We had the big Halloween event at my kids’ school last week. My husband and I were both on pretty major committees and wow that is not my favorite thing. It was stressful, and I’m glad it’s over. But my oldest got to make his big debut as a scare actor in the haunted house, and my sister flew out to see him and spend the weekend with us and that was wonderful.

Yesterday my youngest got diagnosed with strep throat for the third time this month. He just can’t kick it and I’m starting to really worry about it.

I spent this morning running back and forth between the pharmacy and the urgent care trying to get the right antibiotics for him. I won’t go into the details of our antibiotic drama because it bores me to even think about it, but the important thing is that I succeeded in my quest and we now have a little orange bottle of antibiotic capsules sitting at his spot at the table.

So now I’m thinking about how grateful I am. I am grateful for all the wonderful medical care providers we came in contact with yesterday at urgent care. I am grateful for the pharmacist–working solo last night with a long line of people snaking around the store–who patiently agreed to send a note back to the prescribing doctor asking for a change in the medication.

I am grateful to the pharmacy technician this morning who had to deal with me on three separate occasions but was helpful and kind each time. I am especially grateful to the receptionist at urgent care who took pity on me and brought my message back to the doctor.

I am grateful to that doctor. She had not seen my son the day before, but she was willing to update the prescription without me having to bring my sick kid back for another $280 urgent care visit.

This whole ordeal was really just a long performance of Variations on the Theme of Kindness. I did not deal with a single incompetent person during my quest. Everyone I interacted with was helpful and kind and did their best in a system that is a little bit broken and not easy to navigate.

I kind of hate bloggers who are always finding the good in everything. Do not worry: I definitely did not see the good in this whole process until it was over. I would really prefer to be sitting here with two healthy kids and all my usual notions about how awful people are. But sometimes life hands you a stupid lesson and then you have to hate yourself just a little while you write in your stupid blog about it.