Losing It

The past few days have been one heck of a whirlwind, folks.

First, I’ve been on a cookie-baking mission. For the first time in my life, I decided to bake Christmas cookies and give them away as gifts – some family, a couple friends, a few co-workers, my mouth.

I baked Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday – early mornings and late nights on the weekdays. I probably made about 200 cookies. I gave a bunch away today at work and will bake more this weekend for my family.

I decided to write a whole separate post about the baking, because it was an experience. It’s so much work! Not that I’m complaining – it was fun, too. A LOT of taste testing. Trust me. My myfitnesspal this week is ridiculous. I also had one failed batch that ended up in the garbage, which was very disappointing. Look for my cookie baking post soon.

In addition to drowning in cookies, I also went through an epic 24 hour ordeal beginning Monday night when I very carelessly dropped my wallet on the Long Island Rail Road as I hurriedly got off at my stop after work and did not realize this until the train was pulling out of the station and my wallet was several hundred feet away from me moving at speeds faster than I can run.

As I pulled out my phone, it dawned on me: Who do I call? 911? No. 311? That’s not it. 0? Nope. Despite what I learned as a child, dialing “0” actually accomplishes nothing.

I called my dad in a panic and the next 15 minutes is a haze at this point but I think I did a lot of cursing and yelling out loud to/at myself while walking home in the dark. I probably sounded like a crazy person. I felt like a crazy person.

When I got home I called LIRR and filed a report. I was told the conductors make a sweep at the end of each line and there was a good chance I’d get it back soon. I wasn’t so sure but decided to remain hopeful. I passed the time baking gingerbread cookies and picturing someone browsing Amazon with my credit card in hand, deciding what to buy first.

After an anxiety-filled 18 hours, the next afternoon I got a message on Facebook from a guy who said his friend found my wallet. He gave me his number and I called him. Although my natural womanly instincts were super attentive for any signs of murderer-seeming, he sounded incredibly nice and offered to meet me in a public place wherever I wanted – a good sign he did not want to murder me. Also, I figured, if this guy were bad… he would just keep the wallet, right? Isn’t that easier than a messy killing? I was optimistic.

After I came home that evening, my dad drove me (yes, I took my daddy to meet the strange man) to a shopping center parking lot where I met the very nice man who had my wallet and gave it back to me, totally intact, cash and all.

I gave him a tin of cookies, which he said his kids would love. I was going to give him some money too but I honestly forgot and besides, I don’t think he would have taken it. He didn’t seem to want anything but to do a good deed.

Then I asked him to pose for a picture with me because if I don’t photograph something, it isn’t real.

It was a nice reminder that there is good in the world. Thank you, good fellow named Terence who saved me hours and hours of terrible paperwork, phone calls, and trips to the DMV.

Then I went home and baked brownies until midnight.

Honest to god I feel like I’ve been on a high since last night. I’m done baking (for now), I got my wallet back (holy shit), and this morning, on a little under 5 hours of sleep, I ran a quick 3.1 miles at an 8:30 pace.

I felt good during the run. I’m sure my energy came from all the adrenaline rushing through me from getting my wallet back; I also think eating my test cookies (and dough and crumbs and mistake pieces not good enough to give away but too good to throw in the garbage) definitely did not hurt my energy levels.

Eat cookies. Give wallets back. Don’t murder people. Simple rules to live by.