Miss You, Mark.

This August 2nd will mark three years since the untimely death of a beautiful friend. I can't put into words how bright, unique, talented, kind, and unexpectedly hilarious my friend Mark Higbee was. It's been three years, but there's rarely a day that goes by without his crossing my mind. He is dearly missed and loved by everyone who was fortunate enough to share even a moment with him on this planet.

Moving along, it seems that Mark was quite the fan of one of my all-time best heroes, Mr. Dave Barry. If you frequent my blog, you know that Dave is featured as a regular in the right column. So, as a tribute to my friend Mark Higbee, I'm going to put Dave in the spotlight today...front and center spot on the blog! This little snippet was sent to me by Mark's mother, as a way of remembering him. Thank you, Annette, for sharing this with me.

I'm passing it on to you so you can have a good laugh. If you have any sense of humor at all, you WILL laugh. Oh yes, you WILL laugh.

19 THINGS THAT IT TOOK ME 50 YEARS TO LEARN by Dave Barry

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings".

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, HE WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.

6. You should not confuse your career with your life.

7. No matter what happens . . . somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy.

9. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

10. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

11. Never lick a steak knife.

12. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.

13. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

14. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

15. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

16. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

17. "The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

18. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.

19. Your friends love you anyway.