Life's Little Reliefs or Pulled Over by a Chopper

There are plenty of instances in life where one experiences intense moments of anxiety, but then, for whatever reason, that fear is immediately alleviated. One of my reoccurring examples is waking up after having a dream that I had forgotten to go to class for the whole semester and it is the day of the final. It usually takes me a few seconds after I am awake to realize I have been out of college for awhile now and I have my diplomas to prove it. I flop my head back down on the pillow and exhale as I sink back into the bed.

Monday morning, I had another enormous exhale moment while driving down Murphy Lane. I was going my normal speed, just a few over the limit, when I heard a rapid thump, thump, thump sound. When I heard this, for some reason my brain also led me to believe my car was pulling hard to the right. Wonderful...a flat tire! I pulled onto a side street and onto an asphalt pad cutout on the side of the road. I open my door to get out and I hear a rapid "thump, thump, thump... I look up to see an Apache helicopter slowly flying overhead. I didn't really believe that was what I heard until I checked out all four tires. I looked up and watched it disappear behind the tree line, took a deep breath, and drove off a much relieved individual. However, this incident puts things in perspective. In the United States, I am relieved my car didn't have a flat and that it was the props on an Apache helicopter. In other countries, they are just relieved that the Apache helicopter overhead is not firing ammunition.

Current Reading

I haven't read much the past couple weeks, but I hope I can get back into it with some time off coming up. Also, it seems things are slowly beginning to get back to normal.

I am currently halfway through "The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet" by Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I picked it up at Half-Price Books as I was trying to decide what to read next. I thought it would make good filler inbetween my "must reads." I heard a few years ago about the controversy surrounding the status of Pluto's planethood, but never new the motives behind the discussions. The book is very entertaining and enlightening.

Even more so than Carl Sagan, Tyson makes the book accessible to everyone and has written an interesting book, even if you have no more than a passing interest in planetary science. He does a great job of combining the history and discovery of Pluto, planetary science and funny, interesting anecdotes surrounding the planet and it's name.

I highly recommend it to anyone and I am more than willing to loan it out when I am done. It is a quick read as long as you are reading it and don't put it down for weeks like I have.

A Christmas Story

I found this video on Youtube discussing the common them among "chosen ones" and comparing them to Jesus. I have no idea how accurate this video is, but I think there is quite abit of truth in it, even if it is a stretch.