I shouldn't operate heavy machinery before 9 am

I have never been a morning person. No matter how long I stick to a particular routine, it never seems to get any easier to get out of bed. As a consequence, I do not think very clearly first thing in the morning.

Monday I got up a little extra early in order to drop Matt off at the airport. To give myself an extra 15 minutes of sleep, I figured I'd just get breakfast on the road. After dropping Matt off and getting on the freeway to head toward Oceanside, I realized I had left my wallet at home. If I backtracked to pick it up, I would have been late. I checked my other pockets and found I had also left my cash at home. I looked in the center console, and there wasn't even any coins in the coin holder. Then about a minute after getting on the freeway, the low fuel light blinked on.

So no cash, no credit or debit card, and no license. Sadly, it took me about 10 minutes to think "Hey, I could swing by the bank to get cash". Like many others I'm sure, I have become so used to using my debit card everywhere that rarely step foot in a bank. I'm not sure if I would have been able to get any money without ID, but I was prepared to list off my address, SSN, place of birth and supply a fingerprint if necessary. I found a bank near my destination, but they didn't open until 9:00, which again would have made me late.

So I went back to the car in hopes that I had stashed a $5 or even a $20 bill somewhere. I used to do this in case of emergencies, but like all good ideas it depends on follow through. I wasn't very good at replacing the stashed bill after using it, so I didn't hold out much hope. I didn't find my emergency stash, but I found something much better. In my glove box was a bank envelope from Washington Mutual (which doesn't even exist anymore). In it was a $100 bill! I went from not having a dime to fill either of my empty tanks, to being "Mister Money Bags". I am pretty sure the money was from my parents. I seem to remember them handing it to me as I left on the drive down here "in case of an emergency". What a great surprise, and it saved my bacon.

Of course the odd thing is now I had a $100 bill and I wasn't sure if I could use it. I didn't think that Starbucks would accept it for a $4 breakfast order of a coffee and scone. But of course I still had an empty gas tank, so after finding a station I put $50 in my tank and gave myself some more managible bills.

So thanks Mom & Dad! That was so much better than finding a $20 in the laundry, and it really turned around a rough start on Monday.