You probably noticed I was gone for awhile again. (Or maybe you didn’t; but I certainly did.) I attended the National Speakers Association (NSA) winter conference, this year held in San Francisco. NSA does this at least twice a year to help those of us in the association better our craft. (Of course, if you go to a convention of speakers, you’re lucky to get a word in edgewise.)

I drove down with a good friend of mine, Scott Hammond (of BecomeABetterFather.com).  Whereby my style of dieting is to try and avoid everything I can, eat basically salads, and keep everything out of sight, Scott seems to just manage his intake better than I do and is more diligent than I about his exercise regime so he frequents different restaurants than do I.

Although we don’t travel together a great deal, we have a few times and each of those times, there is the required stop at In and Out Burger. Every time I tell someone we stopped at In and Out Burger, they go all gonzo on me, almost drooling in some sort of Pavlovian response to  the very name. I don’t think I got as much of a reaction when I told people I saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre as when I told them I ate at In-N-Out.

"Wow! Isn’t it great?" they ask. "You’re so lucky!" "Don’t you just love it?"

Maybe it’s because I don’t eat hamburgers very often but I gotta admit,
I just don’t get the mania I mean, there’s nothing wrong with them, and I
know, I know already (stop telling me!) that everything they cook is
fresh and nothing is made in advance, but for goodness sake, it’s a piece of meat in a bun! Can we get a grip?

The other thing I don’t care about hearkens back to Yogi Berra’s quote, "Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded." I’ve only been there twice but each time it was pandemonium; long lines, big crowds, general mayhem. Maybe that’s more verification that everybody else sees (or tastes) something that I don’t, but to me, standing in a long line, and then not being able to find a seat, to eat a simple hamburger so loaded with calories that it sets back my diet is just not enticing. Nothing against them, but it’s not for me. Would everyone please, please stop trying to convert me? I’m sticking with a salad.

That said, Scott also likes to stop at Coldstone Creamery. If you haven’t been to Coldstone Creamery, it’s an ice cream store where they smoosh, smash, and blend great flavored ice creams with all sorts of candied goodies. Granted, a whole lot of calories there too, but THAT, I get. I’m just glad there aren’t any here in Eureka or I’d never maintain my weight.