The Sprite I don't drink

Three times in the last 24 hours, I've brought a can of cold Sprite upstairs to drink. It's ended up getting left unopened on the side table of my bed. And each time, I've figured it's gone warm, I take it back downstairs and put it in the fridge again.

I'm a terrible drinker. Terrible. I drink maybe 40 ounces of anything all day long. MacTroll and Rogers go to Sonic periodically to partake in the Route 44s, and I can't finish them. I have trouble finishing a can of soda. I hate drinking water: HATE it, particularly when it's for "healthy reform" reasons. I get gas from drinking straight milk. I have to ice/water down juices. I'm just not a good drinker unless I'm really thirsty like after a work out or a long walk. 

I am also terrible at drinking in a figurative sense. That is, I suck at drinking the Kool-aid. I don't do things just to belong to any social circle. And if the good reason someone gives me to do something is, "Because that's the way it's always been done," I gag. Give me a better reason; show me something good. Give me something with substance that I can sink my teeth into.

MacTroll isn't a Kool-aid drinker either. I think this is why we work together so well. We're okay with the fact that we'll never probably be privy to life's answers. We're okay on our own, with each other, with our friends. We deal with major life changes as they come, even when they knock us on our asses over and over and over. We work hard to keep things low maintenance, but high quality, while recognizing that we're only human. 

This is an attribute I watch in X-man as takes in the world around him. We have so many bad traits between us. I'm glad that he's picked up this good one. I'm thrilled that he's not afraid to speak his mind, try something new, break away from the group, or take the bigger risk by loving those he shares his life with completely even knowing that if something is loved, it can be lost. 

I try not to obsess over that fact when I watch my kid do something cool. Like last night he slam dunked his suction cup toothbrush in the basketball net in the tub, it fell through and landed upright completely suction cupped to the side of the tub. His response was to make a fist and move it in the air and to exclaim, "Awesome."

Cause in that moment, how can you ever think that one day you won't be a parent any more. One day, hopefully, you'll pass on many days after seeing your child grow up and order off the senior citizen menu, too. It's just the way life is, right? A roller coaster that you keep getting on, hopefully with your best friend or other family members and ride over and over and over... until you puke and sit on the bench getting perspective for a bit by watching other riders. But ultimately, you need to get back in line and get on again. Not because that's how it's always been done, but because it's impossible to feel the full joy of life without also experiencing the deepest sorrow.