START THE MUSIC: Today's an all-day meeting, starting in moments and running straight through until 6:30PM. Then I rush to the airport, dump the rental car, and try and get my butt home before midnight. Long day!

I no longer marvel that people can do this, can find the energy and will to get through a work day that starts at 7:30AM and doesn't end until almost the next day. I see it nearly every week. What I do still marvel at is that people choose to live like this. Given the wide range of available options, I'm literally startled sometimes -- as in, "Huh?" -- that there exists a class of folks, among which you may count me, that keeps putting quarters in this particular carousel.