Twenty-buck Happiness

I once wrote a short story that I could never reconcile called "Twenty-buck Happiness".

It became a joke in my undergrad creative writing class-- the title that is. The guys in the class were eager to get my story for critique because they felt certain it would be about a blow job.
It wasn't.
And it was sort of hard to go back and edit after learning that what the title conjured in the mind was some sort of jack shack plot.

At any rate, my story, was about this guy who went AWOL and with $20: bought some fabric and made a dress and stole a moped and wore a football helmet (a la Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider) to drive from Utah to Minnesota to give the dress to the love of his life and propose marriage. Little goofy, I know, and I won't tell you how it ended.

But I will tell you the story was drawn from family lore that I borrowed greatly from. And, imagine that. Here I am calling you out, uhm Vinton-- should you be reading-- to tell what the true story is. . .

I don't know guys, maybe that one involves a blow job . . .

Anyway . . .I am having a better week. Back to feeling like myself and for the past 2 days I have gotten shit done. Some of you may recall that I was whining here about how I miss the Nat that gets shit done. Tentatively, she seems to be back. I am feeling less like Atlas who shoulders the world on his back and more like a DJ diva that spins it. I most definitely prefer the diva. She's got dance hits.

This is not to say there still isn't this huge mountain sitting in front of me stacked high with financial woes and emotional roadblocks-- not to mention some mild injuries-- but I just feel stronger about scaling and conquering it than I have for the past few months--well, I should say that at least for today I do.

And hey, things have to be looking up.
You see, I found $20 bucks on the sidewalk this afternoon!
I feel like the universe is saying: yeah, I'm sorry I've been robbing your ass for the past few months. Please accept this small token as an apology and know that things are going to get better.

Okay, yeah, I know; I am reading way too much into 20 bucks-- But people, I'm that desperate for any kind of positive sign.
And hey! It's 20 bucks.

So, running this week is going better. Yesterday I ran 6 outside in the morning and then did a 5k speed workout at the gym and then did a full workout of weights: arms, legs, back, abs-- the whole Nat and caboodle.
Today I ran 10 outside and it wasn't easy because it was cold and windy and my ass was numb but I got it done.
Later, I even took the kids and Lola for a walk at "the trail". Then we indulged in hot chocolate at Starbucks.
So it was a good day.
Tomorrow I hope to do 6, maybe 10 again if I'm feeling good, and then 20ish on Thursday and either rest, cross train or 4 on Friday and then 13-15 on Saturday.

I am of course, hesitant about this optimism: but what the heck, I found 20 bucks.