I'm a hippie now

wowwwwwwwwwwwww sorry I haven't updated in a long time. Cards has been absolutely brutal this week and Sean and I also started doing P90x so I have just been getting owned every day mentally and physically.

I also found this music video, does it get any better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbpzjbXUZI&feature=related

who knew that eddie murphy has the voice of an angel?



P90x is this crazy 90 day full body workout thing on DVDs that will turn me into 170 lbs of twisted steel and sex appeal. Its between 1-2 hours everyday of all these exercises you do with free weights and resistance bands. Sean was Mr. Workout in highschool too and is getting back into it so he has me doing crazy things like drinking protein shakes afterward (hahahahahahahaaa WHAT) and doing yoga to stretch and cool down. Yes, i have been exercising every day and doing yoga. Just typing that makes me laugh, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME. If i get some pictures on here of me trying to do yoga moves in all my lanky, unbalanced glory, im sure none of you would stop laughing for months. reverse warrior 2 downward dog frog pose anyone? WASSUP

BONUS FACT: Day 2 of p90x was plyometrics. The dictionary defines plyometrics as a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system. I define plyometrics as jumping and running in place and spazzing out for an hour straight. Right before the workout I ate this huge bowl of sugary cereal + whole milk, no biggie. About 35 minutes in things go south, i say to sean IM NOT FEELIN TOO GOOD BUDDY and he starts to laugh thinking I am just whining like normal. He stopped laughing when I ran and puked in the toilet. Yes, I puked on day 2 of p90x. I. AM. A. MACHINE.

Why am I a hippie you say? Well Sabo and I decided to join a CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture. Basically its a way for local farms to go straight to the customer. So we send these people a check every month, and they give us a box of fresh vegetables from the farm every week. They rotated the vegetables and give you whatever is in season, along with recipes to use them. This weeks box looks like this:



I think this week included starship squash, yellow onions, leeks, kale, eggplant, potatoes, parsley, beets, and tomatoes. Its a really good way to make us eat lots of vegetables that we would never normally get or eat, and support local farmers. I made my own tomato sauce for pasta last week, baked up a bunch of squash and zucchini and onions with olive oil to eat as sides, and we just finished making some potato leek soup for this week. BALLIN

hippe transformation happening? next time you see me I will probably just be doing crane pose yoga in a field with flowing dredlocks wearing an organic leaf loincloth and handing out fresh, pesticide free vegetables to anyone within range.

This post is not a joke

AHAHAHAAAAAAA so Sean, Derek ( a fellow poker player who just moved out to berkeley that I know from the internet) and I decided to go to the Oakland A's game last night. Derek is a cool kid so I am now like 20 for 20 on actually liking people that I meet in real life after knowing them on the internet from my video game and and now poker adventures. Yes, it was $2 dollar tickets and 1$ dollar hot dogs and it was just as amazing as I imagined. The stadium as a whole was excited as I was, and I heard tons of "Let's GO HOT DOGS" chants during the game which make no sense but thats OK with me. We all took it easy and only ate 3, but I think a "1 hot dog per inning" challenge is on the horizon. The Athletics lost a heartbreaker to the Rangers by a single run, sad day. Bay area sports teams record at games I have been to: 1-2.

The real fun starts after the game. I drove us down there in the trusty 4runner to give it some exercise and because I had missed driving. We had borrowed Sabo's GPS and Sean was manning that in the passenger seat. Below is a picture of the route we tried to take on the way home (blue) and the actual route we ended up taking (red). The A tag is the stadium, the B tag is our house. Click on the picture for a better view:



ARE YOU KIDDING ME. ahahaaaaaaaaaa I somehow realized something was up when we were on the BAY BRIDGE on our way to SAN FRANCISCO. The GPS directed us onto the bay bridge and then decided to recalculate. At this point it was impossible to turn around so we all just start cracking up and how we managed to mess up this bad. It was like 11:30 at this point but since Sean is day trading (decided TFA wasn't for him) and Derek and I are POKER PROFESSIONALS (aka none of us have real jobs), we decided to make an evening of it and go grab a drink and try to scheme some nachos in the city. Nacho Fail but we grabbed a beer at this SF brewery and hung out for a while which was fun. We made it back home semi-uneventfully and all in one piece so A+ adventure.

yesterday i did that p90x workout thing and today feels like all my muscles have exploded on the inside. none of you will probably recognize me when I come back home because i will be SO JACKED and constantly just curling 400 lbs and lifting cars and squatting houses. HOLLA

IVE GOT A CRUSH ON YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I have watched this video for the last 3 hours straight while I played cards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm_QilrHkh8&feature=related

I found myself standing up and singing with my headphones on (wearing only my boxers obviously) trying to mimic the sweet knee shakes from 1:14 to 1:19. I started to think about what I looked like and started cracking up and realized I am, in fact, an idiot

Not sure how it would be possible to NOT LOVE this song... maybe if you hate great outfits, awesome haircuts, flashy dance moves, and catchy lyrics? This last week and weekend flew by as usual, and I feel like I did lots of fun stuff.

Friday night I went to the oakland athletics game with sabo, anne, JZ, and neha. The mighty athetics won so that was good, and then they have a pretty serious fireworks show afterwords. They let you go onto the field and lay on the grass and then they turn out all the lights and show the fireworks with oldschool journey and phil collins songs blaring, so that was real cool. Heres sabo and anne enjoying the moment while people file onto the field:



Saturday we went into San fran for a bit which was great because I haven't really seen it at all. We BARTed in and then walked all along the water down to fishermans wharf to grab some delicious seafood. It was also farmers market day (not sure if this is every day or weekends or what) but there were tons of booths set up selling everything from bread to olive oil to fruit to cheese. They let you sample anything you want so its really fun to just go around eating all sorts of stuff. I had pomegranate for the first time and sabo bought a couple PLUOTS (fruit that is half plum half apricot) so I was expanding my pallet all over the place. We walked around for like 4 hours total (oh yea and we went to ghirardelli square where they make all the chocolate) and the weather was just so nice I fell asleep on like 4 different park benches. ahhhhhhhhhhh

We had people over saturday night and had fun playing cards and hanging out, then I got up sunday and went to the early service of church to stay on my wake up early plan (i woke up at 8:30 like 4 time this week... DEFINITE IMPROVEMENT). The music minister at the church ive been going to looks EXACTLY like NC states basketball coach sidney lowe, ill try to awkwardly snap a picture during church (sacrilegious?) so you can see the other half of the comparison



Played some tennis after church with dan and sabo, im horribly out of shape and have lost all athletic ability so no surprise there. I bet on sports probably 3 times a year, but Dan and I decided the Steelers could never lose at Chicago, so Pitt -3 (sports betting 101: pitt -3 means you take pittsburghs score at the end of the game and subtract 3 points. So we bet on pitt - 3, if the bears win or pitt wins by 2 or less, we lose. If pitt wins by three, its a tie. If pitt wins by four or more, we win) is printing money and we threw down some dollars on the game. Bears win by a last minute field goal after the steelers have TWO TRIPS TO THE REDZONE in the FOURTH QUARTER for a total of ZERO POINTS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME. there was 21 seconds after the field goal, could it be that a last second EPIC drive by the steelers is in the works and it will be the best day of our lives? OH NO, pitt just decided to fumble the kickoff return and end the game right then

DFjhaosifahsldf
safahsigasdlfa
sdfaisdhflaskdfhasldfias
dfahsdifalsdhfdAHDFAAAAAAAAAAAAA

serves me right, sportsbetting is for the birds. later on sunday, sabo and I went down to lake merritt to meet some friends for a potluck pICNIC DINNER at the lake. A lot of them are TFA people and the stories NEVER GET OLD. kids going crazy, kids slapping each other and teachers, fights, kids making out, just straight up chaos. it was fun to go be outside and throw the football and eat delicious food so the picnic gets an A+

hahaha when I plugged in my phone to get that picture of sabo and anne at the game on my computer, all my pictures came up. here are some winners...

This is the perfect summary of my last semester at chapel hill. Relaxing on a beautiful day just napping on the steps of the library, rough life



View from our hotel room in vegas this summer, this picture gives me the itch so Im gonna have to go out one of these weekends



Abby's (my dog) infamous doggy diaper that she had to wear when she had that leaky bladder. It cracked me up every time I saw it for a solid five minutes, especially since the family began to call them her "fancy pants"



Supposedly my car gets delivered today so that is awesome (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUUUUUUUUU). Im going to the A's game on wednesday with a kid who plays cards with me online who recently moved out here as well, so that should be fun. Hope all is well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN grandma and I hope the beach is marvelous

IVE GOT A CRUSH ON YOUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

MR SABO... THE MATH TEACHER

teaching highschoolers math, all day every day... AN ANIMAL

ps - two days, two posts... WASSUP WASSUP WASSUP

CALIFORNIA IS FUN

Well its 2:36 AM so I failed the curfew challenge tonight, but I have done really well the other nights. Not tired tonight for some reason, so ill be productive and BLOG. I also remembered my phone has a camera so I will be much better at getting you guys fun pictures and life updates from now on

I went to a giants game last week with Mithil, Sean, and Shannon and had a wonderful time. Shannon's law firm has season tickets so she got us in for free, YES. They were playing the LA Dodgers, so we had a nice in state rivalry vibe going on. We chanted BEAT LA BEAT LAAAAAAAAAAAAA the entire game until the dodgers crushed us 9-1, yikes. The giants park is known for serving garlic fries, which look like this

Mithil and I pounded some and they were delicious, though it may have been the most garlic I have ever eaten in my entire life. Imagine 40,000 people packed in close quarters who ARE ALL EATING GARLIC. Pretty nice not worrying about your breath stinking since everyone else's does too. SHIP IT

Weather got chilly over in SF so the game was a little cold at times. I awkwardly let my legs touch sean's girfriends on my left and a 90 year old man's on my right for some extra warmth... you do what you gotta do

Sabo's friend Dan from home is visiting so we have been all over the place. Dan knows a guy from college who goes to school in San Francisco now and is living without a home. On purpose. He is awesome and sleeps in public parks at night, keeps his stuff for school in a gym locker, and showers and stuff at the gym. He moved out here 4 months ago with a hammock and slept in parks a few nights to save money while he looked for a place, decided he liked it, and has done it for four months in a row. He bikes everywhere and is a baller. hes planning on doing it until it really interferes with his studies, and I was just cracking up at how crazy/awesome it is

We met him and a couple other guys to eat dinner at IKES PLACE one night this weekend, a sandwich shop that has been featured on man vs food (youll have to try to find the episode mom and dad, I know you got all 900 Tivoed). They have sandwiches like the DOOMSDAY ( pictured below) which consist of: Roast Beef, Corned Beef, Pastrami, Salami, Turkey, Bacon, Ham, Mozzarella Sticks, Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers, and Avocado.
Its this hole in the wall and there is no seats so like 6 of us just sat outside on the sidewalk in the drizzling rain and feasted. I got the ELI MANNING and I dont even remember what was on it, but it was delicious. It was a cool experience and I love all the little local restaurants that are one every corner out here.

Played some golf on a 9 hole par 3, shot a 66 or something like a true champion YESSSSSSSSSS. I only lost 3 or 4 balls though, so its definitely a great round in my opinion.

Was over at one of sabos friends houses (sabo's friend's houses? I dont know grammar) the other night and met some cool people. Met a pair of twin girls and their friend, and one of the twins introduces me to the friend as her "girlfriend", so im hypersensitive and thinking OH IM ON THE WEST COAST EVERYONE OUT HERE IS GAY NOW. I go the whole night thinking of smooth questions like "When did you girls come out of the closet" and witty statements like "man you ladies are pretty, the male gender lost a good pair here" but cant ever slip them into the conversation. Turns out that was fortunate because they are both very straight and I am apparently just an idiot?

Whats funny though is that their is a gay Eric in TFA out here, so when they met us they assumed Sabo was gay and of course sabo is like "this is my friend nick" so they think we are the gay couple. So Im thinking they are lesbians, they are thinking we are gay, and everyone is just confused. Chaos all around but we got it worked out like a week later and had a good laugh, and now sabo and I have good inside jokes about sending out the gay vibes. I had a great idea about saying "Oh wow you girls like boys and we like girls? we should all go out on a double date and celebrate" but they have like serious boyfriends and fiancees and stuff so FAIL

Found this picture on my computer from sometime out at UNC and couldnt stop laughing, we are all tools


WOW im really failing curfew now, I promise I will upate again before next monday

LOVE, NICHOLAS

where does the time go

I honestly feel like I updated this thing yesterday. I have a newfound respect for tara and leah who update regularly... who knew you guys were more productive/organized than I was? I MEAN REALLY, WHO WOULDA THOUGHT

This week was good, It was hot as a mother again so I sat inside and played lots of cards. Sabo is this masochistic fiend and loves to just go for like 10 mile walks when he gets back from work (not kidding, the shortest walk I have taken with him is probably like 5 miles) so we walk in the park behind our house pretty regularly. It looks like this and is huuuuuuuge:

I am trying to work my way into jogging, pretty sure if I jogged up just ONE of these hills I would be donezo so we will see how that works. A ton of people ride their bikes up here, and Sean is a big mountain biker and is trying to convince us all to get bikes... so expect new adventure stories and a couple broken collar bones shortly.

This is the view from the top of our neighborhood (one street up from our house). You can see the golden gate bridge in the top right, san fran in top middle, and the bay bridge and treasure island a little lower. The sunsets every night are beautiful:

Played some cards this weekend, DONT CALL IT A COMEBACK BABY

And last but not least, I am on the way to being a healthy eater. Look at this delicious dish. I made it with like two boxes of pasta which was enough to feed an army so I pretty much ate it all day every day for five days. You know you are a horrible cook when you think pasta salad is a difficult recipe. call me emeril



love your friend, nick

ps - happy birthday tara ;) youre awesome

pss - got into a bad sleeping schedule again so new curfews in place. In bed by 1, awake by 930. WISH ME LUCK