Like finding money in your pocket

You know when you put on your winter coat for the first time in a season? You put your hands in the pockets wondering what you might find.

Usually it's mismatched gloves, an old napkin from takeout, an expired coupon and a Target receipt. At least if you are wearing my coats. Which might be kind of strange.

But if you get lucky, you might reach in and find a $10 or a $20. You do a happy dance and feel like you have won the mini-seasonal lottery. At least I do.

I had a moment kind of like that this morning. If we're connected on Twitter, you might have picked up on the fact that Brian and I have been working to lose some weight. We kicked off our efforts the week before Thanksgiving. Gluttons for punishment? Not really. I just figured if we could jumpstart this process during the holidays, surely we could win at it in January and beyond.

So this morning in the closet, I reached up high. To that shelf. The one where long-gone, no-longer-wearable-cause-I-swear-the-dryer-really-shrunk-them clothes go. And I pulled down a pair of jeans.

With a deep breath, I put them on. Without profanity. As I turned around to look in the mirror and make sure the image wasn't horrifying, I noticed something was in the back pocket. I reached in to grab it our and found this.

The first thing I noticed was that it was expired. Bummer. And I walked to throw it away. But then I noticed something else. The Better if Used by date for the product was Augst 8, 2010.

Meaning that the last time I wore these jeans was likely more than a year and a half ago.

And that? Right there? Was better than any $10 bill I could have found.