It’s time to get back in the saddle.

How, you ask, do I mean that?

Well, you could take it in a variety of ways. First, I need to get back to blogging. Thus, this epic. And I need to get back on task with my workouts and weight watching, as my fat ass is all too quickly steaming toward one less notch in the belt, which is gonna piss me off.

There are probably plenty of other things I need to start doing again, like keeping my car clean, calling my mother more often and learning to speak Russian. All noble but probably not going to happen any time soon.

Two things that have happened recently that I did start doing again was playing poker and getting ink.

A couple weekends ago we had our yearly poker weekend. If you’re a regular six-7 offsuiter, you’ll know that it’s my favorite weekend of the year and something that says as much about me as anything. It speaks to who I am, where I’m from and what I love about life. It’s about 358 days until the next one starts (if we can believe new Carlson’s math), and I can’t wait. I’m ready to go today, and not just because it only takes a backpack, toothbrush and hat to be ready. Let’s go.

This was our 18th year and for about the 10th time, I didn’t win any money at all. Not that I rake it in, but typically I’ll at least place in one of the three tournaments, or make some money in the cash games, but this year was for shit. I blame it on my hetro-life partner since he won it for the first time in 15 years. Dick.

But it at least gives me a goal for next year since there’s only one person currently who can top his record for most time between CCMP main event wins — me. I won the first year despite the fact that it was easily one of the three most drunk poker episodes in the nearly 25 years I’ve been playing. Suckers. He then won the second year and hasn’t won until now. Enjoy the record while you can.

Along with the poker, it’s the camaraderie that makes the weekend. There’s nothing like getting together with the old friends and finding out that for the past 15 years you’ve thought that it was Dick who depanted you while standing in a window of a dorm talking to a chick, only to find out all these years later that it was Dwin who did it and who you had no idea was even there. So fun.

A few years ago, I commemorated the weekend by getting a tattoo on my upper right arm that has a pair of cards (A spades, Q diamonds) along with the letters CCMP, which is the moniker for the weekend. There’s a long, convoluted story behind the name of the weekend — actually ‘names’ as there are two different names, neither of which I’m going to get into details about here. But suffice it to say that CCMP is what it’s known as (it even has it’s own Facebook page) and because of what it means to me, I just figured if I’m going to get another tattoo, it should be that since there’s not much else that I would want on my body for the rest of my life.

Well, it had been a couple years since my last one (actually about 18 months) so I was totally ready for another and luckily, I got hooked up with a really talented and totally cool chick at a place that is actually just 5 minutes from the new house we’re renting.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: If you ever want a tattoo, I can’t recommend her highly enough. She’s cool, and extremely talented. Her name is Malia Reynolds and you can find her on Facebook and her website, maliareynoldstattoo.com. I expect I’ll probably get a few more in my lifetime, assuming that lasts longer than 12 months, and if I can help it, she’ll be the only one who will ever put an ink needle into me again. Three of my other four were done by different people and that sucks. She’s so awesome, I’m happy to say those days are past.]

I went in a couple months ago for a consult and then, despite me giving her very little direction and hardly any ideas, she put my strange thoughts into one piece that, on paper, I absolutely loved. From there, we did a nearly 3 hour session in early June right after I got back from covering the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, and then I went back in for almost another 1 1/2 hours earlier today to get it finished.

It is fucking incredible.

Honestly, it’s way better than I ever expected.

Yes, it’s huge. Yes, it’s over the top. And yes, it’s perfect for me. I wish I had the money to be able to start planning a full lower leg tomorrow, but we’ll just have to do it a little at a time. Seeing as sugar-mama is willing to put up with it but is not highly encouraging in this pastime of mine, I probably have to hold off another year before I get started on the next one. But there definitely will be a next one.

I don’t think it’ll be CCMP-related, although it’s possible. The hard part is finding something else that means as much to me and is worth putting on my body. Right now, off the top of my head, really all I can think of as a starting point is a beer can and a cookie. But everything has to start somewhere.

Anyway, this is wondering and rambling in no real direction. I just wanted to get started writing again after a couple weeks’ layoff like I said and I wanted to show off a little bit.

To do that second part, here is a little photo gallery from getting it done over at Memorial Tattoo. The first one is the original drawing she showed me before we started, followed by the one without the color in the middle which is after the first session. The ones on the table, the room and the final product are from today. The funky panorama is the actual view I had while sitting in the chair for four hours in her room at the tattoo shop, which is one of the coolest rooms ever.

It’s quite tender and sore right now, but fully worth it. Just like getting back in the saddle.