Somewhere Between
Nebraska, Denver, and Wichita
Welcome Back
One more busy month before a reprieve and as such we have another big boi. Hope you’re Down with the Thickness. Salutations and happy reading
Life
Early in the month I had the pleasure of playing one of my favorite golf courses in the world. For our viewing pleasure, I recorded every shot and made a video for both the front and back nine. Introducing—Every Shot: The Prairie Club. Enjoy
Reading
Books
Gone Girl — Gillian Flynn
One of the best novels I’ve ever read, straight up. The bombshell at the end of the first act will put you in a blender, only for you to get out and then thrown back in towards the end. What a book. Can’t wait to read more from Gillian.
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Other
None this month
Golf
Golf League
First two rounds of league have been cancelled this month due to the continued torrential rainfall we’ve been getting. Hard to say we need it at this point. One rescheduled for July and one for August.
It was looking like the rain would get us again but the forecast changed early in the day so that the thunderstorms would miss us to the south. I was just happy to play. Played the first five in even par, then ejected. Finished double-quad-bogey (one hole was closed for new sod so we only played 8). Swing is an unmitigated disaster at the moment. Old, bad habits are creeping in and my hands are stuck way behind me in the downswing. Don’t have a lesson until July 8 so we are going to have to grind it out in the meantime. We got swept in our matches and our other teammate didn’t have a partner so I’m not sure if we won a point which stinks given we were second overall for the year coming into this week. Happens, plenty of time to rebound.
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News and Notes
My dad came into town to play in the 2025 rendition of the Cannonball of the Seas, our club’s member/guest tournament. For those not familiar with the golf scene, the M/G is the biggest event of the year, and red carpet is rolled out to showcase the best the club has to offer. I’ve worked three or four of these before when I worked at various courses, so I am familiar with how much work goes into them and was excited to be on the other side for once. Here’s the backstory on the namesake:
The format for the weekend was Stableford, a point system awarded based on your score for the hole. This format is the opposite of regular golf where you want to get the most amount of points possible. Each team had a ‘quota’ based on their handicap, so the team with the most points at the end of the three days would be the winner for the flight.
There were six flights of twelve teams each assigned by team total handicap to ensure competition of a similar skill-level. We were in Unsinkable 2.
The festivities started Wednesday night with check-in and gift, your choice of Ray-Bans or Oakley sunglasses. I went for a pair of classic Wayfarers and my dad got the latter. The horserace kicked off at 6 pm, with the top two flights playing at the same time, so there were 24 teams of two on the first hole. My dad laid up in front of the gallery, I hit a wedge on the green and then we two-putted to advance by the hair of our chin. Was definitely nerve-wracking hitting golf shots in front of 50+ people. We made a mess of the next hole and got eliminated then went and played three more on our own before heading into dinner (menu below).
I should also mention that 6 pm Wednesday was the beginning of the all-inclusive boozing until the end of Saturday night. Like I said, M/G are all-out.
Thursday was the first full day of activities. The day started with a breakfast buffet before we headed out to the course. There were physios on site to help folks get loose every morning, as well as an IV company for those that were a little under the weather to start the day. Following the theme of June, we endured a light on again, off again rain throughout most of the round. Just enough to be annoying. The highest scoring team of the day (across all flights) was the one we played with, and they only broke even on their quota. We finished 17 points in the hole, perhaps mostly the fault of my partner having a tough day. No further comment. Lunch was a fried chicken sandwich with chips and dessert. Tasted great. Thursday night was Tacky Tourist themed, which dare I say we did a pretty good job following:
Dinner was Italian buffet (fire) and they had the putting contest and closest-to-the-pin qualifiers going all night (literally). For $20 a round you could try to get the lowest score possible on the putting course, with the top 9 teams qualifying for Friday’s final. We did it once and had all two-putts and one three-putt so we did not qualify. The putting green was full from when it opened until midnight since they brought floodlights in for this very reason. Neither of us did the closest-to-the-pin qualifier though we did watch some folks test their mettle.
We left around 10 to get a solid night’s sleep before Friday’s scramble round.
Friday was the best weather day of the weekend. And we needed to make up some ground on our quota during the two-man scramble format. And we did. We started on hole 15, arguably the hardest on the course, and I rolled in a birdie putt to get us started hot. Followed it up with a birdie on 16 to keep it going before missing a couple good birdie opps at 17 and 18. We had an adventure on the par-five second hole that ended with Dad rolling in a birdie putt from just off the green. I had a solo birdie on the other par five on the front, the fifth, going driver-6 iron-two putts. Made great par saves on 6 and 7 to keep the momentum before missing a good opportunity on 8. Parred 9 and 10 (still good for a scramble) before missing a shorty for birdie on 11 and saving par on the par-five twelfth. Fourteen was our last hole of the day, where we got up and down for par from the greenside bunker after yet another par five adventure. All in all it was a bogey-free four-under day for the lads and we were eight points to the positive for our quota for the day which left us nine in the hole overall. For lunch they had turkey or ham wraps, which were once again delicious.
Since we had such a nice day, we headed to the pool to cool off and chill out. The pool was refreshingly cool, and of course I had to figure out if I still had it off the diving board. And I have terrible news for the haters and losers: I still do. I do not have video proof of this so you’ll have to take me at my word, but I did break off some watermelons, puppy chows, front 1.5s, back doubles, and a front 2.5 that made me a little dizzy. Good to know I haven’t lost a step.
Went home and changed (neither of us dressed in theme tonight, though lots of people in Below Deck attire) and came back for dinner, which was again fantastic.
Had a drink on the patio and listened to the band, who were great, and waited for the sun to do down for the glow ball relay. One person at 200 yards out hit a shot, then another after that onto the green, and someone putted it and whoever had the fastest time to get the ball in the hole won. We watched safely from the left side of the 18th green while most people stood right on the edge of the green behind the pin which seemed like a liability? People who have been/are drinking all day hitting a glow ball that they don’t really know how far it goes in the dark? Yeah I don’t know, Jim. Luckily it ended without incident (while we were there).
Saturday was a bruiser, for many reasons. Once again the weather was a factor. It bears mentioning that rain was only forecasted for part of one day, not two out of the three. About 10 minutes after I took these pictures it started pouring.
We were rain delayed from 9 am until we finally started at 11:15 after another inch (at least) of water. The round was also shortened to nine holes so we could finish and they could compile results before dinner. We started on 11 where I made a dumb bogey before lipping out for birdie on 12 and leaving it in the jaws of the hole on 13. Went driver-3 wood on 14 and two putted for birdie before having a back-end evacuation on 15 for double. Doubled down on 16 for a full-body explosion of a bogey after I was inside of 50 yards after my tee shot. Stood on the 17th tee and said I would birdie out. Hit a gap wedge past the pin which ripped back down the hill and I made the 18 footer for birdie. Hit a seed into the FW on 18 and nearly holed my second shot on the second bounce from 60 yards. Made the three footer. Laid up in the FW on 10 before a poor wedge left me on the fringe. Lipped the birdie chip out and made the par putt to close two under in the last three for one over for the day. Probably my best nine holes for the weekend. We finished dead in the middle of the pack in 7th place in our flight:
Here’s where it gets fun. After burgers and brats for lunch, dinner was supposed to be surf and turf. For us, it wasn’t.
My stomach started cramping right around the time we started playing in the morning. Chalked it up to hunger, which does happen (though not for a long time) and devoured some snacks when we got to 16 tee. That didn’t help so I had a burger and brat at the turn. That also didn’t help. After the round we sat in the bar and had a drink talking to the gentlemen we played with on Friday. The cramps were coming in waves and it really wasn’t comfortable to sit up in a chair. We were going to go to the pool again but I couldn’t do it. At this point I couldn’t really stand up straight on the walk out to the car. Got home and took some Tylenol and laid down. Didn’t really help. Took a hot shower, didn’t really help. Laid down again this time to take a nap, and by this time the pain was constant and getting worse. Ended up on Reddit looking at symptoms for Appendicitis. Pain around the belly button? Check. Nausea? Light, but check. My dad woke up from his nap at the same time I got up to go get him and I decided I needed to go to the ER to get checked out. Existence was pain at this point and after checking in I laid down on a bench in the lobby. Got bloodwork done, an IV for the pain and nausea, and a CT scan. The bloodwork came back flawless, the IV (eventually) did its job, and the CT scan came back negative. They said it was just a stomach virus, so good news it wasn’t anything serious. They were also concerned about my resting heartrate before I told them I’m a runner, as it was a cool 53 beats per minute. At least that training’s doing something. We were at the hospital for about two hours before I got discharged and went and got Qdoba for dinner. The nurse may or may not have recommended a liquid diet for a week, easing back into normal food but luckily I’m different and was back to normal lickety-split.
For Father’s Day, we went and got pizza for lunch at Bronx, because that’s what my dad eats on Father’s Day, and then settled into the couch to watch a chaotic final round of the US Open. Even though we didn’t win anything we both had a great time, despite the hospital trip.
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No formal Stack update this month other than to say I’ve taken a reprieve during a busy month. July and August are more wide open so we will be getting back on the wagon building more #speed. #Fast #Bombs #PissMissles
Running
As you know, we made a pilgrimage up to the Sandhills at the beginning of the month, attached for your reading pleasure if you haven’t gotten to it yet. This was, in my opinion, my best piece of writing so far and I really enjoyed writing it. First up: I did not write all this in one day. I had the idea for it back in February and started getting the intro down. The writing style was inspired by Intermezzo by Sally Rooney which I was reading at the time, which reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis. Bret does a really good job of setting and describing scenes, almost always mentioning the music that is playing. So I set out to do my own version of this, untethered by any format or maximum length. I gave myself cart blanche to try to evoke the same emotions and feelings in you, the reader, that I experience myself. As I was filling in the context and background, I decided to go in-depth about my summer of 2021, as I really haven’t done anything around it, though I did when I got back and nothing ever materialized. The golf portion is semi-autobiographical as to what transpired. I actually wrote it before I left, putting myself in my future self’s shoes and feeling those things. It’s fun to stretch and embellish the truth, another hallmark of Bret’s style. The only thing I wrote upon my return was the race report, which I decided to keep light and tight as to focus on the overall narrative and story. All in all, it was fun to try something different and get heavy into the editing process, which I normally don’t do. And it was fun to share a place that has so much meaning to me. I’m glad some of you reached out and said you enjoyed it. Special projects like this will continue in the future. Until the next one.
Additionally, Prep Running Nerd wrote an article on the 2024 version which you can find here:
Fashion
What I’m Wearing
More on hanging out with my good friend and colleague Nick Beach later, but I found out the hard way that my thighs no longer fit in some of my shorts. Mind you these aren’t nut huggers. They were fine when I was standing or walking around but as soon as I sat down they were constricting the thighs. Can’t be having that. So I went through the closet and tried on every other pair I had. Will be donating four pairs and keeping three: the pair below, a white pair, and the jorts of course. Did the same thing with swimsuits, though to a lesser degree because I don’t have as many of those.
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What’s New
Need is a strong word here but I needed a new pair of golf shoes, and let me tell you why: my current two-pair rotation both have mesh uppers so any type of, say, rain-soaked round ends with wet socks after walking in the rough on the first hole. Not ideal, so we fixed that. Went with the FootJoy Traditions:
Last thing in what turned out to be a busy month on the fashion front. My good friend and colleague Nick Beach and I went thrifting so I had to cop a Western shirt. Like didn’t have a choice. Love the colors and pattern on this one, can’t wait to wear it.
Film
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Not sure I can say something that hasn’t already been said but I don’t care. Mr. Tom Cruise has done it again, ladies and gentleman. Is it a victory lap? Yes. Is it one of the stronger entries in the franchise? Probably not. Does any of that matter. No. You pull up, like we did, for opening weekend in IMAX and watch Tom run, or hold his breath, or hang from a biplane. What is clearly evident in the later stages of Tom’s career is that he loves making movies, and you can feel it through the screen. It’s why he does his own stunts, continually one-upping himself. It’s why he acts during these stunts. This is what he does. This is why he saved cinema post-pandemic. And this is why we love him. The day Tom hangs it up will be a sad day for cinema lovers and movie enjoyers everywhere. Let’s appreciate his greatness while he’s still here.
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Gone Girl
Y’all knew this was coming. I know I’m always on the book-is-better-than-the-movie wagon (still true in this case) but David Fincher absolutely cooks here. So many good frames and shots. Add in Ben Affleck being hilariously jacked due to playing Batman at the time and you got yourself a film. And we can’t forget about Rosamund Pike giving the best performance of her career. While I would certainly recommend both the book and movie, you can pick your poison in this case.
TV
You — Season 5
This is something no one asked for yet still we got. I don’t think we even needed Season 4 but here we are. Surely the reformed anti-hero will finally be a good person this time around. Surely he won’t go back to doing the exact same things he did for four previous seasons. All that aside I did like the ending, though that doesn’t totally redeem mashing the same buttons for a fifth season in a row. At least it’s over I guess.
Music
After Hours Til Dawn 2025 Stadium Tour — The Weeknd
Interesting move here running back the same name as the last tour, despite dropping a new album with a different name since, but whatever. Made the pilgrimage to Denver with my good friend and colleague and fellow Abel enthusiast Nick Beach. I decided to drive because flights were expensive for some reason, despite it being a 50-minute direct shot, but whatever. I was going to pick my good friend and colleague Nick Beach up at the airport on my way into town Saturday around noon-time. It was a seven-hour drive to the airport, so naturally I left at 5 AM. The only problem with this, however, is Denver is famously in the Mountain Time Zone, NOT the Central Time Zone, which didn’t even cross my mind until I crossed time zones. So I lollygagged the final leg. One more note on the drive: while I would love to sit here and rag on Western Kansas cause there’s nothing out there (there isn’t) it was actually quite a scenic drive and the high plains are beautiful.
My good friend and colleague Luke was nice enough to host us for the night so we picked up his keys from him at work and then enjoyed the A/C for a little bit before meeting him for dinner. Location chosen was Cherry Creek Grill in the Cherry Creek shopping district. Food was great. We split some cornbread bites to start, which had some grated parmesan cheese on top, a nice addition I hadn’t seen previously. Ran the damn ball with a burger and fries. Burger was a good size and had a nice cook, fries were crispy and well-seasoned. After dinner we had some time to kill because we had no initiative to see the openers (Mike Dean, Playboy Carti) and also it was 101 degrees Fahrenheit. We found a thrift store and meandered around for a while, where I got the aforementioned Western shirt. My good friend and colleague Nick Beach got nothing (soft).
We got to the stadium about 8:30 and had to walk to pretty much the other side to get to our gate, which was fine because we had plenty of time. Could hear Carti playing “Fein” as we went around. Got in and had to smash a glizzy (each) and cop an obscenely priced bottle of water that we could refill for during the show. Went to our seats shortly after 9, which despite the sun already setting, it was still fairly toasty up in section 309.
The Weeknd came on ‘round 9:15 time wearing a black robe and sporting a mask, the latter of which he kept on for the first few songs, seen below.
As for the music? Same as the weather lately—nonstop heat. He played for almost 2.5 hours, which included 41(!) songs (setlist at the end of course). I never fully remember or appreciate his catalogue of hits from the past 15 years until it slaps me in the face on a night like tonight. Whatever speaker system they were working with was turned up to 11 as the bass was thumping. He also had a live drummer who was going crazy style on his kit all night. One more note before we get into specifics: every song had a slightly different mix/beat than the recorded version which wasn’t worse than the original or distracting enough that it took away from the song. They included a lot of electric guitar, which works for whatever reason and is why House of Balloons is my favorite album he’s put out to this day. Remixing 40+ songs for a tour is a lot of work, which isn’t lost on me.
As for songs, the three dance tracks from Dawn FM (songs 7-9) were incredible live. I know “he’s done making music” but a full-length dance album would be a welcome sight. The other thing I’ll say is we got a good sampling of different albums, though dominated by the most recent release, Hurry Up Tomorrow. The best run of the show, with all due respect, was songs 16-21. It started with “The Hills,” a classic.
We could feel the fire from our seats. It was hot
Then we cannonballed “Baptized in Fear” into “Open Hearts” just like on HUT. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: “Open Hearts” is one of my favorites from him and it’s even better live.
“Open Hearts”
Keeping the bender going we have “Cry for Me” into the bridge “I Can’t Fucking Sing” into Sao Paulo, once again just like HUT. What if I told you all these songs were in a row on the album? Serious business goes down in those first seven songs.
“Sao Paulo”
Capped off the run by bringing Carti back out to perform “Timeless.” I still maintain it doesn’t fit that well in the scope of the album, but man does it go hard in a stadium.
The “end” of the show was the same three songs as the last tour: “Save Your Tears,” “Less Than Zero,” and “Blinding Lights,” only it wasn’t actually the end. He did five more songs after that, highlighted by “High for This” and “House of Balloons” off his debut project, House of Balloons. The real finale was “Moth to a Flame” another dance collab with Swedish House Mafia, who have been doing big things since “Don’t You Worry Child” in 2012.
“Moth to a Flame”
We got back from the show late, took a quick shower, and hopped into bed. My good friend and colleague Nick Beach had an 8 AM flight. The drive home was worse thanks to the wind blowing at 30 and gusting to gale force, which is fun when it’s a cross-wind for 6 out of the 7 hours. But we made it in one piece. Although short, it was a very good weekend and we had a lot of fun.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. See you next time