Life's Little Moments ...

I ran away from home tonight. Ran fast, ran far and considered - even if it was only for the briefest of moments - jumping into the car with our bags packed to head South down 81 to North Carolina ... Because Mom's always make things better. And had common sense not prevailed (it is a rather lengthy drive) I might be somewhere in the bottom half of Pennsylvania right now wondering just how long those endless mountains could go on for. But it wasn't to be, though KC was more than willing to make the drive and was more than a bit disappointed when she asked where then were we going ...

I don't know I told her. Wherever the road takes us is where we'll be. Make a note that this is not a popular answer among nine year olds. And yet she seemed to understand that her Mom needed a moment, and decided to put pencil to paper and sketch the scenery that was flying by. Though this didn't mean that she still wasn't talking non-stop.

Yes. I ran away from home tonight. Straight into the arms of Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Into those sacred stacks of neatly arranged texts, those welcoming words that have the power to transform the hours into a world where fiction is fact. And it was a sigh of relief even though I called Brenda from the parking lot with my phone pressed against my ear as I implored her to talk me down.

"You're at Barnes and Noble's aren't you?" she asked, before giving a resolute sigh and a warning. "Don't do it. Come on over here."

The store front beckoned me. KC waited. The world stood still.

"We'll be over." I said, clicking off. Right after we go in ...

Ten minutes later we were back outside, bag in hand with exactly 4 books, 3 of them mine, 1 for KC and an impulse (okay everything really was impulse) buy of Alison Kraus's new CD. And I felt better ... I know, I know ... Retail shopping as therapy is nothing new to be writing home about and yet ...

I did feel better. Because I certainly felt better than I had earlier today at work when the slightest little comment sent me sailing over the edge of God knows what and into the tumultuous sea of nervous breakdown.

Perhaps it was the stress of the afternoon meeting I wasn't looking forward to. Or perhaps it's been my lack of a good nights sleep combined with being ill. And maybe it's an assortment of everything above and more than I'm even mentioning. I wasn't sure. All I knew is that one moment I was perfectly fine and the next I was begging someone to find me some prozac as the tears streamed down my face with no thought of stopping.

Terri - who was in my office at the time - looked at me with stark confusion.

"What is wrong with you?"

I found it hard to talk with the lump in my throat and said inbetween great big breaths, "I have no idea!" Because I had absolutely no idea. "And it's not PMS ..."

"I think you need a vacation girl."

And so I decided that this weekend is going to be about fun, getting out of the house, saying to hell with the housework and the attempt to organize everything from A to Z and just having a weekend filled with laughter and random silliness.

A little sunshine can do wonders ...