Mild Amusement

A little while back, I had to travel. If this was just a single flight or a single trip, it probably wouldn't have been all that noteworthy. In this case, though, I had a couple of trips back-to-back, so that made things a whole heck of a lot more interesting. To begin with, I was flying back to SFO from a work trip fairly late, at 11:30 PM. That wasn't exactly ideal, but that's how it worked out due to circumstances of work meetings. However, I also had to take a flight out the next morning for a personal trip. To be precise, I had to take a flight at 6AM the next morning. That wasn't ideal, either, but circumstances about when I had to land dictated that that was the best flight for me to take. Okay, so I had to take two flights; one of them landed at 11:30PM, and the next one took off at 6AM the next morning. Given that, I figured that the best plan of action for me was to simply stay at the airport until my second flight took off. I didn't think that it made...

You know how some people always seem to have trouble with certain tasks? It's not even a matter of competence, I've seen really, really talented people fail at mundane tasks on a consistent basis. I've also seen incompetent people fail at similar tasks, too, so it really isn't a function of intelligence, education, or darn near anything you can think of. People are just good at different things. Anyhow, for whatever reason, I've always been bad at wedding gifts. Now, if I'm going to a wedding, I care about the people so I will happily get them a gift. I want them to be happy, and I want to help them celebrate. But for whatever reason, I always forget about the gift until the last minute. I know full well that I am going to get the couple a gift, and I want to get them something nice. Still, I always seem to forget to do this in advance.I'd like to think this isn't a result of me being an idiot ( though that's always up for interpretation ), but at ...

Before we start today's post, let me remind you of a couple of facts. First, I have a halfway decent memory , and it likes to put me into situations that result in people laughing at me. Secondly, I like to do my share of online shopping . Up until now, those two things have led to funny stories, but they have always been completely unrelated aspects of my life. No more. See, when I shop for things, I don't always shop for actual items for myself. I have been known to use OpenTable to make reservations at restaurants (occasionally, this can lead to me narrowly avoiding making a fool of myself ), to buy tickets for shows through the venue's website, or to have deliveries sent to other people. I'd like to think that all of this is fairly normal, so it happens pretty frequently. In fact, it happens frequently enough that some of the times it happens involves relationships with women; sometimes the restaurant reservations and tickets are for dates, or the deliveries are ...

I've written plenty about how I've had my share of adventures when going out to eat at restaurants. Sometimes it involves funny exchanges with waiters and waitresses , sometimes the reservation causes some hilarity , and sometimes I gain a dislike for a particular item on a menu. I don't know why, but restaurants always seem to bring about laughs. I have another story to add to the list. I went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant with a bunch of friends, and we all settled down to ponder what we wanted to eat. As is pretty normal, the waitress came over and rattled off the specials. They happened to have a uni (read: sea urchin) special that sounded interesting, and there were a couple of us at the table that had never had it before. As we were discussing the merits of ordering this item, though, the waitress cautioned us that it had something of a unique taste. In short, some people don't like the taste. Well, me being me, that meant that I wanted to try some....

I get up really early to go to work, and it has occasionally led to some interesting stories with guests  and run-ins with the police . Aside from that though, I actually like that getting up so early means I don't have to deal with traffic, and that I can make time to go to the gym. All in all, it's not a bad trade. However, it does mean that I have to plan accordingly. Specifically, it means that I have to try to go to bed earlier than most people. Now, I have long claimed that it's actually pretty easy to get up early, but it's really freaking hard to make yourself go to bed early. The former is just a matter of a deadline. Whether you like it or not, you have to be at work at a specified time. And more than likely, you know exactly how long it takes you to get to work. Given that, it's just a matter of working backwards. Sure, some people use the snooze button liberally, but even so, when push comes to shove, they drag themselves out of bed. It's a matter...