Do you remember a song from BoneyM called “Rasputin”? It ended just like that “Oh, Those Russians”. Take a look at these Russian kids. No wonder they’re some of the best in the world when it comes to gymnastics. (Note: give the video some time to load. Put it on pause, let it load and then watch it.)

You’re not the only one.

It’s been quite cold over here the past week. It made me crave for summer. I never told anyone though. Why? Well, let’s see…

I was born and raised in a 4 seasons climate (spring, summer, fall and winter). I love all seasons. As far as I’m concerned they all have their beauties.

However, until mid last year, I had lived in Florida for 4 years. For those who don’t know, it’s summer all year long down there. It’s true that in the winter there’s a chance of some colder weather, but nothing exceptional. And it’s just for a couple of weeks to a month the most.

I hated it! I’m not fond of Florida for various reasons, but for the purpose of this post I’ll limit myself to the weather.

The weird thing is that while, as I said I love all seasons, my favorite one is the summer. However, having summer all year long, just took the fun out of it. I got to the point where I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I was craving cold weather and snow (winter). All of my friends know about my position. That’s why I haven’t told anyone that for the past couple of days I wished it were summer. What? Give them a reason to make fun of me? Get real!

I couldn’t help myself not think about what made me hate my favorite season (summer), crave for winter and now wish it were summer again.

It really bugged me. The first and simplest explanation I thought of was that “it’s human nature; we’re never happy with what we have.” I haven’t ruled that out completely yet and I think I never will. (But about that some other time.)

A couple of days back I was visiting a friend of mine and saw a couple of bananas on his kitchen table. I normally grab one; but this time I didn’t want any. It’s not the first time (it actually happened quite a lot lately), however, for some reason, I made a quick connection between me not wanting any bananas and hating summer for the past few years. I must say there’s a similiraity between the two of them in that bananas are my favorite fruits and normally I never miss a chance to have one.

Why is it that, over time, I’ve lost interest in these two things (which are my favorites in their categories)?

And I kept thinking about it. The more I thought about it, the more examples came to mind.

I soon realized there was a pattern to all of this: whenever I have something I really like in excess, sooner or later I lose interest in it. I realized that the things I enjoy the most in my life I enjoy because I don’t have access to them all the time.

I used to be a TV junkie. The only reason I started hating it was because I was wasting a lot of time. However, there was another thing going on: it seemed as if I wasn’t enjoying a movie or show as many others did, no matter how good they were. Since I managed to unhook myself, I realized that when I do watch a show (which is probably once a week) I really love the heck out of the experience.

When I was in college I used to go out (clubs, parties etc.) at least every other night. I knew all the clubs, bars and pubs in town. I got to the point where when someone would come with the idea of going out I would be like: “Yeah, whatever. Just let me know where you wanna go and I’ll meet you there” without the slightest trail of excitement. These days, when I go out (which is porbably once every two or three months), I feel like the world is mine. I’m worse than a kid going to DisneyLand.

And I could go on forever.

I don’t know about you, but, as I said - for me - when I end up doing, eating etc. something I really love on a constant basis, I loose interest in that thing. I need to hold myself back in order to keep on enjoying them to their greatest extent.

In other words: MODERATION, MODERATION AND SOME MORE MODERATION.

I got home last night at around 2 o’clock in the morning (gimme a break - I was working). As I was getting ready for a shower I turned on the TV to watch some news.

What I saw left me speechless. Apparently, to get through the back doors of the Chicago O’Hare International Airport, one would only need a card that you swipe and get access to (pretty much) everything. Quite standard procedure you might think. How about if I told you that there’s hundreds of former employees of the airport, law enforcement agencies and companies who have contracts with the airport for certain services (such as cleaning) who have never turned in their cards after leaving their jobs? Cards that are still working. Nobody bothered to cancel them or try to get them back.

What does all this mean? Well, any former employee still has access to the back stage of the airport. Any of them could get on any plane without a problem. From this moment on just use your imagination as to what could happen. Oh, and to help you sleep better on your next flight from O’Hare, one of these former employees is a guy with 3 aliases, a bunch of arrests and, if I’m not mistaken, a couple of convictions as well. How did this guy get such a job in the first place? Anyway, sweet dreams!

The whole thing started with the guy who reported the news finding, in a dumpster, a bunch of files of former employees of one of the companies that provides services for the airport. These files contained social security numbers, addresses, bank accounts (for direct deposits) and other personal information.

Now, I’m not for going crazy over security issues. But when I see that basic measures are not beeing taken by some (disabling a card belonging to a former employee or shredding documents that are being trashed - which I believe is not that hard to do), I kind of can’t help but think: “Why the heck do I need to take my shoes off when I go through an airport security check point, when others (with questionable backgrounds) have such easy access to an airplane?” and “Thank God I’m self employed and I don’t have to trust a stupid comapny with my personal information!”

God help us!

Give it about 2 minutes and you’ll see probably the funniest laugh in the world.