Ch-ch-ch-anges

Sometimes change happens so slowly you don’t even notice it. The big kid loses a tooth and as the new one grows in her face changes and she looks older one day. Intellectually I know that she didn’t age over night. It is slow and gradual. I just happened to notice it all of a sudden.

But sometimes change happens in a moment. It is a big, crazy “This moment right now is creating a new truth” kind of a moment and you know that there is no turning back.

It’s hot outside, guys. Running outside is proving to be a sweaty, messy, slow affair. While I am not crazy about the jogging stroller I do appreciate the fact that I have at my disposal multiple bottles of ice cold water. Trading out the jogging stroller for the dry, parched, damn near-dehydrating reality of running without a water bottle isn’t the free and easy feeling I was shooting for when I went out last week without my sidekick for a late afternoon run.

So, I did what I always do. I perused Amazon. I stopped in my local running shop. I compulsively read reviews of hydration running belts (not incidentally called hip flasks when they are not filled with bourbon and not designed for smuggling booze in to sporting events.) I considered the hand-held palm water bottles. I online shopped with no intention of actually buying anything until I convinced myself that I was making things complicated. I ran again this past weekend with a water bottle in my hand (because it suddenly dawned on me that I have opposable thumbs that are quite handy for things like grasping!) I dropped that bottle twice. It was slippery once it was all covered in condensation.

And then I had a moment of genius. Why couldn’t I put a water bottle in a beer koozie and cut a strip of beer koozie and just sew it on like a handle?

Not any of my favorites. A bank and a mortgage company – two sub par koozies became one fantastic hand-held water bottle holder.

Well, I could. And I did.

And as I took the scissors to a beer koozie, effectively turning it from a beer drankin’ accessory in to a fitness hydration device, I had one of those moments. My life was changing irrevocably.

I love beer koozies. Maybe it was the years at the beach. Maybe it is my love of cold, cold shitty beer. But I am a girl that has a koozie in her back pocket at a picnic or a concert. I lose my keys, my wallet, my phone, my sunglasses, my concert ticket but I never lose my koozie. And in a matter of 60 seconds I went from idea to scissors.  I took a pair of scissors to a BEER KOOZIE.

I am not drinking too many beers these days. The payback is too great. The kids don’t sleep in and the headache is too large and the miles won’t run themselves. I could likely fill a cooler with beer and another cooler with koozies. I might be a girl that never loses one but it hasn’t stopped me from collecting them.

Just a few of my favorites!

I love beer koozies.  I love them so damn much I am taking them with me when I run.  Because I might as well just face it.  I am running a lot more than I am drinkin’ these days.  Truth.