Mild Amusement

I tend to joke around a lot with most of my friends, and anyone who has known me for any extended period of time knows why I call myself a smartass at times. Not surprisingly, it's not uncommon for me to tease someone about random things. It's not malicious, just some friendly ribbing. Of course, with good friends, there are far fewer things that are off-limits, so it gets even more interesting. Take my old friend from middle school. We're both grown men with the trappings that come with being full-blown adults now, but that doesn't stop some good-natured teasing back and forth. A few of us guys were over at his house one night, and we were generally goofing off. His wife was right there with us for most of the night, but by about midnight she complained of a combination of fatigue and not quite feeling right. Bummed that she had to leave the merry-making, we wished her a good night and turned down the volume on said merry-making (I did ask if we should just call it a...

A few years back, I took a trip to London. I'd never been there before, and one of my friends happened to be studying abroad there, so I had a place to crash. We even managed to squeeze in a weekend trip to the mainland, so all in all, it worked out well. Well, with maybe one small exception. My friend was single at the time, so she was dealing with some of the usual dating routines. As it happened, there was a guy who was interested in her, but she wasn't interested. I heard all about it during the course of the trip, so I was well aware of this guy's intentions. Well, my friend and I were getting ready to go out one night, when this guy suddenly started messaging her. Me being a guy, I had already gotten dressed, and I was more or less waiting around for her. At that particular moment, she didn't have the energy or patience to deal with him. So, she did the only reasonable thing she could: she handed me her laptop, and told me to make him go away. Not wanting to b...

You know that saying, "things happen for a reason?" Well, truthfully, I've never really believed in it much. Maybe I'm just too much of a control freak to accept that I can't change a situation, or maybe my natural tendencies to try to resolve problems run far too deep (at least one Mild-Ex has levied the latter charge against me). I can't really explain it, but you will almost never hear those words come out of my mouth. However, there was one recent, and amusing, exception to this. This tale begins very simply: I'd made plans to have dinner with a friend. We'd wanted to go to a particular restaurant, but I was worried that they'd get busy. So, I made reservations a few weeks out, and set aside the time on my calendar. Like I said, it all started out pretty inauspiciously. Well, the day of dinner arrived, and I hadn't heard from the friend in a couple of days. So, I sent her a quick text message to confirm whether we were still on or not. ...

I don't quite know what led to this particular outlook on life, but I've been known to say, "my life's an open book if you bother to ask" on more than one occasion. That's not to say that I go around volunteering all sorts of personal information, but I am very candid with others, and I am brutally honest about myself. After all, what better way to keep myself honest (pun intended) is there than remembering that I may have to tell the story about my actions later on? Well, I repeated my little mantra in front of someone who had never heard it before, and her eyes lit up. You could almost see the twinkle in her eye as she tried to figure out how best to take advantage of this new-found information. The words coming out of her mouth did nothing to dissuade this notion, either (I have some interesting friends, apparently). Still, she immediately started grilling me about the history of Sam Chang. As the questions kept coming, though, it became pretty obvious th...

Since the last time I noted that little kids say some really awesome things , I've seen little kids interact with the world in quite a variety of situations. The kids always have really obvious motivations, and watching them try to impose those desires on to the real world makes for quite a few laughs. Needless to say, the results have been highly amusing. Given all of that, I present to you the latest installment of conversations I've been a party to: Sister: (to an adult in line) "I've got this 25% off coupon that I won't be able to use, and it expires today. Would you like it?" Adult's Kid: "NOW can we get candy?" Adult's Kid: "You get 25% off of everything , not just the candy." Adult's Kid: "Look, there's some candy right there" Adult: "Ugh ... fine" Never underestimate the powers of persuasion that kids will employ in the pursuit of candy. I'm fairly certain that similar math on a test...

I've mentioned that recently I've been eating out a lot more  recently. Sometimes, there will be someone else to break bread with, but sometimes I'll just head out to grab something for myself. It's just how it goes; people have different schedules, and sometimes they don't line up properly. Heck, many times I'm restricted by the fact that I have a lunch-time meeting, so I can't exactly sit down at a restaurant with other people. On the days when I need to find something to eat before/during a lunch meeting, I usually need something quick and convenient. It seems like the perfect scenario for fast food, doesn't it? I'm in a rush, and these places specifically cater to someone in that predicament (it's called "fast food" for a reason). In a word, no. I will exhaust every single other option before I step into a place known for golden arches, royalty, red pigtails, or a gigantic head with a wit. Why, you ask? Well, there's a stor...

A while back, I was talking to a coworker when he commented that he was starting to play a lot more chess. His son liked the game, so in an effort to be supportive of a constructive hobby, the guy was playing a lot more. Actually, he discovered that he liked the game. Assuming that I knew how to play, he asked when we were going to play a game (apparently the "closet" part of "closet nerd" isn't working out so well for me). On a whim, I bought one of those cheap magnetic chess sets and brought it in to work. It's not like we sit there and goof off the whole time, but there's always a little bit of down time. Between the computer-mandated ergonomic breaks, having a few minutes before a meeting, or plain old coffee/water/fatigue breaks, there are always a few minutes to kill. I figured using up a couple of those minutes to make a move couldn't hurt, and it'd be a pleasant distraction. Well, it worked. It took us like two weeks to finish a game ...