Well, it has truly been too long since I have updated this but my life has been pretty hectic and exciting lately as I’m sure most of you are aware.

I cannot possibly start off this entry without talking about Two Months Two Million.  I think the show has been an entertaining and accurate portrayal of a lifestyle that so few people are aware of outside the poker community.  It has been a tremendous joy to watch the show with friends and Jay and I have been having weekly viewing parties.  For those who have been watching, I promise you the show is only going to get better.  Seemingly, every time I talk about the show with Jay, Dani, or Brian, someone recounts some hilarious event they captured on camera that has yet to be shown.  The summer just passed by so fast and we got pretty used to having cameras around us at all times that it’s hard to even remember what they got on film.

I think one of the things that the show has done extremely well is balancing the amount of poker they show on TV versus lifestyle stuff.  I’ve had numerous people tell me they’d like to see more poker or less poker and the bottom line is just that there are people who want to see poker, and others who just want to see the hilarity that ensues when the four of us are together.  The show captures both.

In terms of the actual experience of filming a reality tv show, I would say that it was enjoyable but I think better adjectives to describe it would be surreal, exciting, unique, educational, and even exhausting.  We had set times we’d have to be awake each day and anyone who knows Dani or I well knows this is a challenge.  Our talent coordinator, Jill, was the girl in charge of making sure we were awake at the proper hour each day.  Poor girl.  Honestly, I think Dani and I were both pretty punctual for most of the summer.  With the exception of Jay, however, the rest of us each had a morning where we were too comatose to rise.  Unfortunately, mine happened at a time when I was badly needed.  I had a late night out and was just too out of it to understand what was happening when Jill called me in the morning to wake me up and kept telling her to call me back in 15 minutes.  I was smart enough (or stupid enough) to lock both doors that led to my bedroom.  The calling went on for a while and then I heard someone knocking on my bedroom door.  At this point, I’m coherent enough to be confused as to how this could be happening since the outer door to the top floor was locked.  A few minutes later, the door busts open, lights are turned on, and I’m basically forced awake.  I didn’t realize until later that day when I went back upstairs that they had broken down both locks to get into my room to wake me up!  Apparently, the backup plan was to set up a ladder to access a 3rd door that led out to my balcony.

I got recognized on the street a couple days ago!  I was walking to go to this spectacular tacqueria by my apartment and on the way back I heard this couple mutter something like “Hey”.  I didn’t think they were talking to me so I just walked into my apartment and was about to take the elevator up when they burst through the doors and shouted “Emil!”.  They were so excited the doorman had to restrain them.  They asked the usual questions like did you make it, etc.  (not allowed to say!).  While Jay and I have both been recognized in NYC before re: DeucesCracked, this marks the first time any of the four of us have been recognized because of our tv show (sorry Dani, yours doesn’t count because you initiated the conversation).  Pretty cool.

In other news, I am settling back into my normal NYC life.  For the month and a half that I’ve been back, we have been without a personal assistant and personal chef, both of which we had prior to leaving for Las Vegas.

I’ve been getting by just fine without a PA and it’s comforting to know that I haven’t developed some sort of dependency after having one for almost a year.  This is one of the things that a lot of my peers are torn about and I definitely am in the pro-PA camp.  The biggest arguments that I’ve heard against hiring one are things like well it gives me satisfaction to do these things myself or I like to keep myself busy.  I just don’t feel the same way.  I’d rather be spending more time playing guitar, learning how to cook, reading, writing, going out, etc. versus doing laundry, depositing checks, washing sheets, setting up the speaker system, running to get AA batteries, etc.  If you don’t feel weird about having someone do things like this for you, and would rather spend your free time pursuing old or new hobbies, you should definitely considering hiring a PA.

As for the personal chef, I’m still up in the air over whether I want to rehire him.  One of the things I did after I got back is I enrolled in a vegetarian cooking class.  I think becoming a badass cook is something useful and fun that I want to pursue.  I’m still considering rehiring the personal chef we had because for the most part, I don’t think I’ve been eating particularly healthy since being back.  I haven’t been eating unhealthy but I just am not getting enough variety in my meals.  I’ve been eating way too much pasta and pizza.  I think a good plan might be to go through with the cooking class, maybe take a couple more, and also try and learn from our personal chef who is terrific.

I’ve maintained a decent gym routine since being back and hopefully in a couple of weeks I can be back at my personal peak fitness level.  Before going to Las Vegas, I could squat 225 lbs and bench 150 lbs at a body weight of 120-125 lbs.  I badly sprained my foot playing soccer barefoot in Las Vegas and had to take a month or so off from any heavy leg workout.

I think I’ve now been playing guitar for around 5-6 months and I’m really enjoying it and have noticed a dramatic improvement in my play.  I’m currently learning Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin which is an awesome song.  My fingers have been calloused for most of that time that I’ve been learning.  Normal?

In sports news, I’ve basically stopped watching the Mets since leaving for Las Vegas.  I really had no time to watch baseball while we were filming and when I got back, the Mets were out of it and way too depressing a team to watch on tv.  It’s awesome that football is finally here.

I will try and update this blog every Wednesday.