Happy First Day of Spring! This gorgeous day is making me happy, and luckily this whole week just feels better already. No more whining for me...for now.

Isn't it great when you're listening to the radio and a song you love, but haven't heard or thought about in a long while, comes on? That just happened to me a few minutes ago with Dollar Bill by the Screaming Trees, and I got really excited. So excited, in fact, that I lost focus on the forkful of very healthy salad en route to my mouth and dropped a dollop of dressing on my shirt. Now I have the smell of soap tinged with vinegar and spices to remind me all day.

I loved Dollar Bill SO much when I was a teenager. It takes me back to driving my old Mazda ("The Maz") through North Bend on my way to school or my boyfriend's house. I'd always feel elated when it came on my crappy-ass radio, because I didn't have a tape/cd deck in the old beater, so hearing it was completely a matter of chance. Of course, when I did, I wholeheartedly believed it was destined to happen for me at that moment. I can remember exactly how I felt listening to the song one cool early morning as I headed down the big, winding hill from my house to school, which is crazy to me, because there are so many more significant things that are now fuzzy or put away in permanent storage.

Hmmmm. Now I am also remembering how "The Maz" sometimes refused to stop when you hit the brake--the super force determined to override any braking mechanisms-- so you'd have to quickly switch it in to neutral in a last ditch effort to slow as you zoomed toward an intersection. Also exciting in a very scary (especially the first time) and panicky sort of way. Good times.

I really do have a wonderful story to share about kayaking with the whales in Maui, and I promise to do that soon.