Best Month Evar: Days 1 and 2
Late Friday night I decided that this past Saturday was going to be the start of the best month evar. While I can't gaurantee that the next 31 days are going to result in an amazing run of luck or memories that will last a life time, I can gaurantee that I will consider it the best month evar until the last second of the 31st day. It's all in the walk, right?
Anyway, Since days one and two both consisted of family (her's) barbecues, I'm going to lump the both of them into one post (although I'm counting them as two different days as the rest of the world must've).
DAY(s) 1 and 2:
Saturday: Woke up at 6:30, ate a half toasted (was in a rush) Lite English Muffin and opened the gym by 7. Regular people, regular music, regular shift. Worked out afterwards and signed up for a spin class, which would be my first, scheduled for 8:30 Sunday morning. I have been spinning by myself for the past three weeks, but taking crap from people (my aunt mainly) about not being a "real" spinner. "Real" spinners, apparently, are people who spin during a class taught by an instructor. Fair enough. I signed up for a class with an instructor that I know pretty well. I've heard good things about her class and she's a damn funny lass to boot.
Oh, for those of you who don't know. Spinning is the most addictive form of cardio there is on this planet. Basically it's an ordinary stationary bike, but in place of a wheel is a fifty pound weight. You sweat your ass off over the course of an hour and for some reason, want to get back on the bike the minute you get off (the bike, you perverts).
By 4 O'Clock I was at Kristen's fathers BBQ and past all of the hellos and how are yous. Of course, I'm the only one over 16 in the pool and Kristens cousin Scott and I engage in a spirited game of pool basketball. I "Shaqed" my way to victory 11-5. Sometimes a 30-40 lb. weight differential can be a good thing. We eat. We play horseshoes. We leave.
UFC is on at 9 and while Kristen nods off (encouraged by nagging tooth pain), I stay up and watch. While it wasn't the best night of fights I've seen, it was still UFC and as I've come to find out, UFC kicks ass. Now that they are on "free" TV they are going to blow up. I was never a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts, but that's only because I didn't know what I was missing. From the four or so events I've seen, UFC is just hands down better than anything that boxing has to offer. If they had offered their programming over free TV before now, they would be huge. I don't know what they were thinking going with this all PPV thing for as long as they did. SUCK US IN BEFORE you start charging us! As it is, expect it to catch on. It's just THAT good. I've seen 7 knockouts in three weeks. I think I've seen that from boxing in ten years (but I do miss watching the men hug). Plus, the fights are just so intense and every single one of the fighters I've seen has shown tremendous heart (even when getting kneed in the face).
I fell asleep around 12:30. Was it the best start to the best month evar? No, but it wasn't bad either.
Sunday: Woke up at 7:45, decided that I didn't feel like getting up and missed the spin class. Oh well, next Sunday. REALLY woke up at 10:00am. Got dressed and ready to head out to Kristen's nephews baptism. He cried the entire time, but I couldn't blame him. He was dressed up like some little prince of a Northern European country circa 1650. The kids cute, but I couldn't pull that outfit off even if I shaved my legs (and I've got great legs). Anyway, another BBQ, but this one includes a 12 team (24 man) horseshoe tournament and I am partnered up with some guy I don't know (who turned out to be a seriously nice guy BTW...looked just like Ethan Hawke too).
BACKSTORY: For the past three years I've kind of been the butt of the jokes as far as backyard horseshoes is concerned. I started playing with Kristens family (all seasoned veterans of the game) and sucked for an entire summer. Last summer, I wasn't so bad, but I wasn't so good either. It wasn't until my brother got fired from his job for fighting with his boss that anyone even bothered to show me how to throw one correctly (we had a lot of time to kill during the day). Anyway, by the end of last summer I was halfway decent, but couldn't climb out of the pile of jokes that were still being rained down on top of me from Kristens entire horseshoe playing family.
Well, guess freakin what. Me and my partner, after an 11-2 loss in the first round of a double elimination tournament, ended up going to the finals where we got beat by Kristens father(a great horseshoer) and his partner 11-7. We beat a lot of guys who brought a WHOLE lot of trashtalk, we beat Kristen's sisters husband (who has done his share of dumping on me), and I couldn't have been happier with the way the tourney turned out. Especially, once the compliments started to replace the jokes around Round 3.
Just want to add that every single joke that's been thrown at me has been lighthearted and in good fun, but it was still nice to stop the comedy. It was nice to get some sort of respect after three years of being snickered at. I am shoe.
We headed home only to find out that VH1's reality shows were all repeats for the evening and circled around for something else to do for a couple of hours. We stopped circling right around 11:30 when we both fell asleep (but not before I played a quick game of Winning Eleven).
The Best Month Evar has started to show the potential to live up to it's name. I'll write about today tomorrow...wrestling's coming on.