AWESOME!

This drawing and many, many more are featured exclusively in The Calendar of Awesome. (Now available!) Read the first 20 pages of the calendar here.

It’s a Solo Chuckle.

Laughing when you’re by yourself happens when you’re watching a forwarded video in your dimly lit dormroom, lying in the La-Z-Boy catching a TV Treasure Chest Moment, or just having a little Laugh Echo as you’re about to fall asleep.

Now there’s something special and something sincere about laughing when nobody’s around or watching you. Group laugh attacks, fake business laughs, and contagious laughs are all ruled out. Now it’s just you and you alone enjoying a little side-splitting moment on the couch.

AWESOME!

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Photo from: here

I have a slow commute.

Living downtown and working in the burbs means I jam through highways and sidestreets coming home every night. Sideways rain and hockey games slow everything down and sometimes I find myself tire-crawling all the way.

I’m a fidgety person so when I’m stuck in the stop and go I find myself spacing out and flipping through the radio. I daydream, pick my nose, and phone friends. I crank tunes, sing along, and snap back again. Sometimes I find myself in my parking garage and come to the jarring realization that I have no memory of my entire drive home. “Hmm, thanks Ghost Me,” I think, slamming the door.

Now it was on one of those traffic-jammy drives last week when I found myself cruising under a rusty old bridge. As I was passing under it, I let my eyes peek up into the crusty cobweb coated rafters and noticed an army of pigeons all wedged together up there. My eyes refocused to make sure I was seeing it right but then, sure enough, there really was hundreds of the fat birds all standing tall on a big rusty beam–slash–their toilets.

When I see pigeons they’re usually solo. I guess I always assumed they led lonely lives picking crumbs from sewer grates and fighting for crusts behind the pizza place. That’s why it made me happy seeing them all hanging together under the bridge. It was like the Pigeon Country Club up there. Membership was tough and you had to come early to score a good seat.

I liked thinking how money had no place in their lives at all. Nobody spent more to get a better lake view or upgraded their spot to one without bird crap. It was just first come, first serve, shove over to let another bird in. They didn’t say anything but seemed happy. They didn’t move but they seemed content.

Animal hangouts are a little reminder we’re all looking for the same thing: good family and friends, cozy company, and fun times that come from coming together. Whether it’s pigeons hanging under the bridge, moths flapping together by the porch light, or crabs huddling near the ocean vent, animal hangouts are a reminder that life’s a lot more fun in groups.

Let’s get together.

AWESOME!

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Photos from: here, here, and here

Nothing worse than a wobbler.

Water glasses start spilling, silverware starts clattering, and conversations get the bump-off when the table goes thumping and your dinner plate gets jumping. That’s when it’s time to quadruple-fold a napkin and get your hands dirty in those tiny pebbles and sand by the table legs.

Now wedge it right in there, brush your hands off, and give the table a test shake.

How does that feel?

AWESOME!

New! Pre-order The Book of (Holiday) Awesome at Indigo or Amazon

Photo from: here

Here’s one for you.

Did you know that pockets and purses are distant cousins? Well, sure enough, grandma, it’s true!

See, there were once no pockets. Before the 1500s everyone presumably stuffed cell phones into socks and stored minivan keyless remotes under top hats. But eventually folks starting carrying around little bags to hold their things and the family tree eventually split into pants pockets and big purses.

These days pockets are great for a few big reasons:

1. Man Purse Backups. Guys, you know the pain of lugging around your wallet, keys, and phone without a handy side satchel holding everything. Sure, sometimes you can count on a Purse Lady to hook you up, but more often than not it’s down to the pockets.

2. Instant hand warmers. Spending your money on gloves and mitts is fine, but even better is the cheapo method of deep-digging them into your jeans pockets for some hot, hot thigh loving.

3. Flexible like a gymnast. Pockets of air in rooms that are quickly filling with gushing water are life-saving and make for exciting movie scenes. And pockets of air bubbles can provide hours of amusement. Plus, let’s not forget that pizza pockets and pita pockets can be tasty and delicious.*

Oh sure, sure, I’m the same as you, mindlessly stuffing my hands in my pockets all day without really imagining the fairly recent world where they didn’t even exist. Nowadays we bell our bottoms, fade our jeans, and pre-wrinkle our T-shirts, but there was a day when we just wrapped ourselves in what we had and kept on trucking. Perhaps back then nobody could have predicted the long line of Clothing Technology that evolved over time to include zippers, Velcro, and Genera Hypercolor T-Shirts.

AWESOME!

(*Unless filled with alfalfa.)

Photos from: here, here, and here

We’ll miss you, Steve. Thank you for showing us the power of passion.

And thank you for being

AWESOME!

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

It’s pretty simple.

A line of kids hold hands on one side of the playground while a kid from the other side runs at them with a head full of steam and tries to bust through.

The game’s not over until the field is littered with broken arms, bloody noses, and shattered glasses.

It’s one of the most dangerous playground games out there.

And one of the most fun.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Baby, you can drive my car.

At least sometimes I feel that way when I’m caught in a yellow-light staredown and suddenly find myself death-gripping the wheel while make that split-second decision to fly through or slam the brakes.

It’s very stressful.

If you’re like me sometimes you’re in the middle of the intersection when you suddenly think: “Oh shoot… I shouldn’t have gone.”

When that happens it’s always satisfying to see the car behind you come through the intersection, too. I mean, you thought you were pushing it, but just look at that guy. Suddenly your move is totally justified and police officer’s job is a whole lot easier.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

My friend Chad doesn’t run.

Sure, he does a lot of things well, like teach, be a great friend, and write a blog, but the man doesn’t run, doesn’t enjoy running, and doesn’t think about running. Nope, he’s no bib-wearing, calf-stretching, fancy-shoe-buying runner, and you know what? He’s cool with that.

That’s why I was surprised when Chad told me recently that he and his wife Kristen were visiting her brother in Florida when they decided to go for a run. “Go for a run?,” I asked. “Go for a run,” he said, eyebrows popped up and nodding, like he hardly believed it himself. But he’s also a man who says yes a lot so he decided to throw caution into the wind and just go with the flow.

Chad told me it was his first time running outside with other people. He wasn’t sure how to pace himself so he suddenly raced to the front of their three-person pack. Sun was beaming down on him, wind was blowing in his face, and another runner was racing up to him coming the other way.

Since Chad wasn’t familiar with Running Protocol he let instinct take over and put his hand up for a high five as he approached the other runner. The other guy got a huge smile on his face and gave a loud, cracking high five back, before high fiving Chad’s wife and brother-in-law, too.

And it was a beautiful moment.

Because there’s something special about the stranger-to-stranger high five.

Whether it’s screaming fans outside the stadium after a big comeback win, a smiling stranger high-fiving a smiling baby on the subway, or a group of cyclists at the finish line of a long charity ride, it’s always great when emotions bubble up and insecurities fade away in favor of enjoying a cracking high five moment and living for the day.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, and here

Do you remember wearing a diaper?

Well, you did, you did, and you looked good in it, too. You crawled around hallways, yanked the dog’s tail, and screamed like a banshee in that diaper-padded butt. Chances are good someone took pictures of you doing it. Chances are good the camera kept clicking through your grass-stain-and-pimple-filled childhood, too.

The evidence exists.

Coming across those old photos of your boyfriend or girlfriend these days is great … for a few big reasons:

1. Coloring in the lines. When you’re falling head over heels for somebody, you just can’t get enough of them. If you’ve ever said “I wish I knew you before!” or “Where have you been all my life?”, then old photos are your best way into their past.*

2. Awkwardness Anonymous. At the start of the relationship everyone’s on their best behavior. New pants, muted farts, and deodorant double-swiping is the norm. Which is why sharing old photos builds so much trust. We get to see into your geeky past, when metal mouths, Coke-bottle glasses, and gap-toothed grins were the norm.

3. They’re just plain ol’ cute. Because you were a chubby-cheeked one-year-old with wide eyes and a button nose at some point. We won’t ask what happened.

When you see those old photos of your boyfriend or girlfriend it’s like your pasts and your futures start slowly twisting together. Stories pop out of birthday cake blowouts, histories bloom out of family reunions, and long lives lived seem to fill in before your eyes as you finger flip through dog-eared albums on the old basement couch.

AWESOME!

(*Until the Holodeck gets invented.)

Photo from: Mikira and here