#19 – Finding Money in an Old Pair of Pants/Shorts

I’ve joked about this before. That doesn’t diminish how good of a feeling it truly is. Over time, the frequency with which it has occurred has become more and more rare as I’m not typically leaving money unattended in pockets as much as I did in my pre-wallet days of yesteryear.

Still, every so often, it does happen. Typically we’re talking about the change of a season… maybe the first time you decide to head to the beach, or the first time (if you live in the northeast) it’s over 50 degrees out and you decide to wear shorts. Or it could be as simple as digging out a pair of old jeans. Point is, your mind is typically elsewhere, focused more on decidedly trivial things up to an including:

• Does this count as a bathing suit if it doesn’t have that mesh/net thing on the inside? Or is it just a board short? What is a board short? Is there such thing as a board sock?
• Do people still wear jean shorts? Can I get away with wearing these for the day because my other pairs are at my parent’s house?
• Is it cold enough to wear jeans? I’m going to look stupid, I’m going to be hot and I’ll be the only one wearing pants.

So, while you’re focusing on shit like this, you typically don’t notice what should be plainly obvious: there’s something in your pocket. For a few moments, it goes undetected until a couple steps later when you’ve finally dug into said pocket.

Holy shit, there’s something in here!

It feels like money… it’s probably money… yes, it’s definitely money… But now, for those few seconds until you produce the bill(s) from your pocket, you can’t help but guess what denominations we’re dealing with. Is it going to be something disappointing like a dollar bill? Maybe a five? That’s probably the best you can hope for.  No way it’s a hundred dollar bill. Who are you, a bank robber?

And then, boom… you look and see a wrinkled (probably through the washing machine at least once) twenty dollar bill staring right back up at you.

I don’t care if you’re unemployed or an NBA player, that’s a great feeling. It was always your money and you obviously didn’t seem to care much that you’d lost it in the first place, but now that it’s back… it’s better than ever.

Polar Opposite of this Feeling? Finding out it’s actually just a receipt, a wrapper or lint.