I escaped for a bit. Too bad I had to come back.

It wasn't a very good day.

For starters, my alarm clock? It started buzzing at 4:45 a.m. That's about two hours before my alarm usually goes off, but I was filling in for a co-worker so I had to be at my desk a lot earlier than normal.

And the temperature? It was -2 degrees when I got into the office. And snowing. Funny. I always thought below zero was too cold to snow. Hmm. But the temps? They managed to get a few degrees warmer, but then the wind kicked in. And tonight? The temps will plummet and the wind will howl and it's going to be absolutely frigid when I get up and leave for work at 5:50 a.m. tomorrow.

Then there was the announcement from the bosses at work. All employees are being forced to take 5 days off before the end of March. I know, you're probably say, extra vacation. Score! But here's the kicker. Unpaid. They call it a furlough, which is apparently something they do to control costs without having to lay more people off - which they just did at the beginning of December. Regardless, not too happy with the announcement.

I know it could be worse - heck I spent the afternoon with a bunch of prison inmates - but still. The day? Not one of my favorites. All I wanted to do was get out of the office and clear my head. And luckily, since I was at the office before the sun was even up, I got to leave when it was still light out.

And I high-tailed it over to the YMCA. I was desperate to snag a treadmill, step on and just put one foot in front of the other. I recaptured that feeling I like about running tonight. The ability to just start running and not have anything to think about. It gives me a chance to clear my mind, just zone out for a while. Sure there are times when I like to use this time to figure stuff out. But tonight? I didn't want to think. I was wanted to run aimlessly.

When my 3 miles were done, I didn't want to leave. Because that would have given me the opportunity to think. And I still didn't want to do that. So I put in some time on the bike and even ventured over into the land of the weights - an area I haven't visited in a long time.

Two hours after I first got there, I left the YMCA and returned to reality. Yup, it was still frigid outside. Yup, still being forced to take that week of unpaid time off. Yup, not a very good day. But at least I was able to escape for a little while.