Day 37: Three to Five

As I learned yesterday at college, exercise is one of five things you should do daily to improve your mood, which may explain why those cheerleaders were so damned perky. I work out several times a week with a personal trainer who whips "it" into shape (I think she listens to Devo). Sadly, I missed our appointment this morning because I couldn't find my car key. I don't have a spare because it, too, has been misplaced, but that was a while ago and the search has long since been called off. I know I had this key on Saturday before we left for the city, and I thought I knew just where I'd left it. Wrong. I'm grateful (another happiness booster) that I eventually located the key after an hour and a half of turning my house upside down. I looked in all the places one might imagine -- the microwave, coat pockets, purses, desk drawer, hamper -- and finally found it outside where you'd least expect it: in the car. Exercise opportunity lost, although perhaps all the going up and down stairs counts.

The professor also suggested that we perform five random acts of kindness a day. Let's see... I did push the shopping cart back up to the front of the grocery store rather than leaving it by the side of my car, and the man who works there thanked me (score one for him), but that doesn't seem extraordinary. I really think everyone should do that. Plus I got in another thirty seconds of exercise.

I went over to my neighbor's house to deliver two pieces of her mail which were left in our mailbox. I suppose that could have been a mark in the kindness column had I not mistakenly opened one of the envelopes, which turned out to be her credit card bill. I'm grateful that she was so gracious (score one for her).

I didn't yell at the Verizon customer service rep about my cell phone bill. When we bought H her new cell phone no one bothered to tell us that it came with a free month of a navigation system which thereafter automatically rolls over to a $9.99 a month feature. Hello! My 13-year-old doesn't need a navigation system! And it turns out that both her phone and J's came with a free month of something called V-Cast which thereafter automatically rolls over to a $15 a month feature! The Verizon rep pretty much agreed that those are sneaky tricks (score one for her) and that I can expect a $39.99 credit on next month's bill. I'm grateful!

I've nailed my three gratitudes, but I need two more random acts... Oh! I wished someone a Happy Birthday today. I didn't have to do that.

And as my fifth and final kindness, how about I do everyone a favor and end this blabbering right now?