BOO!

Tonight I was sitting in my den, working on my computer. It was about 5:30, and the kids were clerarly getting antsy waiting for me to finish in the office so I could come join them for the nightly routine.

Have you ever noticed that you often don't notice when little things change for better?

For example, when you have a cold, and the symptoms slowly go away until you are well again -- but you don't really recall the exact moment when you felt better? Or when you are really tired and you drink some coffee, and later you are wide awake but you arent exactly sure when it happened?

...or when some irritating background noise (like kids being a little too loud) transitions to gentle silence?

Back to the forshadowed intro: so I was sitting in my Den, and that noise had gone from loud to quiet, but I didn't really notice. When all of a sudden...

"BOO!!!"

My heart leaps out of my chest, I jerk like I had just stuck my finger in an electrical socket, and I turn around half terrified, half furious -- only to find my daughter with her hands raised like a clawing tiger, giggling maniacly.

I was SO stunned that it took a few seconds for me to appreciate the experience. Something inside me wanted to yell, "DON'T EVER DO THAT!" But after I realized that I hadn't actually died from fright (combined with the look on my daughter's face), I found myself beginning to laugh too.

After I regained my composure, I assured Katie that I would extract sweet revenge when she least expected it. Her eyeballs got real big and the smile quickly went away as she contemplated my capabilities.

Now I wonder, is being startled worse than worrying about being startled? More on this later...