D is for Diet Coke. 

My bestest, bestest friend.

Breakfast of champions.  I love me some diet coke in the morning, diet coke at noon, diet coke at dinner and a little night capper of diet coke is lovely as well.  (Yes this might explain some…. NOT ALL…. of my insomnia but I don’t want to talk about it.)

I will drink pepsi products if at a restaurant, over at friends, etc but my heart remains true to my first love: Diet Coke.  Its about the burn, ya gotta have the burn.  Diet Pepsi?  no burn.

I am such a connoisseur of diet coke that I used to be able to tell you which bottling plants had the better product.  (They’ve since stopped marking their cans and bottles with the area that it came from).  Just in case you’re interested…. Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa… Yum.  California marked cans…not so much.  We once spent several weeks in France (Dana was working there) and they have no diet coke unless you’re at a mainly American venue.  They serve Coke Light.  Its like one quarter to one half regular coke and the rest diet coke.  I survived but vowed to never be without my dearest friend again.

So…..
I packed diet coke in my suitcase and took it to the Dominican Republic with me.  I was in the country of Nicaragua less then 5 hours before I determined where my beautiful little friend could be purchased. I tend to carry one with me wherever I go.  Just in case of emergency.

D is also for Dana
the hubster
Budget Boy
Hubby Tech Support

You can read all about him etc on my post from December 29 (his birthday… and another D).  He’s home from work today with the creepin’ crud so he looks a bit pale.  He’s spent most of the day sleeping off the Decongestants. 

D is for Dominican Republic located on the isle of Hispaniola and is situated next to Haiti.

The first medical mission trip I ever went on was to the DR and it was the experience of a lifetime.  From staying with the people we cared for to getting stranded for the night on top of this mountain and having to just "make due" to providing multiple exams to local children while a pig (a very large pig) lie on the floor between me and the other Pediatric NP on the trip.   One man I saw had been gored by a bull (the horns only hit fat, nothing vital) just a few days earlier and was just waiting for our team to make it up the mountain. 

My eyes were opened in many ways on this trip. A missionary there had to pull me aside at one point and explain to me that time was a luxury that these people didn’t have.  Time, knowing how much time has passed, understanding ages, etc.  I was asking folks how old a child was, how old they were, etc. they didn’t know.  They were confused by the question because they had never been asked.  I never considered that just having the ability to know what day it was, that a month had passed, a year had passed, what my age was, that even the knowledge of those things were a luxury to many people on this planet. 

In one village folks didn’t even have the ability to marry legally.  Previously they didn’t have the ability to have a marriage recognized by the church, something very important to them.  To marry costs money and the ability to travel to a distant town.  These things are not available to all.  If a couple is together for a long enough period of time (and can prove it…. which they can’t) the govt. says they are common law spouses.  But, to them, it wasn’t enough.  In recent years a nun has been living in their village.  The church worked out a way to have their marriage recognized, etc. and the nun is keeping the records as well.  To marry, for these people, was a luxury.  I learned so much, gained so much.

Other D’s

My varous and assundry redneckisms (spelled probably wrong) that are said by me on a very regular basis:
Drat, Darn, Darn-it-all, Dagnabbit, Dadgum, Dadgummit, Double-Dog-Dare-Ya & Doo Dad.

This concludes the letter D.