A quick note on having fun
August 18, 2005 
Much thanks to Heidi, Courtney, and Jessie for reminding me that having fun is important.
I noticed that one side effect of growing up is that you have to actually schedule your fun. As a teenager, I could just meet up with friends after school and have fun. And before that I could have fun virtually any moment of the day, except maybe when I had to go to the dentist or something.
For those readers who don’t know, Heidi is a co-worker of mine, who I found out actually went to elementary school with me for a few years. It really is a small world (afterall). Anyway, we went on a “Pet Store Tour” of sorts, checking out an independent pet shop called Country Critters (which had degus!) and the local Petland.
Then we went over to Courtney’s house (another co-worker) and hung out around a fire. Well, eventually we did.
We got there to find Courtney trying to light the (very damp) wood she had bought at 7-11. After throwing in a few rolls of paper towels, notepad paper, and even cardboard from a case of beer, the wood still wouldn’t light. We figured out that she was destined to fail because she had been in Girl Scouts as a child, where they don’t teach you anything about camping or lighting fires.
Somehow the firestarting progressed (or maybe regressed) to pouring some sort of lawnmower fluid into the fire pit and then throwing in a lit paper towel. (Don’t try this at home, kids!) Smart guy that I am, I took a few giant steps back and didn’t get any of my hair singed off. Courtney’s brother came out and poured some more liquid into the fire and it finally stayed lit.
We had fun once the fire was burning and then after Jessie left we went inside to watch Sin City. I really liked the movie (I hadn’t seen it), but Courtney didn’t seem to understand that the movie was based on a graphical novel. She kept asking why it was in black-and-white and why the characters had cartoonish features. Some beers and some popcorn fights later, I think she finally got it.
So, although having fun needs to be scheduled now, I definitely don’t mind fitting it into my schedule as long as I get to have it.
