A bit of late night epiphany

So this evening I was unlucky enough to get the closing shift, punching out at 11:45pm.  Equally as unlucky was the fact that the only available spot was in the next parking lot down by the Home Depot (which for those of you unfamiliar with the Palisades Center is kind of a long hike involving much traffice and what seems like an endless forest that in reality is more like 30 square feet).

Did I mention it's also 19 degrees and very windy?

So after hiking down to my car from the now empty lot, I was understandably in a less than cheery mood.  Getting into my car and cranking up the heat, it was then I noticed that I was critically low on gas, meaning that there was no way in the now apparently frozen over pits of hell that I was going to make it home without getting gas first.  It now being midnight and realizing that for whatever reason gas stations around here close around 10, I got just a touch less cheery.

Luckily though, I did manage to find a 24 hour, $3.89/gallon station right near the mall, and my spirits began to lift a little.  Until I realized that for whatever reason (current speculation is that my car has a bend in the gas line) takes forever-and-a-fucking-half to fill up.  All that wonderful warmth that I had just begun to feel was slowly seeping out from my fingertips apparently, because they were numb before I even got out of the car.

With gas in the car, heat cranked up and feeling slowly returning to my extremities, I headed home.  The ride home was fairly uneventful, save for some of the more colorful language I used towards the other drivers who apparently decided that up their collective asses was the best place to put their heads while they drove instead of watching the road.  But I digress.

It was when I was nearly home that I happened to look out of the passenger side window and caught a glimpse of one of the forest lakes that pepper the area around here, and noticed the beautiful way that the moon was reflecting across the surface of the water through the trees.  The lake became a glowing beacon in the night, caged off from the rest of the world by the skeletal arms of the trees that surround it almost as if trying to protect it from the frigid darkness that pressed in from every direction.

It was then that I realized that no matter how shitty a day goes or how cold and dark the night becomes, there is always something out there that can help alleviate the weight of the day even if only for just a brief moment: and sometimes you only need look out your window to happen upon it by chance.

Now I should really get to bed.  I have to open the store tomorrow after all.