Get your own!

There I was, strolling down the street after an average Tuesday on my way to visit my friend Eric where he tends bar. As always...I was on the lookout for pennies en route to my final destination. Now that we're out of daylight savings time and it starts getting dark at 2:30 in the afternoon, I was strolling down the sidewalk in the pitch black. Much tougher to see pennies under these conditions...but then a glint caught my eye. Actually...two glints.

There they were in the gutter...two shiny pennies (and at this moment I suddenly realized our gutters are made of brick here in DC. Who knew!?). So of course, I jumped into the gutter immediately to pick them up. And once in the gutter (which was actually more enjoyable once I realized they were brick...so fancy!), I realized there were two more pennies! And then...I saw two more...and two more...until I found a total of NINE pennies. Fantastic! I was in heaven.

But then, as I climbed out of the gutter (looking quite impressive, I'm sure with my knit gloves covered in dried leaves and trash), a funny thing happened. The bum on the corner, who I see on that corner at least three days a week, asked me if I had any spare change.

WHAT?!

I had an entire monologue in my head that went a little something like this, "You lazy...are you kidding me?! You probably stood on this corner staring right at those pennies for the last two hours and just waited for someone to walk by and pick them up so you could ask if they had any spare change. Seriously!"

But I decided going off on a poor beggar wouldn't be right. And since Christmas is just around the corner, I do want to stay on Santa's 'Nice' list. So, with a pleasant smile, I looked the man directly in the eye and said, "Nope" as I strolled off into the darkness. Afterall...like my sister always says, "it's for the kids!"