Monday, June 9, 2008

THE Dairy Queen



I love those moments in life that could fit perfectly into a disney animated movie. On Saturday afternoon we were finishing up 16 hours of cub scout camp over two days, in 100 degree weather, when we decided to take the cubbies out to DQ. Let me back track a little to set up the scene...
Anna had a busy week. She worked Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Three 12 hour shifts in the ICU with patients calling to attend to their every need, even if it meant re-arranging the pillow. But it's usually not that bad. Most of the time it involves cleaning up vomit or poop. And after her day, which involves nothing more than one 30 minute break when she must cram in lunch and all personal needs (and she still calls her husband), she then has the half-an-hour drive home in Tucson traffic. For all future visitors to Tucson, beware, this is traffic inferno. In fact, I think Dante received inspiration for his Inferno while having a vision of the future traffic in Tucson, or so the rumor goes. Anyway, Anna slept heartily Monday night and woke up at 6 Tuesday to head off to young women's camp for the next three days. She was THE leader on duty, in charge of everything and everyone in the ward. The three-day stint ended with an overnight hike out on the mountain with a furious, cold wind knocking down the girls' tents. Then she was whisked home only to jump into cub camp on Friday and Saturday. Oh, and in between this, she took a midterm for her online English course. Somethings are inherently exciting in life. Online English courses are not. So this brings us back to the story's climax of my own Dairy Queen...
With windows rolled down and the sun following suit, we headed West down Prince Road (ironic) to Dairy Queen. Unsure of its exact location, we kept a lookout. But with the week in the sun, we were simply lethargic. Kind of like when the Utes battle against Bronco's Sons of Helaman. So as we and the cubs were melting away in our four-door, pontiac grand-am, our vigilant Queen spotted DQ on the left-side of the road. With more energy than a firecracker, Anna shot out her arm and yelled out like our very own Mowgli in Jungle Book would do, "Dairy Queen!!! There it is!!!." And that, ladies and gentleman, was my golden moment in the setting sun. There to my right was my sweating Dairy Queen, who has worked harder in the last week than I ever have in my life. After pulling out the drive-thru, you can guess, we lived happily ever after...
...until our ice cream ran out.