of the influx of 6 year old terrorists?
10. Then again, a 6 year old boy CAN make anything into a gun.  The other day, he was pretending the banana was a gun. It even had its own catchy song to go with it.  But bottom line? Everyone was dead from the deathly banana's rays.
11. I've been watching a lot of bad movies lately.  And by bad, I mean movies that are truly awful, sappy, teenage-angst love stories, but I love them anyway.  When I asked why Beerman didn't love them too, he pointed out that they were all Canadian-made.  It figures.
12. A 12 year old car with 150,000 miles is really not that reliable.  I'm afraid we may need to buy a new one shortly.  Which while that will be incredibly exciting, I hate the idea of a payment on a car for the next 3 years.
13. I kept getting notices that I was late on my 365 project.  I figured out how to stop getting them - actually upload my photos to the site once in a while.  Amazing how that happens.  As a side note, I'm tired of this project.  Some days, I just don't feel like it.  And posting crappy photos doesn't feel good.  But since I started it, I'm going to finish it.  And then I'm not doing it again.