Life's Little Problems

It has been a tough day - and it's not even noon yet.

Nothing SERIOUS has happened, but just little things that upset and chip away at my feeling able and willing to be an adult. I just want to crawl back into bed . . . or better yet grab Zoe, get in the car and escape.

Oh, but wait . . . that implies I have a car that's safe to drive. Nope. I took it in for an oil change and to have them check the brakes (there was an ominous scraping sound happening when I was driving). I just got the call and it will be at least $1000.00 to fix. Ummm . . . where will THAT come from? SIGH. Thank heavens for credit cards.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back today.

All I wanted was a cup of coffee. So I vigorously scrub the months of crud that has built up on the work coffee pot, prepare the machine to brew, and turn it on. About 10 minutes later I go to fill my coffee mug and there are grounds EVERYWHERE. So much for my cup of joe. And I have the fun task of vigorously scrubbing the pot (and everything within a six inch radius) again.

I realize my problems don't amount to "rice for refugees" as a friend of mine likes to say. I was able to go get a cup of coffee on the other side of the building for heavens sake. At least I have credit cards I can use and eventually pay off the brakes on my 12 year old car. But some days these little problems seem so HUGE. Coffee should be simple. My car should work. The things I take for granted.

And of course I'm sure I don't deal well with the little problems when I'm not running. And I'm not running. I ran six on Saturday but I cannot seem to get my lazy butt out during the week for my maintenance runs. WHY? WHY AM I GETTING IN MY OWN WAY?

My newest edition of Runner's World arrived. I see the perfect woman on the cover and sigh.

My brother e-mailed me yesterday. A well-intentioned e-mail saying, basically, "I'm on track with my training." In fact, his training is now going BETTER than mine. UGH.

HELP!

I'm cranky, sedentary, frustrated, and beginning to worry. So in my search for some motivation I return to John Bingham and read this. He's right, you know. Perhaps I'm not truly a runner yet because I'm feeling I HAVE to run right now. It's time for an attitude adjustment. It's time to get out of bed because I DON'T HAVE to. It's time to think of running in a new way . . . time to embrace running for no reason at all.

And then maybe life's little problems will melt away.