Recently I had a house guest who said to me, “Am I going to get my own room?” I said, “Yes, you are going to sleep on an air mattress in my office. We only have two bedrooms, and the second bedroom is basically Sonja’s storage room.

So he said to me, “Nothing with a door?” I said, “No. You are going to be on the third floor of my house, though, and no one will be up there but you.” He said, “I am a really private person. Can you maybe clean up the second bedroom so I can sleep in there?”

This really surprised me. You are someone’s guest. They are saving you money. They are putting you up and allowing your energy in their house for a few days. I know when I stay at someone’s house, all I ever care about is whether a bed and thanking the person for letting me stay with them.

Some people, however, are very demanding when they are a house guest. Some people need to always have their things around them, and they can’t get out of their comfort zone.

So how does this tie into dating? It does. When you sleep over someone’s house for the very first time, are you cool about it or are you demanding about it?

The great thing about life is experiencing different things. Another great thing about life is being open. You need to open yourself up if you are a demanding house guest.

I know when I went to visit Sonja’s family in New Orleans, I preferred to stay in a hotel because it was quieter and easier. Staying with her family, though, gives me an opportunity to really hang out with them and to get to know them better.

So maybe I am not as comfortable as I normally am by staying with them, but sometimes it is not about comfort. Sometimes it is about the experience of getting to know new people and letting them getting to know you.

There are two kinds of old people: there are those that you meet and you have like a magical experience, because they are just celebrating their amazing lives. They are full of life and wisdom and you just sit there captivated by them. You can almost see the young kid they were in their eyes.

The other kind of old person is the miserable one. They don’t say, “excuse me,” they give you dirty looks, they’re just miserable.

Rich said something really interesting: by that age, you’ve either won or you’ve lost. And the ones that are miserable are the ones that have lost – and they know it. They lost in life. And they are pissed off at the world. They are pissed off that their life wasn’t that great. They are pissed off that their life is gone.

But what’s interesting is that your life is never gone – ever. So you’ve had a shitty first 74 years? So what? It doesn’t mean (if you live until you’re 85) that the last 11 years can’t be spectacular!

Life is not about winning or losing – it’s about embracing. Life is about enjoying. Life is about going with the flow and it’s not about being bitter about the things that you didn’t do. It’s about making the changes so that you can do the things that you want right now.

You’re never too old to learn this lesson. You’re never too old to live, and you’re never too old to enjoy yourself.

So if I have any bitter, old readers: start living your life every day! If the first 74 years sucked, it doesn’t mean the last 11 have to too!

Whenever you are on the subway – the tube in England – or in a crowded restaurant, and a British person bumps into you, they will immediately look at you and say, “sorry,” or “pardon me,” or “excuse me.” But Americans seem to have this incredible lack of knowledge about the term “excuse me” or the word “sorry.”

So I was walking through the crowd at the Coldplay show and this woman walks directly towards me. I looked at my buddy and I said, “I bet you a bottle of water,” (since we’re both such big drinkers,) “that she doesn’t say excuse me. I bet you she will just walk right into me and I’ll just stop.”

I’m walking towards her, I stop right in front of her, and she walks right into me. I looked at her, and I said, “excuse me!” and she didn’t say a word. I looked at her again and said, “the term is ‘excuse me.’ If you use this term, people will get out of your way.”

She looks at me again, and then walks into me again. I said, “the term is ‘excuse me,’ right? Did anyone ever teach it to you?” So she looked at me one more time, said, “I have to go find my friends,” and I said, “that’s not very close to ‘excuse me.’” She responded, “get out of my way?” And I said, “well, I guess that’s close enough!”

And I was thinking to myself: is this an isolated incident? I realized that it’s not.

I was recently in Sante Fe, New Mexico, a great, laid-back, beautiful mountain town. I was with a British friend of mine in Whole Foods. I said to her, “god, it’s like nobody says ‘excuse me’ here!” We had been walking by the salad bar, and a woman grabbed the utensils next to us, picks up the lettuce, dropping a piece onto my plate – and doesn’t even say a word! She didn’t say ‘excuse me’ or anything.

So I said to my friend, “let’s just walk right in the middle and when people are coming down with their carts, let’s just walk directly towards them and see if they say excuse me first.” Not once did anybody say ‘excuse me.’

What’s up with the manners? I just don’t get it! Are we so self-involved? Are we so caught up in our own little world? Are we thinking that we are the only person that exists?

I always say ‘excuse me.’ Good manners are really attractive.

Now the question that I’m going to pose to all of you today is this: are you an ‘excuse me’ person, a ‘pardon me’ person, or, anonymously, are you one of those people that don’t say a single thing? You just walk right through people, not saying ‘excuse me’ and you have no manners?

There seem to be a lot of you types running around, and I don’t understand the epidemic that seems to be spreading around the country. We’re going to start getting people to say ‘excuse me’ again.

People no longer have approach anxiety, but excuse me anxiety!