With the combination of Celina being gone for a month, my strict diet, and my needing to get up early in the morning every day, it’s safe to say I don’t have a life and won’t for some time. My daily schedule for all of November looks something like:

6:50am: Wake up, shower. Set out my breakfast of protein bar, water, and skim milk. Maybe an apple.
7am: Fire up as many tables as possible. I won’t stop registering until 1pm.
12pm: Eat lunch. Likely some meat from the grill or a simple pasta heavy on chicken and vegetables and low on actual pasta (must watch those carbohydrates.)
4pm: Have a healthy snack like nuts, fruit, vegetables, or another protein bar.
7pm: Finish playing. I can’t be certain of my exact finish time, but this amount of registering tends to work out to about a 12 hour day.
7:30pm: Go to the gym. In the event it’s a day where the gym is closed I’ll go running or go play tennis.
8:30pm: Return home from the gym. Turn the music up load on my computer, open the door to the patio, and take my pink jump rope (I got it in an airport, I don’t know how either) outside and jump rope until I give up because I suck at jumping rope and I’m still in mediocre cardiovascular shape.
8:45pm: Eat dinner. There’s very low variance in my meal selection, and often I’ll eat grilled meat or pasta again. Sometimes I’ll stir fry some chicken and vegetables with Asian sauces and make a little steamed rice. Rice intake must be kept to a minimum.
9pm: Free time, often resulting in my playing video games and sitting around wondering how much fun other people my age are having right now. Then I reassure myself that other people my age are broke and in my late 20’s when I’ve saved up my money I’ll be the one laughing. Then I feel bad about being a workaholic money driven prick who thinks about life like some big contest.
10:20pm: Attempt to sleep. This has mixed results.

So there you have it. I’m having people come visit during my work day fairly often, but it makes things awkward when I have to kick them out because I “need” to go the gym. I can’t imagine going out any night during this period and risking ruining my sleep schedule or losing my bets, not to mention when you go out people want you to drink and I’m not currently consuming alcohol.

The other night some friends and I went to a restaurant and we were informed there was a bit of a wait for the table. We were told to go to the bar and order some drinks then hang out until the table was ready. I looked at the cooler full of drinks and saw redbulls, so I ordered one (which I should not actually be drinking, due to their high sugar content among other things.) The bartender chick looked at me like I was fucking crazy.

The good news is that at the end of this month is APPT Sydney which promises to be an awesome time and great tournament. A few weeks after that is the Aussie Millions in Melbourne which is my favorite tournament series on the planet and just a great time to be in Australia in general. This year both tournaments look to be extra soft as a result of most online players opting to attend the PCA in January instead and few willing to fly all the way to Australia for a single major tournament. I still remember the first time I attended the Aussie Millions in 2005. That seems like forever ago now. A little under four years later and I’m nowhere close to the same person I was at 20, and even more different as a poker player. I remember walking up to various poker pros I’d seen on TV and introducing myself with awe and admiration. I remember Scotty Nguyen being the nicest guy in the world to me and coming home to brag to my friends with stories like “Scotty Nguyen gave me his free drink card!” Given Scotty’s difficulties getting a drink these days I doubt that’d happen again.

Four years later and I feel older but I know I don’t look it or don’t act it. I’ve watched some of the guys around me who I met in their early and mid 20’s start to grow grey hairs and worry that I’m not too far off. But when I look in the mirror I see the face of the same stupid kid who was amazed by his first trip outside the US (except some resort on the Dominican Republic.) The same kid who drank as much as possible as fast as possible then walked up to girls and hit on them with their boyfriend sitting right there, too drunk to be aware of the taboo. The kid who showed up back at college just 12 hours before classes, having traveled around the world the previous day and telling all his friends that he was going to go back to Australia for six months, or so. The kid who watched Brett Favre play for the packers, Dave Chapelle at his best, and Lewis Black live with his best friend who he hasn’t seen in three years, one shorter than the period he’s seen most in. The kid who didn’t think half of the people he knows are retards on a life long angle shoot.

I never really thought I’d get to where I am. I guess what I mean is, I didn’t really have a plan, and I just sort of went with things however they fell. I never thought I’d be as successful as I am now, but sometimes I wonder what I gave up to get here. I wonder what wealth costs. I wonder what other people my age are doing right now. I wonder why my blog entry suddenly got so emo.

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