BITS AND PIECES
::A Few of the "Thoughts " that have Occurred to Me Recently (but which are not fully fleshed ideas worthy of an entire post)::

Traveling - I feel sorry for the security officer who had to search my bag on the way back from Denver. It is ostensibly a snowboard bag, but I stuff it full of everything it will take. This serves two purposes: 1) it protects my board from rough handling and 2) it makes it much easier for me to stick to the "two checked bags" rule. This means that the person who searched my bag (and left that helpful little note to tell me that this had happened) had to go through not just a snowboard, but the boots, jacket, snowpants, sneakers, slippers, helmet, goggles, scarf, face mask, socks, pants (two pairs), ice skates (my girlfriend's), boot warmers, camelbak, gloves, long johns, overshirt (two), sweater, and the knee-brace I brought just in case (never used, I wrenched my ankle, not my knee) - all of which were tightly rolled, packed, stuffed, and arranged like pieces in a puzzle to get the most use of a small space. Poor guy. He got his revenge, though, my bags returned two days after I did.

Bodily Functions - The average person farts fourteen times a day. Why do I know this? Because I learned it in the seventh grade when such information was vitally important to me. Apparently it stuck with me. Why did it occur to me now? Because I attended Dave's 4th Annual SXSW Chili Cookoff last night. Good food, good times.

Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously - I think one of the most important attributes a person can have is the ability to not take themselves too seriously. I also think that the best way to get people to listen to you is not to sound Important but to sound Interesting - these are two different things (related, but not identical). It's easy to say things that are important and which should be interesting, it's not as easy to convince other people that they are. This is where a little bit of humor can help. On that note, our pilot for the return from Chicago to Dulles earned high marks (and our continued attention) for making the following announcement: "Once the seatbelt sign is turned off you will be free to move about the cabin, although we recommend that you remain inside the aircraft at all times."

Endurance and Obstinacy - The last day of our ski trip the temperature hovered in the single digits with a windchill that was in the negative double-digits (around -30 to be more precise). Rather than stop skiing, we bought hand and toe warmers and went on with our day. Those temperatures would kill a naked man pretty quickly. Yet we stayed out in it because we were having too much fun to go inside. Clothing technology (with some assistance from the warmers) has reached a point where we could stay outside in such weather with very little impact to our mobility and not because we NEED to be out in such weather but because we wanted to have fun. Amazing. If recreational skiing isn't a sign our culture appreciates luxury, I do not know what is.

Congratulations - To Bruce and Colleen. If you don't know why, ask them.