RUN IN WITH SHAUN WHITE

As I am walking through the LAX airport early Thursday morning on my way to Tucson, Arizona with my new Apple laptop weighing heavily on my shoulder and my purse filled with notes, rosters and information on spring training, I practically drop everything on the ground when I see curly red-haired Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White walking through the terminal.

"Shaun!" I shout as he spins around.

"What's up, man! How you been?" he says.

"I liked your new ESPN cover this month," I say. "I started writing for the mag and I have my first item in that issue."

"No way, that's awesome!" he says smiling. I feel pretty cool having my buddy Shaun White congratulate me on my meager 150 words that are buried in the mag, considering he graces one of the 10 covers for the anniversary issue.


"Playing some guitar?" I say pointing to the huge black guitar case he is clutching.

"Been rockin' some stuff," he laughs.

Granted, I would consider Shaun and I somewhat pals having hung out a bunch with mutual friends, but he is still Shaun White - he has mastered skateboarding and snowboarding, he has an Olympic gold medal and eight X-Games gold medals - any compliment from him is well received. Now off to Tucson!

SIDE NOTE: The flight attendant on my flight was apparently practicing a stand-up routine. "Sorry about the delay folks, the bad news is we are going to have to wait a few more minutes to take off," she tells the packed plane before pausing - "The good news is I just saved a ton of money on my car insurance using Geico." The passengers offer up a mediocre pity laugh, while I toss my sweatshirt over my head and fall asleep.