Another lunch at Ballet results in the following fortune cookie distribution …

”Success and happiness will come your way.” – Ivan
”You will be admired for internal beauty.” – Todd
”You will meet someone famous.” – Eric
”Good health is in your future.” – Josh
”You will soon meet a helpful person.” – Bob
”Your popularity will increase.” – Daniel

My predictions:
Ivan will move to Slovakia.
Todd will get engaged.
Eric will meet Gerald Sussman.
Josh will bike to work more often.
Bob will soon meet a helpful person.
Someone will subscribe to me today.

Erik is still on a vipassana meditation retreat and appropriately did not collect a fortune today.

Yesterday during lunch we talked about exploiting the occasion of a major move to radically reduce one’s possessions. Pretty much everyone at the Co-op has gone through some transformative event in their lives, be it a major geographical move, a divorce, a career change, or what have you. And we’ve all decided to simplify at the same time. We suggested that Bob get rid of everything before he goes to Scotland. The jury’s out on whether he’ll go for it. We joked about buying his fancy, barely driven Mini and sharing it as the company Flexcar.

We also took another pass at the “how much blah do you need to be happy” discussion. Josh proposed that asking for a monetary value is no more sensical than asking how much air, or how many calories, or how many friends. I think what he means is that there’s no correct answer, not because each person has their own scale, but because the idea of reaching happiness quantitatively is absurd.