I’m always preaching about inner strength, sweating out the small stuff, being positive and happy, yada, yada, yada….(seriously, I just set up this link for inspirational quotes)

Well last night all that was tested…It started so nice. I had a speedy commute home from work, leashed up the dog for a casual stroll to go get my car that was parked at the bus stop from the morning. The sky was so clear that I could see so many stars including the Big and Little Dippers and O’Rien’s Belt! I felt pretty peaceful and had already poured a glass of wine that I left on the kitchen counter so when we returned I could drink up. We arrived at my car and the battery was dead. I know, I know!!! This is SMALL STUFF! I tried to keep it together but I literally cried instantly. The dog curled up on the front seat expecting we’d be driving home any minute. I could have just left the car there and walked home but honestly all I could think about was my wine and cheese and crackers. (yep I cannot tell a lie). I realized I was only two blocks from a friend so I texted him and sure enough he was home and willing to come give me a jump start. Thanks so much Alex! I owe you big!

I spent the evening obsessing over this. It wasn’t so much the battery dying but that it was only 3 months old and after researching a bunch of web forums discovered that the malfunctioning rear lift gate latch that I chose not to fix (they wanted $400) was the cause of the dead battery. There’s some weird link. I love my Jeep, but it has had it’s fare share of quirky issues.

So I had a moment and reached out to my Facebook friends to reign me in

My friends are great! Valerie suggested I buy a portable jump starter battery to keep in the car for future situations like this. And lots of other friends gave me the virtual slap across the face. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I actually own one of those portable jump starter batteries! I bought it after Superstorm Sandy when we lost power for days. It has plugs for usb devices, and regular plugs as well as the jump starter cables.

So this morning I woke up and immediately got my run in.

I was going for the Punky Brewster look!

6 mile dose of medicine

6 miles….and don’t ya know, by mile 4 I was feeling a WHOLE LOT BETTER!!! Running truly is amazing. And this song just reinforced the feel good chemicals going on in my head. Oh and while I was running my parents drove right by me. This time they actually noticed me and we waved to each other. So funny.

So I came home, showered and then whipped out that handy dandy battery and jumped the Jeep all by my very self!

up and running! woo hoo!

Then it was off to Sears to get a new one.

I had an hour to kill waiting so I popped into Starbucks for a long awaited post run meal.

Caramel Macchiato (160 calories) and a turkey and cheese sandwich (450) = 610 calories!

My plan was to handle this situation in two separate days. Today, all I would worry about was battery replacement. I made an appointment at Jeep Service to have the rear hatch latch shmutchik thingamajiggy replaced on Tuesday =)

And so in the end I practiced what I preach. I sweat out the small stuff, and that my friends feel pretty darn good.

And in honor of Throwback Thursday here are some pics of my Lady (Jeep) Liberty from the day I brought her home and her first Christmas. Yep. She’s like a child and I can’t bear the thought of the day she goes to SUV heaven.

Question: Do you have true love for your car or is it just a way to get from A to B? How do you handle stressful “small stuff” situations? 

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