I’m reading a new book called, “Feeling Good” by Dr. Burns that talks a lot about Cognitive Therapy to change your moods. If you click on that link, your browser will load Dr. Burns’ website that looks like it might have been designed in the late 1990’s, when few people knew what a style sheet was or that you can design websites with software other than Frontpage 97.

Feeling Good teaches you a lot about how to think more on the “positive” side of situations, and how to not over-generalize or jump to conclusions. And it’s really helped; because normally if I had learned that the airways in my lungs were actually getting worse after breathing in Advair powder every morning; I would have laid down on the ground and said, “I CAN’T GO ON ANYMORE.” And then I would have started blaming random strangers for my defective lungs. Instead, I smiled and took my small packet of orange steroid pills without any commotion or seizures.

And when I locked myself out of my car this morning, I applied some of the teachings from Feeling Good by remembering that I don’t always lock my keys in my car; unless you count that time on Mother’s Day when it was like I had gone through my entire day without a brain. I felt pretty calm about it all until A-1 Auto-Locks came and unlocked the door to my Grand Am in what might have been less than two seconds.

Literally, less than two seconds after A-1 had arrived I was able to open my door and sort through my McDonald’s trash to find my debit card and keys. The elderly gentleman from A-1 laughed at my expression and said, “I bet you didn’t know it was so easy to get into a car.” I replied, “I did, actually; but if the squeaking front seats weren’t enough to prove that I have a cheap car, the fact that it is practically effortless to break into it is.”

I am so not ever leaving Vernon in my car again.

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