The Obligatory Blog Entry

Hi everyone. It's been some 19 days since I last blogged. I'm trying to remember what all has been going on since I last posted. Let me start by sharing this really fun link of a charity project my Dad is doing. The former West Point gymnast is doing a headstand in a different location everyday for an entire year to help raise money for The American Cancer Society. Please check it out, follow it and please donate! You can find the site at www.theheadstandproject.com My trip to Austin to hang out with Adam over fall break was a really good time. We ate lots of great food, drank a lot of beer, and attended the Texas vs. Colorado game. My close poker friends and I have a rule amongst ourselves that anytime one of us is attending a game he can call on any of the other guys and they must book his action for whichever side of the bet he wants (vig free), shall he wish to bet the game. Adam and I took the opportunity to bet Texas -33 or something silly. Texas was outright down by a touchdown at the half, but they did give us a tiny sweat by winning by 25ish. The other two weekends were spent in Tuscaloosa. The first was the Alabama vs South Carolina weekend. Bama looked sloppy in a 20-6 win to improve to 7-0 at the time. My new roommate Ryan and I decided on Saturday night to drive to New Orleans at 4:30 a.m. the next morning for the battle of unbeatens between the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants. It was one helluva time. We were just off of Bourbon around 8:45 a.m. drinking bloody mary's and eating shrimp omelettes. We found some tickets from scalpers and watched the Saints crush NYG. We met up with some family friends of Ryan's after the game and then finally hit Bourbon street around 12 p.m. after having been drinking for 16 hours or so. It was a blast that culminated with me getting us a room comped at Harrah's before we finally played some poker (lol) downstairs til around 7 a.m. I remember barely being able to read my cards in the 2/5 NLHE game that I was in, but somehow I managed to win like $900. I was raising every pot and several of the guys offered to pay my time to the dealer when I was finally ready to retire early in the morning :) This past weekend was a good time. Bama just missed getting shocked by unranked Tennessee when UT had its 45 yard field goal blocked by Bama as time expired to preserve a 12-10 win. The only poker I've played was a couple of Sundays since I last posted. They went miserably. I gave myself a couple shots last night by running semi-deep in the 100r and 200r on Stars but everything went to hell. I should probably stop watching NFL and texting all my friends and stuff all day Sundays while playing poker if I want to get max value ;) It's ok though because I'd probably pay you a four figure amount to watch NFL if you told me I'd have to grind the tournaments all day without getting to watch football. I've slipped to 4-3 in our 12 person head-to-head fantasy league after opening up 3-0. Adam and Mike are both 6-1, but I'm the overall points leader and ina 4way tie for 3rd place with 4 teams total going to the playoffs. I really wish I had more poker content to contribute. The truth is school and my gym prop bet are both keeping me busy as hell. School is still just kind of going. The most annoying part is being stuck in the classroom wishing I could be traveling and doing other really cool shit that I used to. I guess there's still a lot of time for that though. I'll admit I've enjoyed this sort of return to the real world, as I've gotten to meet some really cool people that have a variety of interests. I know that I'll one day long for the chance to be in the social situations that college puts you in, so I'ma do my damndest to not wish school away too quickly. The gym bets are still going well. I got off to a slow start this month but I battled hard to pull to a point where I've now gotten 12 (of October's required 15) excellent workouts in this month. I'll need to go 3 out of the next 5 to meet my obligation. I'm continuing to get in great shape and it feels amazing. I want to keep the bets going for atleast another 6 months, as its definitely keeping me motivated. There've been probably 7-8 times this month alone where I definitely wouldn't have gone to the gym had the bet not been in place. Today I ran a lifetime best 6.25 miles and was hardly winded. There's a very realistic chance that I'll run the half marathon in the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham in February, I think. Running a half marathon was one of the things I listed click here as one of ten things I wanted to do in the next 5 years. It should be noted that I've checked none of those items off the list since I created it 20 months ago. Finally, you can find an interview I really enjoyed doing click here with Kristy Arnett. It details my life and career pretty much from the start, so if you have any interest at all please check it out. Thanks. I haven't typed this much in a longggggggg time. SS