After carefully compiling airline miles on two different carriers, adding up hotel rewards points, and digging out the best rental car coupon, we had made it to Seattle for vacation. According to the dictionary vacation means a period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, and relaxation. According to every mom of young, very active kids a family vacation simply means change of venue.

When everybody had calmed down after a tiny altercation about the size of the rental car and who was taking up all the oxygen in the car, we did what all tired American families do on vacation. We headed straight to Denny’s. There are 1,593 of them in the U.S., the carb-loaded food is what tired parents need to make it until bedtime, and the kids get coloring books. And most importantly, the coffee is pretty good.

Enjoying that first hot cup while the kids were drawing mustaches and faces on the sightseeing brochures instead of the coloring books, Jim Brawner winked at me as to say, “We made it. It was worth it!”

I smiled back as to say, ”Yes we did make it. What were we thinking? The worth it part might take me a while. Maybe after I get some food.”

Suddenly the woman at the next table jumped up knocking her chair over backwards to the floor and screamed, ”You idiot!”

Ten-year-old Travis, with his hands in that stick-um-up pose, yelled, “I didn’t do anything!” Jason started laughing. Jill started crying.

A little boy at their table had knocked over his orange juice. The woman had disturbed the whole restaurant and made a fool of herself. The sad part was it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

I thought about the orange juice lady the other day when someone said something I could have easily taken offense to. I reminded myself that life is way too short to let something so trivial hurt my feelings or upset me. Life’s too short to panic and worry mostly about things that never happen. Life’s too short to hold on to a grudge and carry around unforgiveness. And, for goodness sake, life is too short for bad coffee.