People tell me I'm smart and I believe them...

Warning: Hubris ahead. Horrible, horrible hubris. We're talking pride...arrogance...some other adjective with the same meaning (too lazy to look one up)...awful, sinful, prideful hubrisiness.

I've got a secret.

Ready?

I'll wait...

*Muzak plays, I'm sitting here with a frozen smile on my face*

Okay. Here goes...

I'm smart.

Or so I'm told I hear.

Okay, I'll cut out the buffoonery now; this post is really a plea to those who know me, love me, adore me, etc...please stop overselling me.

I know, I know, what a horrible problem to have...people have confidence in me, and they go about telling other people that I'm smart, and then I have these puzzling expectations to live up to. Look, the thing is, it's bad enough when I fail to live up to these expectations (Really, Lance? 'super smart?'), but it's worse because if I fail to live up to description, it makes the person who sold me as smart look like a bad judge of character.

***

This whole post, as you might be able to tell, is an inside joke, and it's dedicated to someone who "just happened to be there at a 'You-had-to-be-there'" moment; I've been thinking about you lately because I was cleaning out some things and pulled out the magic shoes. Hopefully some little girl from a reserve that was evacuated due to forest fires is playing in those shoes right now, and even though she'll never understand what I went through to earn those shoes, you and I know :) Be well, friend.