Someone likes to travel with little pieces of home. Sometimes I find (sports) posters in the suitcase, or homemade light switch covers featuring favorite athletes.. (which are basically posters with a nifty little hole cut out in the middle to allow for a light switch; what hotel room is complete without that?) These are quickly taped up in whatever condo/hotel in which we have holed up.
This time I found a portable basketball hoop, an accompanying basketball, and this:

A five pound weight.
Because, who doesn’t feel the urge to add weight to already bulging luggage? Who doesn’t wake up in a strange hotel room and yearn for nothing more than a barbell from home with which he can squat and lunge his way to happiness?
I thought about getting mad. I ran a little speech through my mind touching on themes of responsibility and common sense. But I was soon distracted. A large moose had wandered onto the hotel property and a certain ten year old boy had attempted to charge it.
Ah, travel.