The Silver Lining

"My signature move is walking sexy down the street until I have everyone's attention, then tripping over a pebble and face planting... -@SweetestSarcasm- (via twitter)

"Best of three now.  Let's get it.  I can't wait for Sunday..." -@mchalmers15- (via twitter)

"When someone appears in your dreams, it means that person misses you..."
-@MostSecretFacts- (via twitter)

"It's easier to come on here after a win.  Still more work to be done..." -@m33m- (via twitter)

"Paintball sounds like fun because you get to hurt people in the name of art..."
-@iheartgunts- (via twitter)



Good afternoon everyone.  The heart of today's post will revisit my Las Vegas break-in back at the end of August, highlighting the silver lining of that unexpected situation.  Let me touch on some other things really quickly, and then we'll get to that.

First, you may have noticed that above I posted two tweets from players (Mario Chalmers and Mike Miller) who are members of the Miami Heat (I also retweeted these on Twitter).  This might seem strange to you since I'm a Spurs fan.  However, since I recently posted a facebook quote and a tweet here that weren't exactly pro-Heat, I thought that I'd give them their day.  Of course I'm going to notify them that I used their tweets (which I always do), while letting them know that I'm a Spurs fan...  ;)  This segues in several directions...  Today I changed my Twitter handle to @coachatx (you can always find this at the top of this page).  I wanted to line up my handle with my new Twitter bio and my new blog name.  I'm not living in the desert, so I don't see the point of @desertcoach being my handle.  Back to the Heat and the Spurs, I did expect a very close series (a seven-game series is what I predicted), and the series is now tied.  What I did not expect is for the games to play out in the way that they have.  I pretty much expected that each and every game of the series would be similar to the first game - a close game, wire-to-wire.  Now we are left with basically a best-of-three series, with the next game being played on Sunday in San Antonio, followed by a Tuesday tilt in Miami.  A seventh game (if necessary) would take place in Miami on Thursday.  In a non-related (but very important) story, remember that Dave Smith (Memphis Mojo) will be participating in Event 26 (the $1,000.00 Seniors No-Limit Hold 'Em event) of the World Series of Poker, which begins today.  Please send him your good karma...

Okay, now for the silver lining of my Las Vegas break-in.  To give you a quick recap, I moved to Las Vegas at the end of last July, packing everything that I could into my Montero Sport, before making a one-way trip from San Marcos, America to the desert.  After spending about ten days with the very gracious Carmel Josephine, I moved into a pay-by-the-week apartment that was in the same neighborhood that I lived in when I was in Las Vegas before.  The neighborhood is in a low-income area, but I never had any problems there before, and it's close to the Strip.  Well, at 1:00 a.m. on the Thursday night/Friday morning heading into Labor Day Weekend, I returned home from playing poker to find that my front door had been kicked in.  In spite of the fact that everything that I owned was in that apartment, all that was taken was three pairs of windpants and my Droid charger (yeah, I know...).  I agree with the police that the thief (thieves?) was probably spooked, especially since it was obvious that closet doors and drawers that I had left closed were now open.  During the hour and a half that the police spent investigating, I decided that I was going to move back to San Marcos.  I figured that it was probably not a good idea to just stay where I was, giving the criminal(s) another chance to get the rest of my stuff.  Like I said, this happened on the front end of Labor Day Weekend, and it would have been expensive to find another place to stay with such short notice.  I was also still looking for a job at this point in time, which played a major role in my decision.  After the police left, I spent the rest of the night repacking my things (which didn't take long), and at 7:00 a.m PST (9:00 a.m. CST) I made some phone calls to San Marcos, America.  First I called my friend Ollie, asking him what he thought about the prospects of me getting a job when I returned to town.  Ollie is the same friend who hired me on the spot at the Texas Music Theater a few summers ago when I told him about my inability to get back into teaching and coaching in the tough economy (and yes, the last couple of years of my life have just been STELLAR...).  Anyway, Ollie said that he would speak to Sean for me, who ended up hiring me at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda, where I had worked "spot shifts" during the previous year.  Actually, the Veranda (the bar on the roof - yes, upstairs, and not in the basement) was not open at this point, but would be opening in the middle of September (two weeks later).  Then I called my friend Lindsey, who was the manager of my apartment complex the year before.  As fast as San Marcos is growing (the fastest-growing large city in the U.S., remember?), I didn't know if there would be any available apartments anywhere in town.  Lindsey actually oversees two complexes, and this is how the conversation went (and this is a story that I have told SEVERAL TIMES during the past year):

Lindsey:  "Well, we don't have any units available at your old complex, but we still have two units at the other complex.  Now these are two-bedrooms, but we can lock a bedroom, and rent it to you as a one-bedroom..."

Me:  (OBVIOUSLY THINKING, 'well that's incredibly nice...')  "That's great, but I won't be there until about..., 4:00 in the morning tomorrow???" (remember, this is the Friday morning of Labor Day Weekend, and even if I did make the 20-plus hour drive straight through, the office would be closed until Tuesday, while I would be arriving very early on Saturday morning)...

Lindsey:  "That's okay.  I'll just leave the door unlocked, and leave the keys and the parking permit in the apartment, and I'll see you on Tuesday morning..."

Me:  (OBVIOUSLY THINKING, 'well that's incredibly nice...')  "Thank you Lindsey..."  :)


Like I said, it's been an incredibly rough past couple of years for me, but you have to look for the silver linings...  Have a great Father's Day Weekend, and I'll see you again on Monday!