So I was on the train home today from a phenomenal NYC trip, and the train was super-crowded. Three of us were on a seat – a middle-aged man on the end seat, a guy my age in the middle (Chris), and me at the window.

Anyway, Chris was reading a Steinbeck book I’d just finished, and I commented on it. We ended up talking the entire 78 minute trip about lots of stuff – Steinbeck, traveling, his job with Jet Blue, etc.

The man at the end didn’t say anything until he was about to get off at his stop. When he did, he told us that he couldn’t help but overhear us talking and that he had to thank us for making him smile. He said he’d been in South America for 8 years and we reminded him how great it was to travel, he loved hearing us talk about Steinbeck (and gave us a book recommendation), enjoyed hearing about the other stuff, etc.

After that, he reached into his bag and gave us a bottle of champagne (guess he was bringing it to someone for Christmas) and gave it to us. He said that he only had one bottle for two of us, so we had to figure out a way to share it.

I think we’re going to share the champagne when Chris passes through the train station near me again on Sunday. Isn’t that rad?

Kind of seems like a good Christmas story too.

It also reminds me of the movie Pay It Forward (one of my two favorite movies). In case you haven’t seen that yet, here’s the trailer (go rent it!):

Made a quick video blog to share my experiences so far.

Hahaha… Brian and I have a blog up with lots of videos (2009mastermind.com). Someone wrote to Brian and said I need to work on presenting better, and that I try too hard to be seductive because I play with my hair too much.

That made me crack up.

First… I’m the least seductive person ever.

I just have a lot of hair.

Second… I never claimed interest in becoming a polished speaker.

(Just wanted to get over fear of speaking with Toastmaster’s).

Not sure why I felt compelled to say awesome, amazing, great a zillion times, but here it is: