I'm on my way to NYC to visit my brother for the weekend, and the act I just recently committed may have qualified me for the 2009 Darwin Awards.

After having lived in Chicago for a year and a half, you'd think I would have learned my lesson about flying out of O'Hare by now. But you'd be wrong. Like an idiot, I showed up on time (early, even!) for my noon flight to NYC on a snow-free day simply expecting for my Continental Airlines flight to be reasonably on-time. I even checked the flight status of the airplane's previous flight this morning to make sure everything was flowing smoothly. And in doing so, I could not have been more ignorant.

If you fly out of O'Hare with any sort of regularity, you're used to nothing being on time and you likely have a favorite place where you waste away your life in waiting for your flight to arrive/depart. It's quite surprising to me when my flight is anywhere near on-time -- even when flying into the airport -- so my decision to wake up at a reasonable hour this morning seems pretty stupid right now. My sanity remains intact thanks jointly to Quizno's and my AT&T broadband card.

On a slightly different note, my buddy Nate was telling me about how he spanked his surgery exam this morning when an interesting bit of convo came up:

Nate: just had our surgery exam today. shiiiip!
Me: nice
Me: did you keep a piece of the dude's insides as a trophy
Nate: haha no but this doctor in new jersey got arrested the other day
Nate: well like a year ago
Nate: for keeping a hand from a cadaver's body
Nate: and giving it to a stripper as a present
Me: genius

I'm still unsure about whether or not this guy's actions are dumber than my showing up early for my flight today. What do you guys think?