Do you still get excited for Christmas? Do you know that feeling of anticipation?
Come on, even us adults still get that, don't we?

Well, I have it now. It's August and I'm so pumped up for Christmas I can't stand it.
Why?
Because my wife just firmed up the house we will rent this Christmas, in Culebra, a small Island just a few miles off the coast of Puerto Rico.
My whole family will have our toes in the sand in the middle of winter.
We never did that before.
I'm as amped as a 12 year old boy who just had his first 5 hour energy drink.

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It was 1045 PM tonight and I thought I would jump in the shower. I share a bathroom with the mate on the boat.
He's my age, nice guy and his personal hygiene is beyond reproach.
I say this because I waited for 43 minutes for him to get out of the damn shower.
What guy spends 43 minutes in the bathroom?
You would have thought it was prom night.

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I heard today, for the first time, Paul Ryan give a speech in his new role as the V.P. nominee.
Now I've seen way to many reality, behinds the scenes shows on politics and we know now that every word
a Presidential nominee says is scripted, right down to the amount of force he should inflect in his voice at a particular line in the speech. He is told by his handlers when to smile, when to grimace and when to raise his arms up high.
So I heard Mr. Ryan"s speech today. I know he was told by "his people", when you get to the line,
".....get America back on track," be stern, loud, forceful.
When I heard him get all forceful and meaningful to get the crowd all fired up, well, it didn't work.
He was trying to get fired up but you could just tell it's not his personality. He sounded more like a cross between Julia Child and Will Ferrell.
It was like watching Mr. Rogers trying to get a crowd excited.
I'm sure he's a really nice guy and great family man.

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I had a dream last night, in it my mom pulls up to the curb, driving a white taxie with a blue circle on the door.
In real life,she never had a drivers license.
Dreams are strange.