Hey. Thanks.

Yeah. I know I'm a couple weeks late on this, but Thanksgiving happened while I was on my blog vacation. Naturally, I have some thoughts.

It's no secret 2011 hasn't been my best year -- although it did rally something serious starting at the end of October. Well, when you go through rough times, you learn a lot about yourself and your friends and the people who care about you.

I've definitely got that. I learned more this year than I ever have before -- about humility, about perseverance, about trusting my instincts, about not being afraid of accepting help, about the importance of a positive attitude, and so on and so on.

Finally, I feel like I've made it through the storm. I feel so good, and there are innumerable things for which I'm incredibly thankful. Since I didn't write anything on Thanksgiving, I figured why not now?

Fair warning, though. It's about to get real up in this piece. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving (two weeks ago), I couldn't have made it through this year without the following things (some very obvious, some maybe not so much), albeit it an incomplete list:

My Family -- My dad slipped me a $20 bill every time he saw me. My mom sent me home with food every time I saw her. My grandfather was so upset when he heard about my job back in January, he sent me a card with a check for $50 in it. Seriously. That happened. Is it getting dusty in here? I mean. There aren't enough words.

My Friends -- You guys. For reals. You're all ridiculous, and I don't know what I would have done without our weekly (or more often) debaucheries this summer and fall. You were there with a kind and encouraging word when I needed it and with a disparaging word when it was necessary haha. And you continue to be awesome.

Fridays at the Bottom Line -- The best happy hour in DC. It's tough to beat the $1 beer specials. We can go in there and all get drinks for like $25 total, which would cover like three drinks anywhere else in the District. Many a ridiculous night has originated at the Bottom Line, and I hope for more to come VERY shortly. Like this week, I hope.

Running -- Reluctantly crouched at the starting line. Engines pumping and thumping in time. The green light flashes. The flags go up. Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup. You're fired up right now, aren't you? The first few lines to "The Distance," by Cake. It's the first song on my running playlist every time I run. Since April, when I started watching what I eat and exercising intensely, there have been times where I was simply overwhelmed. And nothing cleared my head, got the blood pumping or burned the energy better than a solid four-mile run. Whenever I go a few days or weeks without running, that first run back is a rush of excitement, and I always remember how much I love it now. It's so funny because I hated running until I forced myself into a half-marathon two years ago. Since then, I've run two 5Ks, and I registered for a second half-marathon here in DC in March. CAN'T WAIT.

Losing Weight/Being Healthier -- You may have heard, but I've lost more than 40 pounds since April. You know what never gets old? I wore pants yesterday I couldn't even pull up to my waist just a few months ago. Never mind buttoning them, I couldn't even get them up to my waist. And I wore them comfortably yesterday. Incredible. I was wearing XL shirts just eight months ago. Now, I wear mostly mediums. I have a size medium coat. What in the world. This time last year? I was almost 230 pounds. I weighed in Monday night after my run at 186, which is even more of an accomplishment given how I spent the months of October and November up and down the East coast. More on that next week.

Dancing -- Dude. I never knew how much I loved it until this past summer. But, man, what an unbelievably freeing and exhilarating time. Play a little Jackson 5 ("I Want You Back," especially) or, really, any 60s music, I'm totally in. Oh who are we kidding...I'm good with anything. Lulz.

My Job -- First and foremost, I straight-up love my co-workers. You guys are brilliant and hilarious, and I could not be more excited about this opportunity. It challenges me in new and exciting ways every day, and I'm learning something new seemingly by the minute. What more can you ask for?

My Best Friends -- Jon, you are like a brother to me. We've been friends for, what, 17, almost 18 years now? Incredible. You have a way of cutting right to the point in exactly the way I need to hear it exactly WHEN I need to hear it. I often, unwisely, do not heed your advice (just as we both know I probably won't this time...LULZ), but, rest assured, I know I probably should haha. And it is always most appreciated. Sometimes I just need to go down magnificently in flames, consequences be damned, you know? C'est la vie. And Mike. There may be no stranger "bromance." Despite the fact that we have only hung out in person maybe four times total, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I have talked to you more than anyone else this year. Disturbingly parallel. Whatever happens with one of us, I can know without question the other has either already done it or will be doing it shortly. Lulz, indeed.

Last and, most certainly, not least, the past five weeks -- I mean. What can I say? Simply amazing. Thanks, "Lola." Always.

-BG

The Single Life

Here's a fact about me that is both absolutely stunning and absolutely true: I've never really been single.

Over the past 14 years, I've been engaged (twice) more often than I've been single for longer than a couple weeks (once). I'll pause here for that to sink in. LULZ.

Yeah, so THAT happened.

I've had relationships, and those relationships have ended; but, more often than not, I slid into another relationship within a couple of weeks -- if that long, in some cases. I like to joke that I'm a serial monogamist.

Casual dating and sleeping around has never really been something I've been particularly interested in or adept at making work. I'm much more suited to serious relationships. And I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that, especially since I'm aware of it, and I take steps to try to manage it haha. But it's definitely how I am.

The ex-girl and I split some months back now, and a strange thing happened to me. I was consumed, not with finding another girlfriend, but with getting my shit straight. I'm sure that's a normal reaction for most people, but in high school and college, I always just wanted to find another girlfriend. It was always my gut instinct.

And as Rob Gordon says in High Fidelity, "I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and, frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains."

I mean, seriously, brief aside: how brilliant is that movie/book? Love it.

So yeah. There you go. Previously, after a break-up, all I really wanted was to find a girlfriend because I didn't particularly like being alone. But really, who does?

Like I said, this time felt different. For the first time, I absolutely didn't care about talking to girls or trying to go on dates or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I gave it a few half-hearted attempts over the past few months, but it became clear I wasn't into it. I had no interest in trying to date someone else. At all.

Perhaps it was my gut having its first good idea since I was 14 years old. I don't know.

I know what you're probably thinking. This is a post to convince others (and myself) that it's OK I don't have a girlfriend and I promise everything is OK and please believe me!

Couldn't be further from the truth, and I believe I have a convincing argument.

First of all, it's been the unanimous opinion of every friend I've seen recently that they cannot believe how happy and energetic and full of life I am now. Exact words are usually something like, "Wow, the difference between talking to you now and talking to you four or five months ago is incredible. You seem happier than I've ever seen you." Four or five months ago was pretty much the lowest point I'd ever been at, if you'll recall.

That tells me everything I've been working so hard on these past few months has been totally and completely worth it and successful.

Second, spending serious time working out and watching what I eat has been one of the best things I could have ever done for myself. Look, obviously I'm not saying I didn't do these things because I was in a relationship. That's nonsensical.

But would I have felt the same urge, desire and motivation to push myself as hard as I continue to push myself if I were NOT single? I'm not sure. I do know that being single gave me a LOT more time to spend lifting weights, walking Allie and running.

And let's be honest, you can say "hey sweetheart, how do you feel about chicken breast, steamed veggies and tuna for dinner?" only so often. When you're with someone, even when you cook together, it's SOOO easy to fall into unhealthy eating habits. I have had my share of that. Plus, there's going out to dinner and dates and etc. You know how it goes.

I needed to be extreme with my food choices for a while to instill good habits and discipline. I'm in a much better place with that now. I make much smarter decisions with food now than I ever have. I eat less food now than I ever have. God I'm so happy with this haha. I'm just so much healthier than I've ever been, it's ridiculous.

Next, going out with my friends as much as I have been. Again, I'm NOT saying I couldn't have gone out with my friends when I wasn't single. That's illogical. Of course I could have. But you know. Let's be reasonable. There are only so many times when you can say, "hey sweetheart, I'm going downtown to drink with my friends three times this week, cool?" I'm just saying. That would probably wear thin on ANY significant other after a while, and probably understandably so. But at the same time, I needed it. Big time.

As I (jokingly, of course) said to Nick in Raleigh, life can be a lot of fun when you don't have to worry about disappointing and/or embarrassing a girl haha. That's clearly NOT serious, but you know what I'm saying. It's probably not as easy to go home and have the following exchange, "So what did you do tonight?" "Oh you know. Danced like an ass for four hours."

Finally, did you read what I wrote up there? I've been engaged twice, and I haven't been single since I was approximately 15 years old. I think some time to myself to figure out my own shit was a little overdue, don't you?

As my friend Ashlee said to me, it's hard to find out who you are when you find yourself as half of a whole for so long. Well said! And true!

Before this summer, the longest I'd been single since I was 15 years old was less than six weeks. And even then, it wasn't really six weeks of being single because we never stopped speaking, hanging out or living together. So you know. There's that.

I have never taken the opportunity to look at myself, to improve on the things I felt needed improvement or to figure out what I truly want. I am 29 years old, friends. I'm a grown-ass man, dawg. It's been well past time for a while now for a little self-analysis and reflection.

I'm not saying I have it all figured out. It's only been, what, four months? But I have a much better perspective on myself. I'm in SUCH a better place mentally and physically right now. It's difficult even to comprehend where I was back in April.

The improvements I've made since then -- I mean, wow. There really aren't words for it. My energy level is through the ROOF. So much so, in fact, that J. Mike referred to dancing all night as "pulling a BG." I'm nearly at my goal weight of 180 pounds (from an all-time high of almost 230 pounds), which will only be a pit-stop on my way to 170 or 175 or even 165. Who knows.

I am comfortably running at least four miles three times a week. And I'm running five miles on the weekends. I made ridiculous improvements on my 5k time a few weeks ago. I'm now looking toward making similarly significant progress on my half-marathon time of 2:19:51.

I've been setting personal bests in one-mile, two-mile, three-mile and four-mile times almost daily for weeks now. I've almost got my one-mile time under eight minutes. My two-mile time is hovering right around 16 or 17 minutes. I recorded my best-ever four-mile time last week before I went to Raleigh.

I said GODDAMN it feels good to be a gangsta.

So. All of that is to say this: the past four months or so. Being single, being alone by my own designs and of my own volition for once and NOT trying to hop into another relationship is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Like I said, I don't have it all figured out. But I have a much greater understanding of who I am and what I want -- things I'd never really bothered to consider before. All that running allows for a lot of reflection and thought.

Now, all of THAT is to say this: I think it's finally time. I feel like I'm ready to see other people and finally put all of my rediscovered awesomeness to good use, no? Although my new perspective on things is also most definitely telling me we'll take things slow this time as compared to, say, every other time in my life. Lulz.

It's been four months, and I've spent a hell of a lot of time working on myself. Feels like a good time to put myself back out there.

Let's go, friends. LET. US. GO.

-BG

Speechless

Funny thing about me: I'm very rarely speechless. Verbose may be the best descriptor ever used to describe me. Ask my friend Clark about the time I submitted a 1,200-word column on a football game I covered. It should have been in the 500-600 word range. Whoops.

I usually don't have a very hard time coming up with things to say or to write, and I have opinions about almost everything (even if I don't necessarily articulate them at every moment of the day [restraint, my friends -- a valuable skill]). Those are several reasons why I've always enjoyed being a "writer."

It's a wonderful outlet for when I have things to say (which is often), even if the number of people who care about those things can be counted on one hand (which is also often).

Imagine my surprise when I sat down to write for the blog today, and I had nothing. I don't have anything particularly funny or interesting to say (not that anything I ever say is particularly funny or interesting, mind you), which is both pretty funny and interesting to me, anyway. I have a list of 20 or so ideas for posts sketched out, but none of them really excited me today.

I'm honestly pretty shocked I've been able to keep up with the three-times-a-week writing schedule, with only a couple slips, for almost three full months now. Anyway.

So there you go. This post is about to get a little stream-of-consciousnessy. Continue at your own risk.

I was so blown away by the response to my story about The Cycle. Google Analytics tells me the blog received the second-most traffic yesterday behind only my (500) Days of Summer break-up post. That's so awesome. I loved writing that story yesterday. I seriously loved playing in a band, even if it was only for a brief time.

You know, maybe I should hop on Craigslist and see if there are any fun bands around here looking for a drummer. I'm not trying to join a super-serious, pretentious band or anything. I seriously doubt I'm good enough to play in a band like that. I just want to play some fun music that gets people dancing. I'm going to have to think about this one. Not a bad idea.

I just saw a new show on BBC America called "The Hour." Let me tell you this. I think it's going to be awesome. The pilot just aired a day or two ago. But it's set in 1950s England at the BBC as the network tries to launch a new news program.

Because of the time period in which it's set, it kind of has a Mad Men-esque vibe going on, which I'm obviously a fan of because I love Mad Men. McNulty from The Wire stars in the "Don Draper" role. My only gripe is BBC America is not available in HD (I know, #firstworldproblems). It's just really distracting on a 55-inch HDTV (#humblebrag, to continue the out-of-place hash tag trend). Oh well. DVR is set. I'll have to deal.

So last night, my friends and I went to Front Page for happy hour because they've got some pretty good specials there on Thursday nights ($2 Miller Lites, Corona and Corona Lights, as well as free tacos). I didn't get any tacos though. They ran out. I love when I can go out and have a really good time for like $16. And I like it even MORE when it doesn't lead to any weight gain the next day.

Yes, I weighed in for the third consecutive day at 193 for a loss of 34 pounds. I'll take it! I really wish my ribs would stop hurting so I can get back to running and lifting the way I want to. I'm just too scared to try anything in the gym with my ribs hurting the way they are.

I'm definitely taking it easy tonight because TOMORROW one of the Katies has a friend in a band, and that band is playing somewhere in Bethesda! It almost doesn't matter what kind of music it is. I just like to go listen to live music. It'll be a good time, for SHO. And then we'll likely go out somewhere after that. I most definitely cannot go out three nights in a row. So tonight is a TV/reading/walking the dog kind of night.

For privacy reasons, I have my Twitter settings such that you have to request to follow me (which you should totally do, by the way). In the past 24 hours I have received no fewer than SEVEN requests from obvious porn spam accounts. What in the world. So very strange.

Still no word on the job front, but my confidence is renewed! Google's Revenge will not allow me to speak about these things publicly, but feel free to gchat me/text me or something. I am hopeful and optimistic as ever.

Oh, my dog Allie walked into a tree today. So that happened. She gets in the habit of not looking where she's going when she sees other dogs across the street. She follows them intently with her whole head and pays no attention to what's in front of her.

Well on our walk this morning, there was a big German shepherd on the other side of the street, and Allie was, predictably, pumped about it. Well I'm so used to her going nuts for other dogs, I didn't notice she stopped looking forward. Then I heard a yelp and saw her snorting and making funny faces. Yup. She walked into a tree. Once she and I determined she was not hurt, it was actually quite funny.

I felt so bad for her. I think she was embarrassed. She didn't want to walk for a few minutes and just buried her head in my legs. Poor thing. She's fine, of course, and we were able to complete the walk successfully without another tree-crashing incident. Oh dogs. You never cease to amaze me.

Wow, look at that. I started writing this thinking I had no idea what I was going to write, and I've turned in more than 1,000 words anyway.

As always, thank you so, so much for reading and for the feedback you give me. People telling me they're reading, laughing and enjoying the blog is seriously amazing, and it always makes my day. I'll try to come up with something thoroughly entertaining by Monday. Until then!

-BG

Softball is Too Much Fun

Let me tell you about some softball!

I've briefly mentioned softball a few times since I resumed regular blogging back in early June, but I'd like to devote some more time to it today. Because it's incredible. I seriously cannot believe how much fun it is.

Listen, I'm a baseball guy. Baseball is my favorite. Always has been; always will be. Don't get me wrong; I love football, too. But I grew up with baseball. It's in my blood.

I played in rec leagues from the time I was 6 years old until I went to college. During the summers in elementary school and middle school, I'd go outside with my bat and ball as soon as I woke up and didn't bother heading home until I heard my mom whistle at dinner time and/or dark.

All that playing, I eventually got pretty good at it. I tried out for my high school team once as a sophomore. I didn't make it, but I was one of the last cuts. The team was also nationally ranked at the time, so I didn't feel too badly about it. I kept playing in the rec leagues, though, and that was plenty good enough for me.

That was most definitely the peak of my playing abilities. I could hit high 80s pitching. I had a pretty solid arm from left field. I wasn't the fastest guy in the world -- never have been, but I could get around the bases.

Well, here's the thing about getting older (and, also, not really working on those skills much after high school). That's all pretty much gone now haha. I went to the cages a few weeks ago, and I was just standing outside the 80-85 mph cage, and I could hardly see it, never mind hit it. I couldn't believe there was a time when I could hit it. I stuck to the 60-70 mph cages.

Softball has been a way to have all the fun of baseball in a more low-key environment. As I've mentioned before, this is an alumni network league, which means I play for N.C. State (which, by the way, makes it LITERALLY a million times more fun).

State didn't field a team last year, so we're really trying to get back on our feet this year and build some continuity going forward. In other words, we're not very good this year haha. As Evan put it last night, we're the best 1-10 team in the league.

We don't take ourselves overly seriously, and we always, always have a kick-ass time playing. And that's really the most important thing. We've played a couple of teams that took themselves too seriously, and they were major downers. Guys. This isn't the ACC. It's a beer league. Take it down a notch or two.

We've got a great group of guys and girls, and I think if we can keep the team together next season we'll be in much better shape -- not unlike the East Dillon Lions from season 4 to season 5 of Friday Night Lights. This season has been about finding a rhythm.

With such a new group of players (myself included, by the way), we spent the majority of the season just trying to figure out where everyone was best-suited to play in the field and in the batting order. Most of the teams we've played have been together for a couple years, so they had no adjustments to make, really. I really like our team though. We're really getting there.

Our problem all season as been slow starts. Typical N.C. State, am I right? We just lose our minds in the first two innings and dig ourselves a huge hole. If you look at about half of our losses, we ended up outscoring the other team for the last four or five innings in each game!

We're seriously not very far away from being a .500 team. It's a game of inches, and we're working our fannies off out there. We're getting there!

Naturally, being the huge baseball nerd I am, I've been keeping track of all my batting stats for the season. We still have three regular season games to go (a double-header tomorrow, and a game against Georgetown on Tuesday night), but here's my tally so far:

• I've played in nine of our 11 games so far (I joined the team after it played its first two games already).
• I've hit safely in seven of the nine, and I have at least two hits in five of those games. The only two games where I didn't get a hit came on the same day I hurt my arm, and it was agonizingly painful swinging a bat (and throwing a ball, for that matter).
• In five of the seven games in which I recorded a hit, I hit safely in each at-bat, i.e. I never made an out.
• I've got four doubles and two triples. The rest are singles. I'd really like to add a home run either this weekend or Tuesday night. I just missed one earlier this season (in a 4-for-4 performance in our 20-4 win over South Carolina).
• I've scored five runs, knocked in another six runs, walked once and hit one sac fly.
  
• My batting average is .625.
• On-base percentage of .640.
• Slugging percentage of .958.
• And my OPS is 1.598.

And yes, I realize pretty much only Mike and maybe Nick will care at all about some of those (or even know what it all means).

What does it all mean? Not very much, really. It's just so much fun playing, and I like to know how I'm doing.

With our usual coach out of town for a few days, I've been helping to run things in his absence. It's been a lot of logistics in terms of making sure we have enough players, that we have enough female players (three girls for the first 10 players, and then one girl for every two guys after that) and enough alums playing (at least 75 percent of your roster in a game must be alumni).

Setting the line-up was fun though haha. It's all fun, really. I know. I'm a dork. This isn't the first time I've heard that.

Yesterday was rough though. If you don't get a permit for a field, you actually have to go and just sit on a spot on the National Mall to make sure you have a field. If you saw on my Facebook wall or Twitter yesterday, it was 98 degrees. But don't worry, it actually felt like 113. I was just sitting there with another teammate for, like, three hours waiting for the game to start. Sweltering doesn't even begin to describe it.

Tomorrow won't be much better. High of 101 (heat index of 112), and we've got a double-header against Cornell and Richmond from 1:30 until probably 4:30 or 5. I bought a huge case of water and a ton of Gatorade to bring.

I will tolerate no casualties on my watch!

Wish us luck tomorrow, and prepare the intravenous fluids!

-BG

RIP Lorenzo Charles

Just a warning up front: I'm going to get pretty excited about being a State fan in this post. So, you know. If you're a State fan like me or if you just like the way I write, by all means, continue on. Otherwise, you have been warned.

You've probably seen or read about the death of N.C. State legend Lorenzo Charles this week in a bus accident.

If you went to State, or if you're a basketball fan in general, you know the story of the 1983 Cardiac Pack. Charles caught the last-second heave from Dereck Whittenburg and dunked the ball home as time expired to give the Pack its second national championship (still tied for sixth most all time, by the way, making State one of only 14 schools with two or more national titles).

That team was the first Cinderella. The term "survive and advance," which is so popular now among coaches and analysts originated with Jimmy V during that run. It remains the biggest shot in NCAA tournament history. I will not argue about this. Facts are facts. The dunk, followed by Jimmy V dashing around the court afterward, is one of the most memorable scenes in the history of March Madness.

This post isn't so much about that iconic scene as it is about the feelings and emotions Charles' death brought to the surface.

Let me tell you something about State fans: we are a legit family. We are often the butt of jokes of almost every other school in the ACC, and the result is an almost cult-like protectiveness and intense love of each other. We band together because we have to and because, very often, we have many of the same awful -- and, a bit more rarely, wonderful -- experiences.

My ex-girlfriend used to make fun of me because of the wolfie hand sign State fans make at each other. But it's universal. If I'm out walking around or driving around and I see the Block S or some other State insignia, I know that person gets it. I make the hand sign, and, invariably, the other person smiles and makes it back because he or she knows I get it. It means instant brotherhood.

I spent a few formative years in New Jersey. I didn't move to North Carolina until I was 11. I didn't grow up a fan of any of the North Carolina schools. I sort of liked both UNC and Duke then because they were both successful while I was young, and that's what young kids do. They root for the winners. I knew of State. I knew of Jimmy V, but I didn't really understand what it meant to live in North Carolina and choose one of the three.

I never did, really. Not until college. And even then, I was originally accepted to Wake Forest. I'd told Wake Forest I was going to attend in the fall. I was getting orientation information and welcome phone calls. It wasn't until my old calculus teacher said I should consider State's engineering school because I was really good at calculus.

So I did.

While I didn't stay with engineering for long, I do not regret for one second choosing to attend State. I love everything about my tenure there, and I love how much we love our school.

Here's another thing about being a State fan: it takes work. It's not easy to root for State.

Think about it. How hard can it really be to cheer on Duke or UNC? I live in Maryland now. There's no other school around. How hard can it possibly be to cheer on Maryland? These are the three most successful ACC programs of the past 10 to 15 years.

Oh, poor you. Your team only won 23 games this season. Nothing against fans of these teams (well that's not true. I have a lot against fans of these teams, with a grudging exception for my friends haha), but c'mon.

State has been cursed with mismanagement, bad decisions, sloppy play and terrible luck. But that's OK. I love this team and this school. And I'm 100 percent proud to be a State fan.

ESPNU ran a series of commercials about colleges a few years ago, and this was the essence of State's commercial:

This is not red.
Not light red or dark red.
This is behaving like a pack of wolves.
It's where Torry first went deep and where Lorenzo made the shot.
This is never giving up,
Not ever giving up.
No, this is much more than red.

I get the chills when I read that to this day. Every time. I once wrote a column about it for Technician back in school. I got more feedback about that column than anything else I ever wrote for any newspaper for the simple reason it speaks to State fans.

As I wrote in the column, we always believe. It happened once. It can happen again. Why not now? Why not this game? Why not tonight? I was there for two of those exact scenarios back in 2006: the back-to-back games against Boston College and Florida State. I won't go into detail about them here, but man. Look them up if you need to. Awesome.

The point is the things that make us State fans go much deeper than "oh our team is so good!" Because, frankly, they haven't been very good for quite some time. And for as frustrating as that is now, whenever the teams finally break do through, it will be that much sweeter for us.

But State is responsible for some of the most important and memorable people and moments in the history of college sports -- especially basketball.

We are largely responsible for the formation of the ACC in the first place. Everett Case, who made State the dominant basketball program in the Southern Conference and early ACC, is responsible for many of the traditions schools everywhere still use.

In 1974, David Thompson, the best college basketball player ever, and his team ended the run of eight straight national titles for UCLA in the Final Four before taking the title themselves. And of course, the 1973 team went undefeated, but it was prohibited from tournament play for some terrible reason or another.

Then there's 1983. The original Cinderella team. And Jimmy V. It is impossible to watch his ESPY speech without getting teary-eyed. He died not long after, but his motto, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up," has been a mantra for State fans ever since. So much of what he said that night is valuable life advice.

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives.
Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day.
Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought.
Number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy.
But think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry -- that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

I like to think I've tried to live like that, especially these past few months where I've really been working on turning things around.

And then of course, the last thing he said that night:

"Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever."

Wow. What else can you say?

Because of how tight-knit we are (and I'm not saying other fan bases aren't like this. I'm just not writing about them.), things like Charles' tragic death hit us hard and bring up these emotions.

I love being a State fan, and I love that we have these common experiences and events in our past that draw us together. It's just hard work sometimes. But man will it be worth it when our time comes.

RIP Lorenzo. Go Pack.

Accountability and Affirmation, Baby!

First the sake of consistency, I'm picking April 17 as the start date for my weight-loss extravaganza.

That was around the day I weighed in at 227 and almost broke my 20-year vomitless streak out of disgust. Since then, I've made wholesale changes in my life -- many of which I outlined a week ago.

Look, it doesn't matter if you're working out if you're not eating right. You'll just completely sabotage yourself. So I've cut out a lot of the bullshit. No more Five Guys; no more Taco Bell; no more Papa John's. I'm allowing myself Chipotle once every two weeks, and I'm allowing Jersey Mike's once a week, if only because I need my sweet tea. But I probably won't go that often anyway.

That's the key, really. If you cut out everything you'll drive yourself crazy. A cheat meal here and there, when combined with a kick-ass day in the gym or as a reward for something is perfectly fine. And from my experience it helps stave off those cheat weeks or cheat months. I'm less likely to stuff myself on pizza if I know I've got a Chipotle burrito coming up.

Otherwise, lots of fruit and vegetables (I must have bought, like, a dozen peaches and plums this week). Chicken breast. Tuna. I've grown fond of the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers frozen dinners and the Green Giant Veggie Steamers. A relatively cost-effective (and tasty) method for making sure I'm getting enough veggies. Plus, the meals are generally packed with protein.

I could definitely do better. There's always room for improvement. I could eat more fresh vegetables and more fruit. Less cheese (although I'm already eating, like, 1,000 percent less cheese than I did before). But, all in all, compared to how I was eating prior to April 17, I'm very proud of where I am.

As far as physical fitness goes, I've worked my way up to going to the gym six days a week. Three days of running and three days of lifting, plus resting on Sunday. I'm still walking Allie four miles every day though.

I've had to be careful with the running because I hurt my hamstring last year around this time, and it LITERALLY was still bothering me last month when I first started with softball. Knock on wood, I ran three days last week and felt no discomfort for the first time in a long time. Great success.

I had a GREAT week in the gym last week. On Friday, I was able to run three miles straight without stopping or slowing down for the first time since I ran a 5K back in September. And I had another great running day today -- finished all three miles (3.1, to be exact) in just more than 30 minutes.

Yes, it was on the treadmill, but it's been 1,000 degrees outside (today's awesome weather notwithstanding) and the treadmill doesn't make my knees throb for hours afterward. It's better than nothing, and it'll have to do. It may not sound like much, but this is significant progress considering I couldn't finish two miles without stopping for a rest or feeling discomfort just a few weeks ago.

At this point, I'm walking 28 miles per week and running nine miles per week. I figure another week or so of running three miles a day and I'll bump it up to 3.5 or maybe four. Or maybe I'll jump to running four days a week instead of three. We'll have to see how it goes.

Now, because I'd been trying to fake my way through weight-training with 25-pound dumbbells for a couple years, my stats on the weights in the gym are embarrassing, so I will not share them here right now. But we're making progress, and that's what really matters.

Now for the really important part (which, naturally, is at the bottom of the post. Writing 101 fail, folks). How am I looking and feeling?

I'm feeling better than I have since I ran my half-marathon a year and a half ago. I think I look thinner, but I see myself every day so it's hard to tell. I do know I am comfortably wearing shirts I haven't been able to wear in more than a year. And I'm using a belt hole I haven't seen since the half-marathon as well. GREAT success!

I don't have any idea what my body fat percentage is. I need to get something to measure that. But as of right now, no idea. I'll have to check on that this week.

I weighed in this morning at 206 (!), for a loss of 21 (!!) pounds over the past eight weeks. My goal, as I mentioned earlier, is to get to 180 pounds. But weight is just an arbitrary number -- for guys especially. What's more important is how you look, how you feel, how your clothes fit, how strong you are, etc. So if I feel accomplished and happy at 185 or 190 or 170 -- whatever it may be -- I'm fine with that.

So that's where I'm at right now. Back with another post on Wednesday. LET'S GO!

-BG

Oh snap.

I did it. I'm back in the blogging world. I had a Livejournal several years ago, and I arrived late to that party, so why not arrive late to this party too?

Besides, from what I understand, fashionably late is a good thing. So consider me fashionably late.

So, a few basics:

Why is your blog called "Island in the Sun"?
-Well, the cool answer, I suppose, would be that's how I like to live my life. You know? Send me to a tropical island, give me an alcoholic beverage, a nice book and a lounge chair. Bam. I'm set. That's the cool answer. And, don't get me wrong, that's all true.

You offer me the chance for any of that, count me in, man. Count me in. The truthful answer is I struggled to think up a fun name and the song "Island in the Sun" by Weezer was playing on Pandora when I clicked the "Start Your Blog" button.

Works for me.

Are you going to be as wordy as the BG we've come to know and love?
-I sure hope not. Writing 10,000-word blog entries is exhausting. It really is. But somehow, I don't see any other way. I mean, look how this entry has turned out? I'm not setting a good precedent for short, to-the-point writing, am I?

I'd say I digress, but I think we both know I'm not digressing. This really is where I was going, and I really am that verbose. Just ask Clark about the time I turned in a 1,200-word column about a football game. I just can't help myself sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean all the damn time.

So, what do you do?
-I work for an independent public relations agency in north Raleigh. I write things for the client we serve. News releases, sales brochures, comparison fliers, etc. Tanner says I lie for a living. Funny coming from the guy who's thinking about going to law school.

Oh, and the client I work for is a major agricultural company. I write about corn. Yes, corn. I know way more about corn now than I ever intended to know.

Why a blog?
-Why not a blog? I love to write, and writing about corn for a living is a bit of a change of pace from writing for a newspaper. At newspapers, you can write about all sorts of different things.

When I wrote for The Clinton Chronicle way down in Clinton, S.C., I covered a city council meeting, a high school tennis match, a college basketball game and a murder trial all within a few weeks of each other. Talk about diverse.

So here I am. Maybe I will write a variety of things, share some fun experiences. Maybe some of it will be funny and entertaining for you. Bonus. We all win. Leave me comments, and I'll love you forever.

Also, for some reason the "I" key on my keyboard is beginning to cease functioning. So there you go.

-BG