I figured id post this since I learned a great deal about my life on this trip, although many probably wont see it that way. This is also going to be pretty long, so dont read it if you dont want to read a novel.
When I was in Ney York a few weeks ago, Shannon Shorr, my poker travel partner and #4 ranked player of the year by cardplayer, and his girlfriend, Stephanie, invited me to come up for the weekend and hang out with them in Tuscaloosa and watch the Alabama vs Hawaii game...This long trip report is what went down.
Before this trip, I was thinking to myself about how fortunate I have been with my extreme lack of car trouble on these long trips. I left my house a little late, around 1 pm, on thu, because I decided to stop by my parents house and say bye before I left. My dad wanted to talk about poker, as I have been trying to help him with the game. He has been reading small stakes holdem and I think he is picking up the finer points, which is great. Anyways, I get on the road around 1:30 and everything goes great for the first hour and a half or so. I was listening to 2 audiobooks, How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less, and The Art of Happiness. Both are very insightful. Anyways, a little while into the trip I notice that the ride is getting gradually rougher. I just assume that Alabama roads are crappy and keep driving 100mph. Eventually my front right tire exploded, basically destroying my wheel well and forcing me to stop and call for help. I first try to call my parents but they didnt answer. I then called 411 and called about 8 tow truck places to come out and put my spare tire on, as I didnt have a jack pr a lug nut wrench in my car for some unknown reason. I finally get through to one company who will come get me but then I have no clue where im at...I just knew I had passed evergreen alabama. Anyways, they tell me to go find a road sign and call them back...Now, it was like 95 degrees out and there wasnt a road sign in sight. I decided to run to the top of the hill and see if I could see any but there were no signs at all. About this time, about 1 hour after I stopped, I finally got my parents on the phone and they used some AAA service and got a wrecker on the way but somewhere in the telephone game that was going on, the wrecker people thought my car was in front of some exit whereas I had already passed that exit. I sat in my car and watched 4 episodes of punkd on my video iPod before the guy got there. He was very nice and got my spare put on nicely. I was back on my way...but then I hear something grinding on my wheel...
My wheel well had been splintered and part of the plastic/rubber stuff was rubbing on my wheel. I called my dad and he told me to find something to but it off asap, as that would pop that tire after a while. I stopped at some shoe store and asked to use their scissors but they didnt want to give them to me because they were scared I would break them...so I asked if I could but them for $20...they still didnt want to get rid of them but they finally did. I had to cut the whole whell well out, which was a huge pain. Oh yeah, I was covered in mud at this point because the road where I stopped only had mud on the side of it, so people probably thought I was some random bum. I had my parents call the walmart about 3 exits away about getting me a new tire and they said they closed at 7 pm. It was about 6:00 then, so I figured I had pleanty of time. I get there to find out that it closed at 5:00. great. I had my parents call around and they found a Sears in Montgomery that was open until 9:00 and they would fix it. I finally got there around 7:00 but they couldnt get to it until 8:30...yay. I spent the next hour and a half walking around the mall and buying new clothes to change into. It was a nice little break.
This whole situation was funny to me because to me, the tire exploding was no big deal but it seemed to be a huge deal to everyone else. I guess I have learned to not worry about things you have little control over, which is probably a good thing, but probably seperates me from the vast majority of society. Oh well...I dont care.
I eventually get to Tuscaloosa around 11:00 and Shannon has me meet him and some of his friends at some sports bar. I picked up Shannon outside and we went to try to find a parking spot, as this street we were on was flooded with drunk college kids. We eventually found a spot at Jimmy Johns sub shop but there was a sign saying that we would be towed if we wernt customers...we decided they probably wouldnt tow me, so we went to the bar. Shannon introduced me to all his friends as "one of the top 25 online players in the world" which is kinda funny, as im probably only in the top 50. He introduced to me to a bunch of people, all of whom were very nice. I feel bad because I missed half of their names...Oh well. Stephanie makes some good drink so she kept feeding them to me, as I dont really like beer. I eventually got fairly drunk/ We eventually went to Shannons house but I left my car at the sub shop, as I was in no shape to drive. I quickly crashed on the couch.
Day before Game Day:
I woke up around 10:30 the next morning, which is very abnormal for me. I decided to get online and log a session but couldnt because I couldnt figure out how to get their wireless internet to work with my laptop. I watched some movies on my computer until about 1:00 when Shannon woke up. We decided to go get my car then go get some food. We showed up at the sub shop to find that my car was gone...yay. We called the towing company that services that parking lot but they said they didnt have my car. YAY. We went to eat at some Italian sub shop, which was very good. We called around but no one had my car. At this point, I was rooting for it to be stolen so I could fly home instead of drive. Shannon got the idea that maybe the car had just gotten towed and the people didnt know they had taken my car yet, so he called back the 1st place he called and they said they had it. Bad beat for me. We finish our food and head over there to get my car. It was kina funny, because again, everyone was making such a big deal out of it, but to me, it was just another little thing that I had no control over at that point. I knew where my car was at...so whats the big deal? They charged us $185 to get my car out. Shannon offered to pay $100 of it, which was nice of him. We eventually went back to his place and decided to put in a session...
I was still having problems but eventually got some shaky connection established. I didnt play long before it went out on my again, so I decided to just stop and watch Shannon. He plays suprisingly similar to me, which is good to know. I always like watching and learning from very good people. If I pick up one little thing that helps me fix leaks in my game, it is well worth it. He played for a while and made a nice $16,000 playing 25/50. Yay for him. I made a huge $500 in my 20 minute session. After he finished playing, we watched Next on MTV for about 4 hours. Its such a funny show, mainly because it shows how stupid people are. After that, decided to go eat some Arbys then go to one of Shannons friends houses to chill. We stayed there for a while before deciding to go to to some frat house parties, which were kinda neat then to the Filling Station so they could all get drunk...ive learned that college kids like to get drunk.
The Filling Station would have been a nice little bar except for the fact that there was some band playing other peoples song. That in itself wasnt a problem, but it was really really really loud. If anyone knows me, they know I hate loud stuff, especially when it sounds bad. I got to meed Shannons sister and her room mate here. They were both very nice. Shannon decided to be the balla he is and bought 30 $1 shots for everyone. At this point, I had no desire to drink ever again so I just sat and tried to go deaf, as that is obviously the point of these hangouts. We finally went home and I crashed on the couch again.
Game day:
I woke up the next day around 2pm. Stephanie and her sister Gemma, who is also very nice, came over brought us Checkers to eat. We then went to the same friends house from the night before for a keg party. College kids love to drink. We sat around there from 2 pm until about 5 pm, when we decided to go get seats for the ball game. If you have never been to a big college football game, I suggest you go just once. It is great seeing a bunch of drunk kids staggering around the streets. We struggled through the crowd but eventually found a big enough group of open seats for the 20 or so people in our group. Before the game, they were showing a slide show with words that "define" Alabama football...like courage, determination, power, agility...they listed about 15 words. The last one was Class...How nice. Then they started announcing the names of the started from Hawaii...They would say their name then the whole crowd would yell "SUCKS!"...so...Tom Arnold "SUCKS" Brad Smith "SUCKS" and so on. How classy. The crowd went fairly crazy when their own team was being introduced. At this point I learned something else new about college football. Apparently you have to stand up for the entire game except during time outs and half time. Also, you have to stand on the bleacher where the person in front of you is supposed to sit. This has to be the dumbest idea I have ever heard in my life.
I also noticed that whenever one of the referees would make a call against Alabama, even though it is obviously the correct call, everyone would booooo and say how bad the refs are. This didnt really suprise me though, as most people didnt actually watch the ball game. They just yelled when everyone else did. I also thought it was really funny when one of Alabamas people missed a ball. You would hear a ton of people saying how bad he sucks and he should never play again, yet they loved him when he was introduced a few hours earlier. Its amazing how quick the mob turns on its own people.
By the 4th quarter, probably half of what was being said around the stadium was "my feet hurt" " my feet are sore" but very few people actually sat down. Me and Shannon both sat from time to time though because we are both ballas and dont care what other people think. After all, we didnt get where we are at today by following the typical life pattern of go to college, work for the man, have kids, pay off house, die.
After the game, they showed a shorts version of the slideshow from earlier, again ending with Class...Right after that, the band played some song where the crowd yelled "hawaii, we just beat the hell out of you." How classy. This got me to thinking though...if they are doing this kinda of retarded stuff in Alabama, they are almost certainly doing it at every other football game. It seems like Amercians love to try to make other humans, as well as themselves, feel bad. I want to make it perfectly clear that this is no dis on the people of Alabama, as they treated me great o this trip. This is just an observation of people on a whole, which makes me sad. It discourages me to know that the future of this counrty is going to depend on people who get drunk and tell people how bad we just beat them. Oh well. Such is life.
After the game, we went back to the same house that had the kegger earlier. We sat around and watched Shannon on the Aussie Millions on tv, which was pretty cool. They also cooked hot dogs and ham burgers but I didnt eat any because everyone else ate them and I didnt want to look like an asshole by jumping in line first. I was fairly hungry though, as I hadnt eaten since 2:00 and it was like 11:00 at this point. Also, it seemed like the group at this house would rag fairly hard on whoever wasnt drinking at the house. I didnt drink after the game, as I was planning on driving home so I could play the sunday mtts, and people kept asking me why I wasnt drinking. People who know me will tell you that I am probably the most anti-alchohol person they know. I just dont understand the point of getting drunk and losing all your senses. I REALLY dont understand the point of drinking stuff like beer that tastes horrible. I just dont see many more -ev things in life. Ive learned from observing the people in my own town as well as people in alabama and all around the world that young people tend to try to do the most -ev things possible. I simply cant understand why they would do many of the things they do unless they are trying their hardest to ruin their lives. I also want to make it known that ballas dont give in to peer pressure. Ballas define what cool is. I noticed that around town and in alabama, it is seems to be an insult if you dont drink their beer. Sorry...but I just dont want to, so im not. I also noticed the complete lack of peer pressure when I hang out with my balla friends. I get offered the drinks once, and when I refuse, they stop asking, which I really do appreciate. I wonder if college kids think about such things the way I do or if they are just oblivious to these things. Ohhh well. So much for Americas future...
I left around 1:00 pm to go home. I was super hungry so I was looking for the first taco bell, steaknshake or krystals so I could get some food. I eventually found a sign for a steaknshake but when I got there, it was closed....aparently they arent open 24/7 in Alabama. I kept driving and didnt see a sign for anything until I got to Montgomery. It turns out that the Krystals was in the hardcore ghetto. There was a huge line of cars to get food, but I didnt care because I was hungry. After waiting for about 20 minutes, i saw a cracked out pimp looking guy walk over to the dumbster, pull down his pants, take a crap, then wipe his ass with some paper from the trash can...It was almost unreal. He then got in a fight with some woman who was obviously a whore right in front of my car, demanding she give him what she owed him. Again...almost unreal. I had like $1500 on me at this point so I started slowly hiding it in my car, out of my wallet. I waited 20 more minutes in line before finally getting to order. I got out of there as soon as fast as I could. More hope for America.
About 2 hours from my home, I noticed my car start to shake again...great. I got out and saw that one of the lugbolts on my wheel was gone and another was loose....good thinf I stopped and fixed it before it fell off. I got to walmart and bought some lug nuts and gixed the problem. The drive home was rather tense, as I was worried that my tires woulb blow at every little bump in the road and that I might fall asleep. I finally got home around 6 am.
All in all, it was a great trip. I had a pretty good time and learned a lot about humanity. Ive also decided to make the most +ev plays I can in my life, hopefully to make up for a few of the -ev plays that everyone else makes. I am reading a book called "the Purpose Driven Life." I guess right now I am just trying to find my purpose, as I know it isnt to be another random person who does nothing with their life. I have been blessed for a reason. I just have to figure out what that is. Well...thanks for reading this if you actually made it this far. I appreciate it.
