Author: Neil Pasricha

Cruising home from a friend’s place, driving the kids to school, rolling home on the highway, you smile softly and focus on the road as your head bops to the stereo.

Suddenly clouds cover the sky, the air gets heavy, and big drops start pitter-pattering your windshield. Snare drum staccatos fill your car’s cabin and you quickly flip on your windshield wipers.

But if you’re lucky this is when the groove starts grooving and your car starts moving as you notice your wipers are timed perfectly to the stereo beats. Yes, without even trying your rusty bucket’s become a pitch-perfect concert hall on the highway.

Hands clapping, fingers tapping, you click your turn signal on so a little high-hat and dashboard disco light join your dance party on wheels. With your body bumping and your brain buzzing your one-man jam band rocks out in the fast lane.

You sorta feel like George Harrison in that video where his desk drawers, grandfather clock, and wall-mounted deer all get into it and start shaking to the tunes. It feels like everyone’s coming together for this great big booming moment. You smile and laugh and sing a long as cosmic energy swirls and the universe gives you a little wink to let you know everything’s unfolding according to plan.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here

Once upon a time my friend Chad went to college.

Now, Chad likes to tell people what made him decide to go to school and the reasons why he traded in a job at Best Buy for a few hard years of hitting the books.

See, on a whim one weekend Chad packed his trunk and cruised down the highway to visit our friend Mike who was away at school. They didn’t have any plans but spent a couple days going out for drinks and eating meals at the residence dining hall.

And it was in that dining hall that Chad first came face to face with a big beautiful stainless steel object of his desire. Yes, he glanced up slowly and realized in a stunning moment that he was staring straight at chocolate milk on tap.

His jaw dropped and his eyeballs flashed fireworks as he immediately filled three glasses with the sweet-flowing brown gold and let his brain reel with infinite possibilities.

“It’s like neverending chocolate milk,” he said at the time, his eyebrows furrowed and his head bobbing in quick nods. And then: “I gotta go to college!”

Yes, this really is a true story. Chocolate milk on tap convinced Chad to ditch his job and head down the highway the following year. Chocolate milk on tap changed his life because anything on tap is great.

Let’s count down some killer classics:

• Slurpees. Flip the switch sideways and let the crystal cola slide smoothly into your cup like a snake. For bonus points, mix and match flavors until your drink looks like the surface of Jupiter.

• Brown soda. Did you ever get behind an open bar at a wedding when you were a kid? Hey, if you remember mixing tall glasses full of fountain Coke, Sprite, Orange, and Root Beer into delightfully tangy swill, you had a great childhood.

• Beer at a keg party. Forget the bottles and cans for a night. Now it’s time for some foamy pumping. If you’re the one guy who actually knows how to tap the keg then you’re the official dude responsible for keeping everyone’s red plastic cups full tonight.

• Maple syrup. Just toss on your hiking boots in the dead of winter, walk silently to the middle of the forest, and tap that tree to get it done, son. It’s time to get sticky.

• Soft serve ice cream. Don’t you love it when your local all-you-can-eat buffet has that soft serve ice cream machine sitting right in the open? You can squeeze a little swirl into your warm, plastic wet-from-the-dishwasher bowl, or go cowboy and build the tallest, swirliest ice cream known to man.

• Water. If you’ve got a drink in the kitchen, clean hands in the bathroom, and a hot shower in the tub, then today’s your day to say thanks.

• Nacho cheese at 7-Eleven. Now here’s the heaviest hitter of all. When you swirl your salty 7-Eleven nachos under that hot pump of oozing cheese, you’re in for a good night. I once saw a guy fill up a Big Gulp cup with the stuff and take it home. The cashier was so surprised that she just charged him for a soft drink. Good deal, man.

People, listen up: when you come face to face with anything on tap all Coke cans and beer bottles fade to dark black. You grab control of the boat and start pumping nozzles and squeezing triggers with reckless abandon, breaking free of the tight shackles of portion control and sailing deeper and deeper into a shadowy paradise of no rules … no order … and no limits.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, here, here, and here

Because you feel like you own the place.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Cruising cops cause traffic stops.

Yes indeedy, the rest of us law-aspiring citizens immediately slow to a speed limit cruise when we spot cops silently swerving behind our bumpers. We’re the jittery school of fish with jumpy eyes and they’re the silent shark swimming over to our lane.

With our hearts drum-thumping and our white-knuckled hands gripping the wheel we temporarily become Super Drivers — using our signals, leaving space, and checking our mirrors every two seconds.

We don’t know if the cop is eyeballing us, about to flick its flashers,  or typing our license plate into its computer, so we’re in a heightened state of driving. And sometimes the cop sort of sits behind you for a while, too. Seconds tick like hours when Yourtown’s Finest stick to your heels and force questions through your brain: Was I actually speeding? Should I change lanes? Does he want me to speed up?

Everything slowly and slowly builds and builds to a bigger and bigger feeling of tension and pain…

… until he finally just zooms off into the distance, never to be heard from again.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

Nobody’s gonna tell you you stink.

Honestly, the much-needed finger-pointing, nose-pinching tipoff is harder to spot than an albino Bigfoot.

See, there are limits to the amount of quiet social tips we’re willing to toss out there. When your tag’s hanging out the back of your sweater, we’re on it. When there’s a slimy parsley leaf stuck between your two front teeth, we’ll let you know. And if one of your collars is flipped up, we’ll get it for you.

But if there’s a cloud of B.O. flying off you with big stink-lines going in all directions, well then you’re on your own.

That’s why it’s great to snag a quiet moment to sniff your pits and make sure that deodorant’s working.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here and here

You are charged with one count of checking yourself out in the mirror, two counts of irresponsible couch usage, four counts of shower-to-bedroom carpet drippage, and seventeen counts of temporary nudity of the first degree.

How do you plead?

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Because anything could happen. And maybe anything will.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

That was a tough one.

Come on in and stop for a second to shake your head, dust yourself off, and look back at how far you’ve come.

Sure, it’s been a long year. Some crushing lows slapped you and smacked you around. There were times your heart dipped and you squinted back tears while your stomach squeezed so tightly you couldn’t sleep. There were moments you walked around in a glossy-eyeball daze — when loved ones hurt, friends didn’t stay, or someone dear to your heart slowly drifted away.

Sleepless nights, stressful nights, with teething babies, slurring customers, bad bosses, bickering boyfriends, or blank computer screens. You were feeling and you were dealing and you were reeling and you were healing.

But as you walked your hard path down your long and bumpy road some little drops of confidence dripped like coffee into your head and into your heart. As you stumbled and got back up a quiet inner strength slowly seeped into your bones. And as you climbed over obstacles set in your way some relaxed satisfaction and growing self-awareness glimmered like bright lights at the bottom of your stomach.

Yes, this year changed you and grew you in so many ways you don’t even feel or notice yet. As you struggled you empathized, as you slipped you understood, as you worked you earned…

… as you looked you learned

… … as you dared you grew

… … … and as you jumped you flew.

Your dreams are still focusing and your passion is growing. Your energy is still bubbling and your story keeps going.

You’ve been through so much and gained a year’s supply of experience along the way. You’re stronger than you were last year and stronger than you realize. Sure, there were times you bent, but you definitely didn’t break. There were times you caved, but you definitely didn’t flake.

Listen up: you got bigger, you got better, and you got the scars to prove it.

So stop for a second today to smile and look back at everything you’ve done this year… everything you’ve seen… everywhere you’ve been…

You’ve taken more illegal naps and had more blurry-eyed late nights.

You’ve danced to more wedding songs and smiled at more beautiful sights.

You’ve seen more scorching sunsets and heard more head-bopping songs.

You’ve tripped a few times, but baby, you kept rolling right along.

Yes, you’ve hugged more old friends and kissed some brand new pretty faces.

You’ve cheered more on the sidelines and visited some brand new pretty places.

You tasted more meals, you got more deals, and you’ve sniffed more flower blossoms.

And you made it all the way through this year because you’re so completely

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, here, and here

It’s a big deal.

When I was a little kid my friends and I took pictures of the TV screen after setting new high scores. It was so important to us we’d even mail the photos to video game magazines hoping they’d splash them across their pages as a late-breaking scoop.

Two eight-year-olds defeat Bowser in epic battle

No-holds-barred streetfight in turtle-dragon-thing’s lair features fire balls and flying hammers

Yes, if you’ve been there you know the road to setting a new high score is paved with lots of swearing, thrown controllers, and empty soda cans. Blurry eyes, all-day bedhead, and expanding pit stains are the mark of these basement-dwelling champions.

Now, while cracking top spot at home offers a big rush, there’s something to be said about the rare moment you actually pull it off in an arcade.

After all, you’ve probably dumped a few buckets of quarters into the machine just to get to M. Bison, so the payoff is your treat for spending weeks of allowance and candy money. Also, you get to put your initials into the machine which means you can you can go with your actual initials, the AAA default, or the filthiest three-letter-word you know. Just make sure nobody unplugs the machine and have a couple witnesses so you’ve got proof of being the ASS at Tony’s Pizza Slice who racked up 171,000 points on Ms. Pac Man.

Setting a new high score on a video game is moment of total euphoria. Your heart speeds up and your brain flies off as you realize you’re making it big. Yes, you turned tightly on Rainbow Road, nailed a Tetris when the screen was full, and hit all the right notes on Cowboys from Hell.

The blisters, eyestrain, and malnutrition was worth it, you think to yourself, as you survey your dark and seedy den of empty chip bags, greasy pizza boxes, and dirty socks. And as that slow smile curls across your face make sure you take a moment to nod at the TV screen and bask in your glowing moment of guts and glory.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

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Suddenly you’re a VIP.

Yes, the dance party turns into a private rockout in your messy apartment as you jump on the floor, nod at the DJ, and start bringing down the house with your superfly moves.

Cristal for everybody!

AWESOME!

Photo from: here