"Where did you find a blow torch?"

"We didn't find one, we made it ourselves - we just attached a lighter to a can of spray-deodorant. Best way to set cockroaches on fire, hands down. The entire apartment was cockroach-free after just a few minutes."

Every time I finish telling a story like this, my friends ask the same question. "How do you get yourself into these situations?" The answer is simple: Yes.

Yes can get you into all sorts of adventures, good or bad. If you say yes to everything, no matter where you're living or what you're doing, I guarantee things are going to be more exciting. Some days you'll only get lame questions like "Do you want extra chocolate with that?" but some days you'll hit jackpot with questions like "Do you want to learn how to gut a fish?" Keep saying yes and someday you too, can make your own blowtorch.

If you haven't read David Sedaris' essay "In the Waiting Room" then you should. He talks about doing the same thing in France, with the word "ok."

"The word was a key to a magic door, and every time I said it I felt the thrill of possibility."

Saying yes to everything means doing things I never planned on doing. Meeting a North African politician, eating chestnut paste, screaming anti-Sarkozy slogans at the top of my lungs, midnight fishing, square dancing with French teenagers, learning to break-dance from a 3-year-old Cape Verdian, helping a Polish tour guide install iTunes, scuba diving, and saving lost puppies.

It's easy to get yes-happy. Yes I will join your Christmas choir! Yes I will go to the Plague festival! Yes I would like some warm sugared milk! Yes I will take an alphabet class with Algerian immigrants!


Riding a carousel. Ok, this was not a really difficult yes.

Yes, I know I'm probably going to end up dead or with head lice. But for now I'm alive with a clean scalp, and every day is an adventure.