Ain't Nothin Like Them Summer Nights...

Well, the summer is winding down to an end. For most of you anyways. For me, it’s just beginning. Friday is the final day of my internship, and then I’m off for 4 weeks. Gotta love graduate school. I’ll be doing a lot of traveling – mostly domestic, but also 8 days in Croatia (apparently the new Riviera spot). Have you ever noticed that when you travel domestically, you never really do any sightseeing? Even when you go to places you haven’t ever been, do you kinda just go to hang out and party? For instance, 2 years ago, I went to Chicago to vyatisit and meet up with some friends, and all we did was eat, drink, and watch a Cubs game. My only lasting memories? Being served drinks while waiting in the long line for the club (a fantastic idea which needs to catch on in Hollywood), and falling off my subway seat after coming back from the Cubs game (no explanation necessary).

So next week when Aashish and I visit Manish in Chi-town, in addition to going to a Cubs game (which fortunately will not require a subway trip this time around since Manish now lives in Wrigleyville), I’ve requested that we do some “Chicago” stuff. Sears Tower, Michigan Avenue, maybe an architectural boat tour that we’ve heard good things about. And of course some deep dish. Hopefully by the end of the trip, when I’ll be visiting Boston and NYC, I’ll still have some motivation and energy to check out some major landmarks and/or museums.

Anyways, I’ll try to post any interesting stories that come up as I travel. In the meantime, I can’t really concentrate right now as I, as many of you readers might be, am super-stoked about Cal-Tennessee. Saturday, 5 p.m. Primetime. National TV. Time for revenge for my painful trip to Knoxville last year. Go Bears!

The most interesting thing going on these days, however, is work. That’s right – work. My boss must know me well already. Trying to avoid the typical “check-out” week that most people go through at the end of their internships, my boss assigned me an interesting little project. Vegas. That’s right, Vegas. My boss asked me to take a look at the casino companies and see if there are any interesting investment opportunities I can come up with in a few days. While it has been a lot of typical dull research, it has been one of the most interesting projects I’ve had to work on all summer, probably in my life. It’s just fun learning things about Vegas that don’t involve Smitty’s dirty hook-up stories. For instance – did you know that casinos on the Strip earn only 40% of their revenues from gambling, with a whopping 20% from food and beverages? And that they earn slightly more profit in aggregate from slot machines than they do from all the table games combined?

OK - if those random financial stats don’t interest all you party animals out there, I also learned that a new club (Blush) is opening at the Wynn on Labor Day weekend, the Luxor is gradually losing its Egyptian theme and adding a bunch of upper-scale bars and clubs, and the company that owns the Venetian is opening a major expansion called the Palazzo in late 2007. Also, the average table game (i.e. per blackjack or craps or 3-card table) netted the Wynn over $10,000 per day. Meaning I’m just a tiny little drop in the bucket. I guess that wasn’t really new information though.

Can't Islam and Capitalism Just Get Along???

Evidently, they can.

My Crack

About a week ago, I came to an important, life-altering…actually, a life-revolutionizing (thank you Shift-F7) decision. Many of you know I’m a pretty avid runner. I generally try to get in 20-25 miles a week over 5 or 6 days. Some of you also know that through a combination of this amount of running, chicken legs that are barely bigger than my arms, and the fact that I’ve never done a squat in my life, I’ve developed the knee problems of a 70-something ex-marathon runner. Unfortunately, I’m only 27, and I haven’t ever run a marathon. Not even a half-marathon.

After cutting down on the length of my runs, sticking almost exclusively to the treadmill (as opposed to the corrosive pavement), undergoing some pretty half-ass PT sessions at the UCLA Health Center last fall, and incorporating some extra stretching and modest leg exercises into my workouts, my knee problems started to subside a little bit. At least enough for me to resume my running schedule. Good enough for me.

Fast forward to last Wednesday night’s Dodgers-Giants game. Already upset about arriving in the middle of the 5th inning and thus missing Barry Bonds’ first 2 at-bats, I started to notice a decent amount of pain in my right knee, sitting in those cramped little seats. Granted, it wasn’t enough pain that I couldn’t enjoy the game, beer, or lackluster company. But enough pain that I was aware of it – and aware that it wasn’t the first time I had felt pain when I’m unable to stretch my legs out.

So after some pretty serious thoughts about it, I realized I didn’t wanna be a cripple in my later life. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to run marathons in my 50s or take hiking vacations in my 60s like my parents do. But I’d like to be able to chase my grandkids (save the comments) around and just get around like a normal human being. And I figured unless I dramatically cut back on the running, this wasn’t gonna happen.

Last Thursday – a week ago – was the last day I ran. I took the weekend off altogether for yet another Vegas rendezvous, and since Monday I’ve been doing the elliptical. Every time I walk into the gym, I have to pull myself away from the treadmill like G or T from the strip club when their flight is 30 minutes away. After all, it has so many advantages over the elliptical. First off, exercising on the half skiing, half running elliptical just plain looks silly. Frankly, it’s a little tougher for me and makes me sweat like an animal. Lastly and probably most importantly, is the lack of motivation. Let me explain. At UCLA’s Wooden Center, where I work out, there are 4 rows of cardio equipment. The first row is the exercise bikes, typically manned by older people with the knee issues I’m trying to avoid. The second row is the ellipticals, with probably a 70/30 female-male ratio. The last two rows are the treadmills. Starting to get my picture? Those of you who go to the gym and look around to make sure you get a machine “with a view” certainly understand where I’m coming from. Needless to say, this has been a wildly underrated challenge in trying to kick the habit. I’ve made it into the gym 3 times without getting on a treadmill – and haven’t even puked or broken out in a cold sweat yet. Here’s to hoping I can stay off the wagon (or is it “on”?).