#25 Learn How to Brew Beer

It's been a long while since I've written one of these stories and I guess I kinda evaded the whole purpose of trying to keep me accountable for telling them. Yes, I had 30 different adventures and yes I had 30 different stories to tell but I let life catch up with me again and overwhelm me and avoided the creative process in order to further advance and succeed in my career. I can't promise I won't do that again but I can promise this...I never stopped having adventures, I never stopped dreaming big and pursuing my passions. My goal of 30 things metamorphosed into something completely different.  Now I have dozens more stories to tell with a goal to try to create more than I consume for the year.

It's appropriate that this is the 25th story. Because it all sorta started when I was 25 years old. I had recently gotten out of a very long relationship. With my new found time I was looking for some new hobbies and friends to surround myself with. My buddy Dave invited me to his weekly beer night with some of his friends. I never was a big drinker let alone a beer drinker but was happy to oblige and get out of the house for a change. We went to the Maritime Pacific Brewery and little did I know I was about to meet some lifelong friends. 

It was a big group of guys and I'd sorta stumbled into a going away party for one of the servers. All the guys were regulars and from the stories they told over the next few years I came in at the very end  of the golden days of free beers and 80% off your tab. But it didn't matter, it was a cool group of guys and we bonded over guy talk. Zombie escape plans, cars, guns, comic books and movies. I had a lot in common with these guys but more importantly I was learning how to socialize. Learning that I really did add value to people's conversations. Learning that I actually am a pretty funny guy but also know how to give solid advice and opinions. I also learned how to have a taste for beer which oddly enough these newfound skillsets aided me in my career. I started to get invited out for happy hours after work and golf outings both of which had tons of drinking and socializing involved in them. But most of all I learned that this was fun. No longer was I trying to escape to video games and other introverted activities. I actually enjoyed meeting new people and developing relationships with my coworkers.

Week after week I kept going back, hanging out with these guys and building friendships. Friendships that developed into the kind of buddies that would be there for you for anything. Call them up in the middle of the night and they'll have your back. Overtime we'd tell dating horror stories, found relationships, grew into groomsmen, bachelor parties, weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, breakups, new jobs, new opportunities, friends moving away. I watched new guys come in and out of our group until the guys who originally started it were no longer even apart of the weekly meet up. It all kind of comes full circle because our group doesn't even exist anymore. Too many guys moved too far away. I stopped drinking beer in an effort to become more healthy. As our commitments grow there's only so much time allotted in the week. Things change, people grow apart and that story may have come to an end but how I learned how to brew is just beginning...

One night as I was explaining my 30 for 30 to my now half decade long friends they were nothing but supportive. I had a few ideas lined up and some jotted down. As they looked through my list the challenge was accepted. "Dude! We can get like four of these things done TONIGHT!" The quickest and easiest was of course take a behind the scenes impromptu tour of the brewery we frequent every week! By this point we were regulars and all of the servers knew us by name so when we asked to tour the brewing process it was like we already had the golden ticket in hand. One of our favorite servers Jim brought us beyond the big brew doors into the boiling room and started giving us a tour. 

We got to walk up the catwalks and see where the mash gets converted into syrup for our favorite beers. Where everything gets aged and fermented all the way down to their bottling process and storage for distribution. I had only ever been in the taproom so little did I realize how huge this place was. It was pretty impressive of the scope and scale for our little microbrewery. The tour was maybe about fifteen minutes tops but it did awaken an old Sesame Street sense of wonder in me. 

So I reached out to another buddy named Dave who I knew brewed beers. It just so lined up that my aunt had also gotten me a gift card for a homebrew shop next to my work. We set out to the shop and he helped me get all the supplies I needed. We kept it simple with a beer kit that already gave you your pre-made syrup/sugars, mash and yeast. Over the next couple days we focused on preparing everything for brew day. Buying purified water, sterilizing all of the tools and equipment. Prepping containers and boilers for the big day. 

 We went to Dave's friend Kenny's house to do the initial step which is the boil. Kenny had been brewing beer for a while and had a pretty cool country style setup. He had an old barn out in his back yard that was converted into a man cave of sorts. With guns, guitars and a container of live baby ducks?! Guess that's what you do on the farm. Kenny was also boiling that day but he had a couple other buddies over and they were doing an entire 55 gallon drum of beer. I put my socializing skills into action; introducing myself and finding commonality with these potential new friends. No longer were the days of hiding out in the corner and globing onto the only friend I had in the room. That being said; Dave and I setup in the corner as to not disturb the big brew session. Our little 5 gallon pale was dwarfed by the colossal drum the other three guys were working on. 

The first step to the brew process is boiling your mash. Luckily my little beer kit had all the right amount of ingredients in it and required no special measuring. We brought the purified water up to a boil and then dumped the mash into a special straining sack. It kinda functions like a teabag. Separate  from the mash were my sugars which came in the form of a simple syrup. The syrup was hard as a rock so we had to make room in the boil to make the bag more pliable. Once everything was all warmed up we were able to finally get our  mix going. Boiling out all the good stuff from the mash then pulling the teabag out of the water leaves you with your brew remnants. Then mixing in the syrup is what will eventually give you your carbonation down the line once you add yeast to the mix.

We filtered out any other impurities by doing a couple of gravity pours through a strainer. This way you make sure your beer has nothing to chew in it. We put the beer in the purified buckets and at this point there's not a whole lot left to do in the process so we just helped out Kenny where we could. 

A large part of brewing comes with patience and waiting for the next step. Around two weeks later I went over to Daves house to do another gravity pour, strain, then add the yeast. This step the beer has a kind of disgusting sludge at the bottom of it hence the straining again. Same process, pour and strain but now we add the yeast to create the carbonation. It's kinda funny putting these little sea monkey guys in this mix to eat up the sugars and fart out carbonation. You add a hydrometer to the mix to be able to tell when you're ready to switch over to a glass bottle. Couple more weeks go by and you do another inventory of the mix and before you know it you're putting your creation into glass bottles and capping them yourself. A few more days and a little more patience then you can finally drink...Overall I don't think brewing is a hobby I'd enjoy. There's a few too many steps when you come out with a product that's good but widely more readily available than waiting 6 weeks for it. I would much rather spend that time cultivating friendships drinking beer someone else made.

Friendship can be a lot like brewing. There can be a great deal of patience required. Sometimes a few folks get strained out of the mix. The best ones will turn out good for you but if you neglect to strain out some of the sludge you'll always come up with a bad batch. All in all there's always room for a few more guests to the party and if you do things right you'll have enough to share with everyone. 

Today I learned:

About self value and the art of conversation

Making those friends that will be there for you in a single phone call  

How to brew beer 

#24 Try an Escape Room

A few of my adventures are moments that begged to be tried again. This is one of those moments. You may have heard of them because they keep popping up all over the place. Somewhat amusing, kinda expensive, mostly entertaining... Escape Rooms. If you haven't heard of them, an escape room is a situational game room where you are locked inside a room for 30-60 minutes. You must figure out a series of puzzles and clues to work the scenario and escape. Like most of my adventures I kinda just stumbled across this one.

It truly is a great time to be a fan. Pretty much anything you have a passion about these days there's a fanbase attached to it. In that fan base you can usually find some sort of Con (short for convention)
My friend Chuck and I have been going to Cripticon for the last couple years. Watching it grow and shrink, change locations then very from year to year on how entertaining it is.

Cripticon is a local Horror convention http://www.crypticonseattle.com so there's all the usual spooky stuff and interesting vendors. They have a ton of B-Movie celebrities that are usually very gracious and friendly. Vendors that have unique items mostly handcrafted. Costume designers, cosplayers, artists, filmmakers, and of course horror fans. I have an interesting decor in my house and I can always find something out of the ordinary when I attend these shows. Last year a guy built me a custom pirate chest for carrying the beer I brewed. That'll be another story down the line.

This convention just like any other was Chuck and I wandering around checking out the obscure wears people were peddling. Listing to authors try and sell us their books. Buying artwork and taking pictures with horror movie stars. But this year, we stumbled upon an escape room. There was a girl walking around passing out flyers and I had always wanted to try one out. Chuck was down for the experience so we made our way to the third floor where they had blocked out an entire conference room for the event.

The story behind this escape room was that a mad scientist created a chemical weapon that he set on a timer to go off in 30 minutes. If Chuck and I didn't solve the puzzle the chemical would be released and kill everyone in the hotel! The room was a basic square conference room with a puzzle on each wall and a table in the center. There was a lab assistant to help us along the way if/when we'd get stuck.  We were instantly drawn to the table in the center which had a locking briefcase on it.
It was number based so I figured we needed to solve another puzzle to get the combination. After about 5 minutes the table in the center of the room started to shake and a zombie came crashing out of it! He was chained up and our helpful lab assistant was there to edge the story along. Turns out that it was the doctor himself and he'd created a toxin that turned people into zombies!

He wasn't your average brain dead zombie.  He was able to speak in a few word sentences. We were instructed that if he touched us we'd be out of the game and turned into zombies ourselves. It was also added that his chains would extend out another 3 feet every five minutes! This pushed us into the corner of the room farthest away from him and also created a new sense of urgency to the game.

We found a water bottle in one corner with another briefcase. Along that same wall there was a safe with an odd cylinder sticking out of it. I looked down the tube and could see something orange. Another 5 minutes ticked by and the zombie doctor's chains extended out again. He was still too far away for him to reach us. The cylinder was too small for me to fit my hand in so I decided to pour the water in it. As the water filled the tube, a key on a floating keyring rose to the top. The key was a perfect fit for the second briefcase.

Inside briefcase number 2 there was another key and this is were we started to get confused. Where does this key go? It doesn't fit in anything else. There was a table with a bunch of cards glued to it. and another table with a funky lamp on it. Some shelves which had the water bottle and 2nd briefcase and the safe with the puzzle we'd already figured out. 15 minutes go by and his chains extend again. Now he was able to reach us. We're looking around the room for something this key has to fit in. The lab assistant points out there's an odd box on the other side of the lamp table. Chuck jumps over the zombie's chains and distracts him while I run over to inspect this new found box. What do ya know! The key fits! I open the box and there's nothing in it...20 minutes go by now we're running out of time and can't figure out what to do next.

The zombie doctors chains can reach us from any point of the room now. So we antagonize him and run around his table so he wraps his chains up around it. With a little more breathing room we head to the card table. Each card has a number or symbol on it and this is where missing a chunk of knowledge really screws up the game...There's a clue about how the doctor was an avid poker player and his current hand could only be beaten by this set of cards. Both Chuck and I were stumped. Was it a straight? Royal flush? Full house? What did that configuration even look like?

25 minutes go by and our assistant points out that the box I inspected actually has something in it.
I go over to it and use the lamp on the table to get some more light into it. Turns out there are symbols in the box and each symbol has another number to add. But between us not being able to figure out the card riddle in order to use the numbers next to the symbols in order to open the briefcase we were screwed. The last 5 minutes go by and the game is over. The chemical is released and turned everyone in the hotel into zombies. They let us leave and even though we'd lost the game.

Overall it was pretty fun, I think with a larger group of 5 or 6 people it would have been even better. What sucks is that between the two of us our knowledge stopped at poker hands. The most frustrating thing is I can play poker pretty well. Just the correct hands were "escaping" me at the moment. That's what I mean when I say some of these moments are just begging to be tried again. At some point I'll get there, maybe a team building exercise at work or random birthday party. But I'll make it back to one of these Escape Rooms and conquer it next time!



Things I learned today:

Two heads are always better than one.

You can't always handle everything alone.

It takes a group effort to find success.

#23 Go to a Silent Disco

It's been a long while since I've written a post and that was never my intent. I enjoy writing, I enjoy telling stories and I enjoy it when people tell me they've read my stories. I set out to create this blog in order to avoid the mundane.  While I've still been having adventures; I've neglected sharing these moments with people. So here it goes, setting excuses aside, trying to get at least one of these out a week. Don't you dare call it a New Years resolution. I don't believe in them. Anytime is a good time to start a good habit. You don't need to wait until the beginning of the year.

My 30 for 30 is done and gone. I'm 32 now and refocused my energy into an actual bucket list. Most of the 30 for 30 experiment I spent just casually wandering into other people's adventures they had invited me into. With this new thing, it's seeking out things that I've always wanted to do. Daydreams I had as a kid, or goals for self improvement. Each make a unique story and it will allow me to continue my blog, continue my passions and continue bringing inspiring moments to anyone who reads this.

My story today is a pretty simple one. Nothing too special but definitely unique. Throughout each experience and new relationship I've been introduced to a few new situations. Things and opportunities I would have completely missed otherwise. Like going to a tech company's anniversary party. I thought this was a pretty cool solution to avoid the PC Police's war on Christmas parties. Forcing companies to call them holiday parties.  Instead just ignore it and throw an anniversary party. No one can argue that you're celebrating another year your business has survived and prospered. Not to mention how much more fiscally responsible and reasonable it is.  This year I've spent more time in my job as penny pincher and bean counter than I care to admit. After being behind the scenes on how much our company spent for our annual holiday party it would have to be much more economical to throw a huge party in May.

So I was invited to a huge tech company party. What is the one thing we know about tech companies? They have tons of cash to blow! This company was also celebrating their 600M acquisition that year. Which definitely could have contributed to the grandiose party. These guys rented out Seattle's legendary Paramount theater. All my life I've gone to concerts there and its really a breathtaking environment. Full of gorgeous classic painstakingly maintained architecture. I went to both the best concert of my life and the only place I've also walked out of concerts. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend taking the free tour they offer on the first Saturday every month.

These folks went all out and their theme of the night couldn't have suited me better. "Comic book prom" I wish I had some silly cosplay outfit to show you. That's a blogpost for another time. This place was really decked out. Fully decorated to fill the Paramounts high ceilings. Free booze and photo booths. Catered by Tom Douglas all very fancy pants elements in a silly vivid colored tone.  
For the entertainment they hired ribbon arial artists and local comic book nerd band Kirby Krackle. That have a basic pop-punk style wrapped up in nerdy lyrics. I was very impressed with it all, taken in by the amount of energy, money and time it took to but something like this together. But the moment it became a 30 for 30 was when I saw the dance floor.

It looked simple enough. A squared off section of the place with a DJ and curtains around scaffolding holding up rotating lights on a dance floor. Now, I am not a dancer but if you get enough booze in me I'll cut a rug. I was intrigued by the curtained off area and wanted to figure out what was going on and why I couldn't hear what the DJ was playing. Once I got up to the entrance and asked a few people they explained that it was a silent disco. Upon entering the dance floor you're given a set of headphones that everyone is wearing. While wearing those headphones you can select the type of music you're listening to. Now it's not satellite radio or anything and there still has to be a reason for that DJ in the corner so you're offered three different stations to pick from. Each station has a different selection of dance music attached to it and funny enough you could figure out what people were listening to just by the way they moved. It was pretty hilarious coming across someone that actually was listening to the same station as you and you could properly sync up and dance with them. Casually sharing a laugh as everyone is a muddled mess of dancers. It was an interesting experience, something I'd never normally seek out. I'm happy I got to try it but overall I think there's something more powerful about a room full of people sharing the same musical experience.




Things I learned today:

Maintaining relationships and social circles can lead you to some very interesting opportunities.

You might as well take hold of said opportunities because most days of the year are unremarkable with no lasting memory as made. You'll never know when you'll be experiencing something you'll remember forever.

Being embarrassed from dancing is certainly, almost always, just in your head.

#22 Learn How to Fish

For this adventure my buddy Dave took me fishing for the first time. Somehow I missed out on this Huck Finn part of growing up. I've never been full on fishing, like stuck on a boat drinking beers and cooking in the sun fishing. The closest thing I'd ever really even gotten to was going to a trout farm when I was nine years old. You basically stick a fishing rod into the water and pull out a fish.

This was good times fishing. Sitting out on a gorgeous lake relaxing with nothing to worry about. The only thing that could have made this experience better was if it could be done from some sort of boat hammock.

Dave took all the work out of the process and wanted to make sure that I simply had a good time fishing. Really the only thing I had to do was show up. He provided the poles, the gear and the boat and was real passionate about teaching me how to fish. It's pretty awesome having friends like this that care to show you their hobbies. The type of friends that understand you're a complete rookie and don't make fun.

He showed me how to properly bait a hook. Tearing a worm in half and feeding it along the hook. Letting your line out just enough to watch and make sure the worm has a spin and swirl to it. Then letting the line out every couple dozen feet to troll out along the lake while the boat puts along.

This was his annual fishing derby. Where a bunch of good friends come out and have a huge potluck party while also holding a friendly fishing competition. Each person donates either $20 or $20 bucks worth of fishing gear to the pot; biggest fish wins. I think there was about a half dozen boats with about three people on each one. Making it a pretty good size turn out.

The night before the derby everyone was partying and having a great time. I had a little bit too much of a great time. I was making friends and there were people feeding me shots while going cabin to cabin. Maybe not the best idea being that liquored up near open water and open fire pits. But I was in good company, not driving and safe surroundings.

We decided to get some practice fishing off the dock as I was told this is the best time to catch catfish.  I was all about it! I love cat fish and used to go up to the corner store growing up to buy fried cat fish all the time. There wasn't much too it, cast a line prop it against the railing and wait for a tug. It was dark out so we had little bells attached to the lines to know if you got a bite. There were probably about eight of us out there BS'ing and waiting around for a bite. When all of a sudden "ring" "ring" it's coming from my line! We rushed over and everyone started to instruct me on what to do. "Okay you got to pull it then reel. Let it out a bit then pull and reel." I listened to my coaches and before you knew it I was pulling up my first ever fish!

I was pumped to catch a cat fish. I've caught my fair share while online dating but here I was with a real live cat fish. It was so ugly and slimy with a gross leather feeling skin. I had no idea how to prep this thing or even what was good to eat on it so I gave it to one of the other guys. I continued on having a good time. The night becomes a little more cloudy from that point on but I do remember almost falling into the water...lucky for me there was a railing. I also remember puking my guts out...  While simultaneously freaking out because it was a crimson red. Obviously not remembering the cherry moonshine someone had given me. I ended up passing out on the couch and maintained a cardinal party rule of getting your own shoes off; otherwise you're open game to have people draw on your face. This wasn't that type of crowd. Some angel cleaned up my mess in the bathroom and no one screwed with me while I was sleeping.

I woke up around 9:30am hung. the. fuck. over. therefore late to get out on the water. Dave wasn't in much better condition so I didn't feel as bad. We managed to get the gear ready and start our derby experience but our third member of the boat hadn't arrived yet. We waited another two hours.. for Dave's neighbor Brian to get there. So now I really didn't feel bad for sleeping in a little bit.

Brian gets on the boat and we head towards the hot spot where everyone had already started to catch fish. Nothing..into shallow parts closer to shore, nothing..back out to the deep parts of the lake, nothing..North of the lake, South of the lake, around the little island in the lake, nothing..it was as if all the fish were onto us and none of us could even catch a break.

Dave had me rebait the line a couple times. Making sure I got that good swirl on the worm and letting that line out hundreds of feet. Finally, something..a tug. No way, really?!? All afternoon it's been seaweed or nothing. I reel my line in and boom another cat fish! This guy was bigger than the one I caught the night before and I was much more coherent to deal with it. The guys on the boat were shocked! Nobody ever catches cat fish in the middle of the lake!! They always hang out near the shore! I grabbed that slimy fish stuck a stringer through its mouth and stuck it on the side of the boat.

We continued on for a few more hours with the same results. No fish, no fish, no fish. We got tired of hanging onto our poles and propped them against the side of the boat. Trolled around, admiring the big lake houses and I even drove the boat for a while.

After being on the lake for so long I could pretty much navigate it with my eyes closed we started to head back. Then, snag.. my pole starts to get tight. I grab it and start to reel in. Reeling in for what seemed like forever. How far out did I let this line? I kept pulling and reeling while the guys got a net ready. They get all excited, "there's something on the end of that line!" I end up pulling in a decent size trout and the only other fish that was caught on our boat that whole day!

I had fun, we didn't win the derby or even get close. Our boat got skunked and I was the only one that caught anything. But I was happy and Dave was happy that I was the guy who caught the fish on our boat. It was a good day out on the water.


Things I learned today:

How to catch a fish.

Be open and patient for good things to come your way.

Appreciate good friends and people who're there to show you the way and take care of you.

#21 Conquer my biggest fear

My biggest irrational fear has always been deep water. I've swam in oceans and dark lakes but if I really dive (pun intended) into it; I think for me deep water in a greater sense is somewhat a literal representation of the unknown in my mind.  Not being able to see what's in front, below or around you. You have no real form of control as water stifles the speed and mobility of your body. The closest thing to actual monsters in this world are these giant creatures that lay claim to the underwater world. Then again, it could be a poster I had in my room as a kid. It showed all of the fish and sea life  in our state with a human size scale in the corner. In the other corner it had a picture of the ugliest sturgeon you could imagine well over any size of a regular person. Or it could be the giant skeletal structure my cousins and I pulled up out of Alki as kids. Maybe somewhere in the back of my head that's what I think of.

To conquer this fear I first had to get a better understanding of what I was afraid of. I decided to complete a two part shark cage/dive experience. What better way to face my fears than by getting up close and personal.

The first part of the lesson you're in the safety of the cage while they teach you how to breathe underwater. Once you've managed to get that right there is part two where they let you out of the cage. This all took place at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium so it was in a very controlled setting. I personally never felt like I was in any real danger but it was a very exciting and educational experience. They started us off with a safety video and suit you up in both wetsuits and full big heavy sweaters. Surprising enough the water is really cold. I love wandering through the backdoors of places people normally don't get to see. In this case it was being on top of the shark exhibit and seeing exactly how they made the whole thing work. It looked like a  James Bond villain's lair with pools of swirling water and industrial equipment on the walls. We were hooked up to a tethered air hose and then climbed down into the tank.

Probably the most scary part of this whole event was learning how to breathe underwater. Once my head was submerged and my life became dependent on a breathing apparatus in my mouth, things got real. I panicked a couple of times. Its a shock to get used to something we take for granted every second of the day. Breathing is so automatic you don't have to think about it. Until it's gone..then all of that realization comes rushing in as fear and nothing else matters. Once I caught my composure and relaxed I was able to get the hang of it. But I tell you, that seal between my teeth and lips was clamped down as hard as I could get it.

After being down there a while I started to get a different perspective of this underwater world I was in. All of a sudden I had this feeling of being reborn. I know that kind of sounds corny but it really was a whole different world. The cage made me feel like a baby in a crib. All of my worries and daily problems disappeared into this environment. This is the kind of experience I've been looking for. The ones that shut down the rest of the world. Here I am with needs and wants limited to the bare essentials. Just experiencing what I'm doing in this moment. Take a look around and realize that my fear is simply what I can't control. Once I gave into that nothing seemed as scary anymore. 

Once I had this realization I was ready for the next step. Let's open this cage, let's see what's out there! I want to touch these things. I want to meet Trevor the photo bombing fish. I want to absorb all there is to offer. They opened the gate and that was but a tiny taste of what's to come. The sharks all still stayed relatively away from the cage. They'd go under and around it but never really close. I could see mammoth nurse sharks resting a few feet below. Sand bar sharks circling around and a bunch of little fish here and there. I was ready of round two. 

I lined both of these dives up back to back to get the full shot the first time around. My first group left and I was back in the training room with a new crew of folks now doing their second dive weeks later. I stayed suited up and then it was the whole climb into the cage process again.
Only this time we got the cage opened up right away. We each got to sit at the edge of the cage and then drop down to the tank floor. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to really swim around. But we were outside of the cage. However we were limited to the bar a few feet in front of the cage. This was a much better view and more exciting. Now the sharks that were circling the bottom of the cage were now swimming around us. Even the one Japanese Gobo shark they had swam right over my left shoulder bumping into me.

What I learned is that these guys weren't scary at all. If anything they were just big clumsy dumb guys curious about what we were doing in the water. I got a couple really close and amazing touches from the sharks in this tank. It helped me understand that they're not monsters and actually are really important to our ecosystem and environment. But more importantly they helped me realize that my fear of deep water and the "monsters" underneath is nothing more than an irrational fear.

Things I learned today:

Sharks are dangerously overfished and products of bycatch. People usually think to save dolphins in this scenario but the reality is that sharks are a far more valuable creature that keeps the ocean's ecosystem in balance by controlling smaller fish population.

For every one fatal human shark attack there are 25 million shark deaths attributed by humans.

An average sand bar shark goes through 30,000 teeth in a lifetime!

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself

#20 Try a Chicago Style Pizza

So I set out to attempt 30 new things in one year. The point of this whole exercise was to experience new things and chop up the rat race a little bit. To avoid being overwhelmed by my life and rather take a few moments to enjoy myself. Well, I'm running out of time and life has been catching up quite a bit the last few months. These last couple months I've been adulting pretty hard.

Near the end of 2015 my little brother had to break the news to me that he'd knocked up his girlfriend. He expressed to me that it was like an out of body experience when he told me. Wasn't sure where I'd land..excited, disappointed, angry. More than anything, I was the only thing I could be, which was supportive. For those of you who don't know my brother and live together. When he turned 18 I pulled him right out of his youth and dropped him directly into adulthood with half a mortgage, had him find a job and spend his "college" experience remodeling a house with me.

When he broke the news to me our priorities changed. We needed a bigger place and all of a sudden here I find myself searching for a new home, while tuning up the one I live in. I'd also found myself a new lady. All things and part of life that take up a lot of time and resources. Add in 50 hour work weeks and it's pretty easy to kiss a blog posting goodbye. When I get home at 10pm that's the last thing I want to do. Well, maybe not the last thing. I'd still rather do that than go grocery shopping, cook, change cat litter, laundry, wash dishes, pay bills or any other chore that adds to the headache of being an adult.

It becomes hard to find the time to have new experiences and it's all the compounded responsibilities that every one of us have to deal with. There are a ton of pressures in life. We, as American's spend too much of it wrapped up in work. Feeling stuck under the weight of our lives instead of being liberated to enjoy as much of it as you can. When I compare my life to some of my international friends you can easily see the difference. Posts with exotic sunsets, amazing dinners overlooking a gorgeous veranda, places most of us see once in a lifetime if we're lucky. Meanwhile stateside we post recipes of crap with two sticks of butter in it. Argue about bathrooms, healthcare, the homeless and who's candidate is worse. A bandaid, a blindfold, all keeping our heads in the sand.

I don't mean to come off preachy; but I just had a co-worker take his own life this week. It really has me thinking about life and how precious it is. I know we all have different levels of escapism. If I had it my way there would be a new comic book movie out every week. It's just so easy to turn that side of your brain off. To force yourself into something new and uncomfortable. To take a chance on something that might become your new favorite hobby. There's a feeling I get before every live event I've ever gone to. I have a feeling of doubt. That I don't really want to do this. I don't want to deal with that crowd. I'll catch them next time around. Maybe I'll just stay home tonight instead. I purchased those tickets so long ago it hardly feels like wasting money. To be completely honest, I still get that feeling and it's gotten worse as I've gotten older. I also think that people have gotten worse too, but that's a rant for another time. It only takes a little push to get past that feeling and out into a new adventure.

I suppose life is like trying a new pizza. Some of it has burnt crust. Some isn't always a circle. Some are worth traveling quite a ways to get and other times it's just shut up and eat pizza hut. About two years ago I lost my favorite pizza place, Piecora's. I'd been going there since I was three. So many amazing memories and in my opinion the best pizza in town. I suppose that's life though. We try to cling onto something great from our past even though it's never coming back.

The best we can do is move on and try to create new memories and experiences. Since they closed I've been on a hunt for my next great pizza place. Nothing, has matched quite as well. Hot Mama's on cap hill has a recipe that's very close. Zeek's has an atmosphere that's almost there. No place has parking the way Piecora's did. I tried to expand out and maybe it's not the most exciting 30 for 30 but I've never actually tried Chicago Style Pizza. Like most things in life we stack expectations too high. Set unreachable goals to be met in our heads. Delfino's in the U Village was never going to fill that void. My childhood is gone, my pizza place is gone. They're never coming back and all I can do is trudge on and help create new childhood memories for the next generation. Maybe this little chicken pot pie shaped pizza will be my nephew's Piecoras pizza. Maybe next week we'll wander into a new place that gets even closer to those memories. Maybe, we'll start a new tradition making our own pizza's. No matter what route we end up choosing it'll be done together.

Love each other, hold onto traditions, make new traditions, take vacations, try new things. Don't take the people in your life for granted. Call your mom, visit your grandparents. Find your pizza.

#19 Compete in a Poker Tournament

One thing I've always wanted to try my hands at was a poker tournament. I fancy myself as an excellent judge of character and a pretty difficult person to read. Most people who don't know me personally would tend to think I'm pretty cold and uninviting. Well for the most part that's true, but to my closest family and friends I'd like to think that I'm fiercely loyal, honest and would do anything for any of them.

Naturally I figured my harsh exterior coupled with the ability to read people fairly quickly I could hold my own against a few poker players. For the most part I was right. I'm rather proud of making it half way through a tournament of 21 players. Reaching number 10 or 11 is an admirable feat.

Now I always imagined my first actual poker tournament with money would be in a casino. As many times as I've been to Vegas I figured it'd probably be there. If not in Sin City I figured it'd be in a smokey, seedy casino with a bunch of asians down on Interurban Blvd. But found myself in good company at one of my long time work buddies Craig's house. Craig has poker tournaments every few months or so and I've been trying to invite myself to one of those for years now. Once I gave him my spiel about the 30 for 30 he finally gave me the invite.

The cool thing about Craig's tournaments are that they go towards funding his wife's 3 day walk for breast cancer. Half of the buy in goes towards breast cancer awareness and the other half goes towards the pot. So I actually feel pretty good win or lose the money is doing something worthwhile. I figured for sure the place would be filled with co-workers and people I usually don't get to talk with at work. But was pleasantly surprised to find out that I only knew about 4 people (including Craig) there.

All of these people were good folks that were really easy to get along with. We broke off into 3 tables of 7 people each. This tournament, I figured would be kinda play nice everyone take it easy. Boy was I wrong, it was all business. They knew how to run the show and it was down to a timer which setup bigger blinds and buy ins helping eliminate the tables quickly. Our table was your typical northwest nice. Nobody placed very aggressive bets and I took the table on the very first hand. Why not right? That's when everyone has equal chips and it's easy to gauge who's willing to push.

To my right was Joe. Probably the best player at our table he ended up with a stack of high denomination chips and held them for most of the game. Next was a nice gal who stayed in for a while and seemed to be playing mostly for fun. Then Cass who made aggressive bets that didn't always pay off. Followed by Ray one of Craig's oldest buddies who turned a losing streak into a huge handful of chips. Joe's wife who was equally a good player and was stacking her own chips. Then Alex who didn't really know what he was doing. We all went round and round no one at our table really dropping.

It wasn't until the first chip up when things started to get interesting. A chip up is where you take your lowest denomination of chips and eliminate them from the table. Cashing them in for the next higher chip. First chip up I was lucky to make it to. I made a few stupid aggressive bets that cost me a handful of chips. But eventually won a couple to turn it around for me. I pushed Alex into a few dumb bets that caught up with him and wiped him out. Joe nearly got me a few times but I was smart enough to back down when it counted. Cass ended up cleaning herself out until there were five of us left. Another chip up and the tables turned. Now my chip count was shy and after intermission we had other tables switch up to the remaining players left.

About each table had four players left each. Craig and his dad came to ours. This was no bullshit time his dad kept that game moving and would bitch him out if things were going too slow. They came to our table with a mountain of chips. I'm talking 12 stacks at least 6 inches high each. Against my 4 stacks 3 inches high. Craig's first hand with us he wiped Joe clean off the table. Easily our strongest player gone in the first hand...one hand?!? He moved fast, dealt fast, talked fast, bet and pushed fast. It wasn't enough time. I didn't know what I'd gotten myself into and before I knew it I was wiped out on that very second hand Craig played. At least I got beaten by the host and at least I made it against half the others playing.

That was however, a one two punch I didn't even see coming. Then I was downstairs with all the other losers playing pool and watching Hotel Transylvania 2 with Craig's four daughters. Not much longer after that things started to get awkward.

Ray who held his own in the poker game down to the final 5 had not held his liquor quite as well.
He'd been slinging back whiskey shots and started to get obnoxious. Then he started getting belligerent. One of the last guys made a wise crack about him betting too slow and Ray got all bent out of shape about it. Practically throwing the table over and flipping shit over a slight sarcastic comment. It got to the point where Craig had to escort him outside. By escort I mean full on grab and throw this guy out. They tripped over each other but it looked like he tackled him full bore out onto the deck where they were scuffling. Imagine old style cartoons where there's a cloud of smoke with legs and fists coming out of it. Pretty much what happened. It got awkward really fast where Craig's dad just left. Super pissed off and inline to win money, he just took off. Shortly afterwards all four of his little girls left crying that dad and uncle Ray were fighting. It hit that level of awkward that instantly sobers you up. Me and a few others were looking for our opportunity to leave. We left shortly after Craig asked if we wanted to play another round.

Things I learned today:
Don't get in the middle of a fight between two best buddies. They'll work it out in the end

How not to get worked by the host

The more angry the drunk the more difficult it is to give them a ride