Chris P. O'Connell

In the middle of last week, I flew out from my current home of Central Florida up to Bradley Airport in Connecticut . From there, as is typical of my visits to the New England region, I went to Western Massachusetts to spend a few days chilling out and goofing around with family and friends. After that, it was off to the beautiful, green, cell phone reception-killing mountains of Vermont , where I proudly watched some good friends start a new life together. Usually, I'm quite cynical as to guessing how long most marriages will last, but I think these two are for keeps. When you look at them together, the love is very evident... along with potential long-term makings of quirky grandparents for almost any sitcom. ;) Well anyhoo, after all that mushy knot-tying action, it was back to Connecticut for me, so I could fly out to sexy Las Vegas ... and while I have been to other parts of Nevada before, this was my first real Vegas adventure! Even though I'm not much o

Life is composed of many kinds of ups and downs and most people often seem to be either in a state of utter happiness or dwelling on all that is horrid with their world. Some say, the best place to be is right in the middle, content with life, feeling graced by whatever they think is nice and coping with all that could be better.  Personally, I say that's a load of crap. The lows in life are inevitable and they may be more difficult to cope with when they come right after a series of truly great moments, but what if you know how to hang on to the feeling of those great moments? What if those great moments give you something better to shoot for and inspire you to step up and conquer when an opportunity really presents itself? I had a really crappy week last week. To my knowledge, nobody significant to me died and beyond routine headaches and stress, I wasn't really sick or injured or anything like that. The week just simply sucked, Friday the 13th and all! At the start of