It’s a tiny paper-wrapped bar of soap, mesh bag of gold coin chocolates, Teddy Bear dressed as a Buckingham Palace guard, little foam shoe shiner thing, clicky-pen with a conference logo printed on it, mini bottle of maple syrup, matches from a really good restaurant, bedroom door...
#392 Catching the ice cream truck as it drives down the street
Candy doesn’t deliver. Since Emperor Nero sent slaves into the mountains for ice to mix with honey and nuts two thousand years ago, we’ve all enjoyed cooling off with big bowls of the sweet and icy treat. Yup, Arabs started adding milk to the mixture a thousand years later, the...
#393 When you’re finally big enough to ride in the front seat of the car
You waited a long time. Cruising backwards in your baby seat, strapped into your toddler chair, sharing the bench with your little brother on those long drives downtown, you spent years putting up with child locks, bad views, and barf bags. So when you finally get to ride in the front seat you...
#394 When your dad looks under your bed and finds no monsters
There’s something in the dark. Floors creak and doors squeak as furnaces click and ticking clocks tick. Fridges hum and oven burners pop as garage doors close and footsteps flip flop. Sometimes it sounds like there’s a monster hiding deep in the darkness of your room. Blind and...
#395 When your taxi driver knows all the secret routes
Bouncing beltless in the backseat you’re zooming down dark streets, slick roads, and slippery lanes. Doesn’t matter if you’re cabbing back from cards, hitting the downtown bars hard, or flying home for a quick recharge. Nope, the only thing that matters is if your cabbie...
#396 When the hold music is actually surprisingly good
When I was in high school my friend Chad worked at a big-box electronics store down by the lake. He’d put on a shirt, tie, and giant clown-faced grin before selling bubble jet printers and floppy disks on Friday nights. Since the rest of us were hopeless layabouts we’d aimlessly...
#397 Burning your fingers while peeling off the first freshly baked cookie from the oven
It burns. Chocolate chips drip down your fingertips as that softly-crumbling cookie melts into a hot puddle of steamy goodness in the middle of your mouth. Gasp for air, pop your eyes, and suck in some cool breaths as you try to chew without touching that red-hot cookie lava. Part of what...
#398 Going to a movie on your own
It happened by accident the first time. Years ago I was staying after school but had late-night plans to meet friends at a downtown movie theater. I was going to catch a lift with my parents, watch the latest Bruce Willis blow-em-up, and then squeeze into my friend Mike’s rusty Saturn...
#399 Discovering a new shortcut on your drive home
Move over, Marco Polo. Columbus, Clark, and Cortes, you got nothing, either. Sure, maybe you sailed over choppy waves, fought with cannibals, and documented distant lands. Maybe you traded silk with kings, discovered precious stones, and toppled terrible empires. Maybe you even found new...
#400 Putting your own shoes back on after bowling
It’s like rolling a strike for your feet. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Check out my podcast 3 Books with Neil Pasricha — The post #400 Putting your own shoes back on after bowling appeared first on 1000 Awesome...
#401 The sound of dry crispy leaves blowing across an empty parking lot
Orange skies burn as winds whisper for your chilly walk home. The sun dips down in the distance and dogs bark behind backyard fences as your hair blows wildly in the cool and crisp breeze. You squint into the wind and stuff your hands in your thin pockets as you sniff up that smoky sweet smell...
#402 Perfectly stapling through a stack of really thick papers
It’s just you and me, Swingline. Sure, we’ve tangled before: Your jagged, splintery arms stabbed sharply back through the top of my book report, you mangled your neck on a powerful hammer-punch, and you didn’t make it through a few fat stacks, forcing me to surgically...
#403 Seeing a really, really happy dog out for a walk
I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M OUTSIDE! I’M...
#404 When someone’s leaving the bathroom at the same time as you so you don’t have to touch the door...
Germs are real. Tiny baby bugs, squiggly creepy-crawlers, and mini-millipedes are camping under your nails, hot-tubbing in your sweaty palms, and putting their feet up in your fingers. Coughs and colds jump hand to hand and mouth to mouth — latching onto you through handshakes, high...
#405 When someone pronounces your hard-to-pronounce name right on the first try
It ain’t easy. When I graduated from college they draped us all in slippery black gowns, put square hats on our heads, and sat us down in the hot steamy arena to wait patiently for our names to get called. When they did we got up and swished across the stage to accept little ribbon-tied...
#406 Being your gloriously slobby self in a hotel room
We’re still animals. Sure, our species has grown up and grown older over the past couple hundred thousand years. We’ve moved out of the jungle and shed most of our body hair, keeping warm with sweatpants and hoodies instead of hairy legs and bushy beards. But we’re still animals. We...
#407 Successfully pulling off The Inlaw Nap
The Inlaw Nap is any nap you manage to pull off at the inlaw’s house. As long as it’s not during Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas present unwrapping, or while the birthday cake is served, it is a completely legal nap and fully counts as spending quality time visiting the...
#408 Dinosaurs (Earth’s former rulers)
They ruled Earth for millions of years. With brains the size of peanuts. And tiny, hilarious arms. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Follow me on Instagram — The post #408 Dinosaurs (Earth’s former rulers) appeared first on 1000 Awesome...
#409 Little kids who dress themselves
It’s the little girl wearing a tutu on the downtown street. It’s the boy in the Superman outfit at McDonald’s. It’s big rainboots on sunny days, mom’s lipstick smeared across faces, and big bright mismatched costumes. There’s just something so pure and...
#410 When you can actually eat the thing your food is served in
Let’s get tasty. Save yourself some work, save yourself some time, and let’s gobble up the dishes our food’s packed up in: • Ice cream cones. Bubble gum ice cream from Baskin Robbins was a staple of my childhood and I’d always get it in a cup to save the chalky pink...
#411 When your broken computer magically heals itself
SYSTEM ERROR. Sometimes your buzzing box of lights and wires crashes a bad crash and completely stops working. So you reboot, unplug everything, plug everything back in, unplug everything again, plug everything back in again, and finally call in backups in the form of teenage kids or nerdy...
#412 The feeling of the air right before a thunderstorm
Warm wind whips and whistles down the streets sending cigarette butts, crumpled receipts, and dry leaves swirling in all directions. Specks of dust glow in deep sunbeam tints as dark clouds shuffle in the sky. There’s a warm and wet sense of electric anticipation as lightning bolts...
#413 Trying on all your new clothes right when you get home from buying them
Stiff creases, unhemmed pants, and itchy tags can’t dent your mood. Now it’s time to change real fast, clear the kitchen runway, and strut your stuff in a private fashion show for your friends, family, and dog. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Check out my podcast 3 Books...
#414 When you’re driving home after a long trip and your radio stations back come back
Fade to fuzz. It’s always a sad scene when you’re bumping down the highway and your old faves start fritzing out on the radio. Yes, you wince as songs start missing notes and DJs start garbling the weather…. before eventually just dissolving into the distance. Staring back...
#415 The moment when you’re not the new guy anymore
The first day was scary. When you opened the door everything was a giant swirling abyss of new teachers, new faces, new rules, and new places. So you tiptoed in smiling and shaking hands, learning passwords and policies, and staring around the busy cafeteria holding a red plastic tray trying...
#416 When you try cooking something new and somehow everyone likes it
I blew it last week. A friend came over after work for that homemade meal I’d been promising her. Since my standard dinner lately has been a plate of nachos and a couple spoons of Nutella I figured it was high time to cook a proper meal. It started well: I snagged a fancy pasta recipe...
#417 The sound of water lapping against a dock on a summer night
It sounds like the warm and windy start of summer. It sounds like the cool and quiet finish to fall. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Follow me on Facebook — The post #417 The sound of water lapping against a dock on a summer night appeared first on 1000 Awesome...
#418 Carrying the ice cube tray you just filled up all the way back to the freezer without spilling ...
Say goodbye kitchen puddles, wet socks, and half-filled cubes. Say hello to AWESOME! Photo from: here The post #418 Carrying the ice cube tray you just filled up all the way back to the freezer without spilling anything appeared first on 1000 Awesome...
#419 Correctly guessing if that terribly designed door is push or pull
Doors can be trouble. Strutting to the mall, strolling to the store, you spy those glassy doubles in the distance just waiting for you to size them up and give them a big push or pull. Sure, it looks easy, but we all know it’s nothing but. Nope, thanks to years of tense negotiations,...
#420 Using some random thing as some random back scratcher
The middle of your back is no hands land. Those itchy islands off the coast of Spine Beach see a lot of shade and a lot of showers but not much scratchy, scratchy fingernail loving. When you’re itching hard you might try the ol’ Reverse Angle Elbow Bender a couple times before...
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