This may sound weird to some people, but I’m not really a big fan of eating. I should clarify that though: I AM a big fan of food, but the act of shoveling food into our faces…not a big fan. When someone says, “Let’s all sit down for a nice long meal” I just groan inside because I can’t really see any bigger waste of time. Just because we need food to survive we are forced to sit down and chew three times a day, every day. If we are sitting with someone we are also forced to make conversation with that person, even though as a child we were told to not speak with our mouth full of food. So we either have to take very small bites or start up an intricate dance where we carefully plan each bite to coincide with when the other person plans to speak, hoping they will talk long enough for you to swallow what you are eating without choking. Of course, if they are of the quick answer variety you will be doing most of the talking, while you longingly look at your plate of food quickly losing all of its heat and flavor. I’m personally the kind of guy who likes to eat his food as fast as possible (without looking like a slob–damn you manners!) and then if I want to talk we can do that afterwards. Eating is just too time consuming though. I can’t be anchored to my plate. Freedom, baby!