Alter Ego

You know how sometimes you utterly surprise yourself?  You don't feel the least like yourself or recognize yourself at all.  You say, self is that really you?  It cannot be you.  Hello, where have you gone?   Who is this stranger?  I kinda like this stranger.  Hey self...don't hurry home.

I've had two such encounters with my alter ego in the past 24 hours.

The first chance meeting occurred yesterday at 3:00 when I left work very happy to be heading home to a quiet house.  T. Bone was at a baseball game with friends and Miss Bit was swimming with the sitter.  When I got in the car, I was considering my music mood but all I heard when I put the key in the ignition was my car making a horrible on its last legs sound.

Three hot and humid hours later the AAA guy arrived at 6:00.  It's a comedy of errors involving false identities and wrong addresses and being kept on hold for 20 minutes at a time.  I was ready to lose my cool until I realized it was THE Eric, AAA guy who deserves a AAAA.  That's 4 A's!  He's come to my rescue before, and I knew once I saw him that everything little thing would be all right  (That song actually came on the radio on my way home).

As he stood there changing my corroded battery, he kept telling me how this could have been so much worse.  So besides a battery installation I got a pep talk.  Platitudes on positive thinking and a glass is half full cocktail.  The thing is...I didn't really need one.  Sure I was feeling a tad irritated that my three bad things happened last week and this was a fourth I wasn't really waiting for, but it was minor.

There were many points in this ordeal that would have had me undone under normal self circumstances, but yesterday I just couldn't be ruffled.  I was actually finding the humor in it all along. That usually takes me at least 24 hours.

I got home at 7:15: roughly 4 hours and $150 later and smiling somehow.  Maybe even dare I say...feeling gratitude.

I recognized this impostor again this mid morning when I confessed to Coach that I knew upon waking today  this day was not going to be mine, but I said it with resolute happiness instead of irritated angst. T. Bone came home with four ripe smelling friends fresh after a party and sleepover last night before lunch and suddenly I was not in for the day I planned. So what did I do?  I went out to buy not one, but two slip and slides and then I made a vat of lemonade and big huge pan of mac and cheese...homemade mac and cheese!
And I'm totally OK with it.  Better than OK...I'm good with it.

I'm also OK with the idea that this alter ego may just be me altered.  a little less intense...a little more go with the flow...a little lighter, and with a little brighter outlook.