Try Something New People!

I have always been an advocate for new things. Movies, restaurants, travel destinations, whatever. What have you got to lose? You gotta mix it up with a little variety. If your friend takes you to their favorite restaurant, don't get the same fried chicken - try something new. If you can't decide, a good rule of thumb is to order the item on the menu with the most hilarious name (assuming you won't go into anaphylactic shock consuming shellfish or peanuts or something) and to say the name with a complete straight face. "I'll have the 'Rooty-Tooty Fresh and Fruity'...".Instead of taking the same boring way driving home from work, try a new route - it's safer too, keeps you on your toes. I just can't stand to watch people droning through life taking the same vacation every year, ordering the same food at the same restaurant, running out the clock until they die.

For example, on my last birthday we went indoor skydiving. I had only seen a commercial for the venture and boom, I was interested. It proved to be a very fun experience, without the risk of jumping out of an airplane.

I am not bashing tradition, don't get me wrong people, in fact discovering Oktoberfest (a delightful weekend of dressing up in lederhosen, eating delicious food and swilling about a gallon of beer) and the Bug-In (classic VW drag races, where slow little VW Beetles are souped-up to run 10 seconds in the quarter mile) as new things, and are some of my favorite annual traditions. And if the Bug-In gets boring, go gambling. Throw $30 into a video poker machine and see what happens. You win, that's what happens.

I'm not saying that all of your new experiences will be good ones. Take for example last winter when it dumped a bunch of snow. I decided that it would be a greaty idea to go sledding down some of the steepest hills in the area. Yeah I know I'm 25 whay am I sledding? But I fugured what the hey? I got on my little plastic saucer and headed down a 65-yard long, 45-degree incline. One thing about that incline is that the snow likes to slide down, not keeping a protective layer of snow on the sledding surface itself. On the 3rd run, I hit a rock the size of a bowling ball with my ass bone. I couldn't sit for a week. The impact ripped a hole clean out of my newly purchased purple saucer sled. Watch the video...



My "try new things" caveat also has applied to my employment life. As of this year I have had about 26 different jobs, and never been fired. But I think that is a post for another day.

Summary: Life is short people - live it up.