Twelve Step Sports Addict

I wanted to take today to ask for help from the reader’s of this blog. A very good person that I know is very sick. This man is a great, caring, father, who worked 2 jobs to provide for his family and just the other month, found out he has stage 4 cancer. Michael F and I were pretty close as he should have been my father in law providing that his daughter didn’t leave, but in any case, I have never met a funnier and more caring person. I can’t remember how many times he went out of his way to make me laugh or make me feel part of the family. There are many of cancer survivors, but as everyone knows, the treatment can be more painful than the disease. I ask anyone reading this to pray for Michael F for a painless and quick recovery from this terrible disease. Also for his family, that was hit incredibly hard with this news. Mr. F, hang in there, you are in all our prayers. ML

Wow, I have to say that living in Chicago this time of year is pretty tough if you are a sport’s fan. The Bears are one Minnesota win from being eliminated from playoff contention, the Bulls are Ok, but not world beaters (except for Derrick Rose), I never really got into hockey, although I will now, and the White Sox left the winter meetings in Vegas with nothing big to change their team around from mediocrity.

Since there is nothing much to write or be happy about in the world of Chicago sports, I have been spending a lot of time with my new puppy. Reggie is the most loving pug I could ever ask for and he is growing up so fast. Last night he got sick and when I went downstairs to let him out, I noticed that he puked. He was so scared and shaking as I bet that was the first time he had ever puked before. So, being a good daddy, I went and let him sleep with me in the bed all night, and he was out like a light. He seems better today, but there is nothing sadder than a sick pug. That little look with his little underbite and big eyes and he can’t tell me where it hurts. I bought him a bone today since he feels better. : )

I included a video from a recent UFC of a fighter Corey Hill, breaking his leg. Wow, this is sick. Even with this MMA is still one of the safest sports around, but I have never seen anything like this before. Enjoy. ML

Well, it has been a very very busy and tiring couple of weeks for me, even though I have been still out of work. It turns out that I picked the wrong time to lose my job because most companies are not hiring these days until after the holidays. Normally, I guess most people would like to have the holidays off, and I am getting unemployment, but I am getting totally stir crazy and just want to get back to earning a living. I hate mooching off the govenment.

I am almost finished with all of my court issues. Again, in Cook County, I got lucky and avoided any jail time or bad record. Again, there is something to be said about karma and since I have been following the sober and “right” path, things have been going my way. I am glad to see that OJ got up to 33 years, I hope he rots in prison. Everyone and their mother knows he killed his wife, so at least he gets to do a little time. I hope he becomes someone’s punk bitch in the joint and Ron Goldman and Nicole can watch from Heaven and laugh at him curled up like a rat waiting to be loved by his new roomie. Gross I know, but screw him.

Reggie is doing very well, although I wish I could buy a pug butt cork, so that he stops pooping all the time. The cold weather makes it hard to easily potty train a puppy, but he is getting it. We are working on lay down now, as he can sit, stay, go in the crate on command, walk without pulling, come, and so on. He is also great around other dogs. He had his first vet visit and got some booster shots which was great. He was a little zonked, but then he got better and was totally a crazy pug.

Big fight on today and DeLahoya fights Paquiao. I hope Oscar defies the odds and wins, but who knows. I am not going to order it as I am usually dissapointed in boxing PPV, but with HBO, I get to see it next week for free.ML

Wow, I am so happy that tommorrow is Thanksgiving, so I can sleep in and just enjoy the day before the full frontal assult on my body come dinner time. The good thing is, this will be the first Thanksgiving in a while that I have been sober and didn’t go home after dinner and get bombed. What really makes that pathetic is that I have spent the last few years in retail and I have been tired as all Hell for black Friday because of my drinking. I need to sleep in because raising a baby pug is hard work. I am being very diligent on the training, especially the potty training. I sleep with him in the room at night so that he can get accostomed to the house and not feel alone. I could not have asked for a better little guy. He is about 95% potty trained, he has learned to hold it in his crate at night, although he did have two instances in the first few days where he went poop and then used the doodoo to paw paint his crate. He goes into the crate when I say Crate time and has stopped crying when he is in there. He knows his name and looks when I say it, and he walks next to me without pulling at all. All of this in 5 days. He is super smart, probably smarter than me. If he had fingers, he could probably write a better blog than me. haha. I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day.

ML

 Well, it finally happened and I got my puppy!! This is the best picture that I can come up with of him right now as I need to buy a digital camera so he doesn’t look so grainy. His name is Reggie (yes, after Reggie Dunlop from Slapshot), and he is 4 months old. He was born 7/26/2008 and his parents names were Great Escape (mom) and Sisco Kid (dad). I got him at a pet store and he and I bonded the minute I saw him.  He is a pure bred pug, and by fate, he as well as all the other puppies were 50% off. Thanks to the crappy economy, I got this little miracle. He is super energetic, loving and so very smart. He already knows to go in his crate when I tell him to, he is doing great with the potty training, and well, is just amazing. Potty training is very tiresome, waking up every two hours to take him out in the cold, but it well worth it. I will write a lot more about him and the Bears game, along with the amazing time I had at the Score broadcast and meeting Dan Hampton. In the meantime, it’s about that time, and little Reggie has to pee. He has his first vet visit tomorrow so it is a big day. Thank you all for your comments and ideas, and I will post more pics as I get them. ML

I know that this blog has to do with sports, but lately I have talking a bit about my life and how it relates to alcoholism. Yesterday was my birthday and I had a very relaxing and fun day. I wish the weather was a little better, but I was able to get outside for a very long run, and since I pushed myself really hard, my legs feel like Jello and the rest of my body feels like I got into a fight with a lawnmower. But it is a good sore. I got to see a picture of myself from last Christmas today when I looked pasty, white, with raccoon eyes, and my cheeks spread out farther than my ears. (Both cheeks, ass and face.) Safe to say I was a really fat, unhealthy man. 99% of that was due to the drinking, and when I drank, I liked to eat fast food. It was like my body would be telling me to quit being a jerk off and stop, and the greasy food somehow offset the effects of the gallons of alcohol that I was pouring in. I would think that with all the vomiting I was doing at the time, most of that food didn’t stay in my system long, but the 5000 calories of just booze I was taking in, was enough to last me 4 days, plus anything else I ate, just turned into my gut protruding beyond my toes. I must say, it is nice these days to look down and see my shoes again, my eyes are clear, and my face doesn’t look like Peter Griffin from Family Guy.

Since my brother took me out last night, and we went to Famous Dave’s, I ate a ton. If you haven’t been there in the midwest, it is a great BBQ place, but the portions are huge. Since I felt guilty, I pushed myself in cold weather to run longer than normal, to burn off that impending lard. Overall, I am happy today and although I am getting older and the girls I used to check out are now maybe 10 years younger than me, there is no need to be down. It is a new beginning for me, and a healthy new life. I keep holding on to that hope that I can stay healthy and sober. Anyone struggling with this disease just needs to have faith, hope, and confidence. I was a terrible, awful drunk. I did things that will stay with me always when I was drinking and although I never did anything that required any terrible punishment, I was a few more drinks to getting there.  It’s very hard climbing out of Hell, it’s a long way up, but I see the light at the end, and that light represents peace. That’s something I haven’t felt since I was 17. It’s worth it.

Also, I got a few responses for the new puppy names. I got Shooter (from Hoosiers) and Wrigley (from that piss smelling, disgusting, degenerate filled, death trap home of the Cubs). Thanks for the responses and I would LOVE more. Thanks even for Wrigley too, I really appreciate it, but I have a reputation to keep up on this site as a Cub hater, so I must respectfully decline.

Well, another year, another MMA promotion receiving it’s pink slip. EliteXC has decided to close it’s doors and cancel it’s remaining card on November 7th. I am pretty upset by this mostly because I think competition among promotions is a good thing. Now the UFC is pretty much the only large game in town and we are stuck watching $50 PPVs with fight cards that include mostly The Ultimate Fighter show contestants. I guess that is Ok for now. The next big fight I am looking forward to is Captain America Randy Coutre fighting freak of nature Brock Lesner. I have no respect for those overinflated, egotistical testosterone excreting former pro-wrestlers, so I am hoping Coutre finds some more old man magic and kicks Brock’s ass. Coutre has made a career out of upsets and if he wins, it will set up hopefully a match with MMA immortal Fedor. That I would pay big bucks to watch. Although I hope I get employed by the time that match happens so I can afford it.

The Phillies beat the Rays in game one of the world series, so I am happy those pansies from Tampa are down one. I am not sure what to do with myself this weekend since the Bears have a bye week, but I am lucky this Saturday to spend the day with my brother watching his old college team Quincy play. There is nothing like watching a good ol’ college game, where the players play out of pure love of the game. Most of them are too young and poor to be torturing dogs, killing their wives, or beating up stippers, so there is an innocence to the game that only division 2 college brings. That brings me to another point I didn’t mention in my earlier blogs. My brother lost a friend a week or so again. Dan. He was very young when he passed and although I had never met the man, from what I hear, he was a stand up guy with a big heart. RIP Dan. It’s too bad the good die young sometimes. I’m going to leave today on that note. Never underestimate the blessing of life, because in one instant, it can be over. ML

Well, it was an interesting weekend in sports, although not very satisfying. First off, I wanted to clear one thing up when it comes to my non stop trash talking when it comes to the Cubs, I am not bragging as a Sox fan as much as I am talking as a plain ol’ Cub hater. I am an avid Sox fan, but I do respect the Cub fans who follow their team, and generally like baseball. One of my earlier posts talks about Cub fans who said they would not vote for Barrack Obama because he liked the Sox, come on….. I went to Cub game a couple years back and truthfully, people weren’t there to watch a game. I had to tell the people in front of me to shut up because they were talking on their cell phones non stop, and one lady asked what quarter it was and did she miss the half time show….. Yes, as a Sox fan, I know US Cellular field is not in the most hospitable of places, and I have seen drunken Sox fans berate a 5 year old for wearing a Twins hat, so we are not above criticism, but still, I hate the Cubs, and the team’s comments from Lou Pinella to Soriano, to Jim Hendry, just further my hatred.

But like I was saying, only the Bears winning was really the only good thing about this weekend. They looked very good and although Detroit would have trouble beating some junior college teams this year, it was good to see the Bears dominate like they should in a game like that. The real disappointment, other than my Sox getting eliminated today by the Rays, was the CBS broadcast of EliteXC fighting. Kimbo Slice was supposed to fight MMA “legend” Ken Shamrock. As usual, Shamrock did not fail to dissapoint as he suffered a cut in training and had to pull out. Kimbo then ended up getting knocked out in 14 seconds by a UFC reject (whose name I don’t remember and I am too lazy to navigate away and look it up, besides, no one would know him anyway). I was actually planning on coughing up the $50 or so I thought so to see the Kimbo/Shamrock fight, but luckily, it was free on CBS, and thank God. I was rooting for Kimbo as I think he was taking the sport seriously, but after his performance, that started with his absurdly huge entourage in the beginning, his quick fall, and then his refusal to interview afterward, I think he needed a butt wuppin’ to bring him back to earth. I mean, come on Kimbo, your 3-0 after you beat 3 EASY opponents with absolutely no creditability in MMA anymore, you have no right to act like a baby, you didn’t earn it yet. I can just hope that Kimbo comes back better, grounded, and brings home the bread all day, baby…..See video below, that’s Kimbo in his “prime”.