Earlier this week, through my affiliation with HSB Camps, I got the opportunity to visit Sun Valley, ID.  When you first think about Idaho, elite, upscale, exclusive, and a great experience aren’t the things that first come to mind.  At least those weren’t the things that came to my mind.  However, this trip definitely was one to remember.  I’ll be the first to admit that for most of this trip I was in awe.  The sights were breathtaking and the people I got to meet were phenomenal.  Add that to the fact that some of America's elite reside or are affiliated with Sun Valley and you start to get a sense of the type of experience I had.

The two highlights of this trip for me were going up to Red Fish Lake and being a guest bartender at the Corner Stone Bar in Ketchum.  The drive to and from Red Fish Lake was very scenic.  I believe that if I start describing the sights and how scenic the drive was, a thousand words later I’d still not have done it justice.  Simply put, I got to see the mountains and the vastness of nature.  The lake itself has beautiful and clear water.  I was tempted to jump in but the water was too cold and I am not about that life.

The second highlight of the trip was being a bartender.  I’d like to preface this story by saying that I have a lot of friends and associates that are and were bartenders.  I have always been intrigued by bartending and at one point I was considering being one for a little while, so when this opportunity came up for me to be a bartender for the night I immediately jumped on it and I loved every minute of it.  I along with my bartending partners made about $400 in tips that night (all the proceeds went to charity...HSB Cares).  The best part of the whole bartending experience was the conversations I got to have with the different people that came into the bar.  That was the part that I enjoyed the most.  The actual drink making part was kind of tough because I definitely did not know what to put in almost all the drink orders I received.  Luckily for me a young lady by the name of Molly who was a bartender helped me out every step of the way.

• An interesting note on Molly is she has this habit of touching or tapping you every time she walks by you behind the bar.  She explains it as “just letting you know where I am or just letting you know that I’m passing by.”  It’s nothing crazy, it’s just a light tap but I’d like to say it’s very effective and actually helped prevent a few spills behind the bar.  I know I’m big, goofy, and take up a lot of space so it definitely helped.
  

Another key note from the bartending was I now know what my specialty drink is going to be.  It’s a drink that I was already familiar with but I made quite a few that night and I think in the process I perfected the ratio of alcohol to mixer in order to make it just right.  So for general knowledge, my drink of choice, and my specialty drink if I was ever to be a bartender would be Patron & Pineapple with a splash of Grenadine (someone call Patron, I may need a little compensation for that plug).

All things considered I think this was a great trip.  It was both entertaining and educational.  It’s an experience that I’m very happy I had and I’m looking forward to having again sometime in the future.  There are a lot of other things that I saw and a lot more that occurred that I’d like to talk about, but as the good old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words and I took over a hundred on this trip.  Check out the following slide show and you’ll see some of the things that I got to see.  I know it's not the same as actually being there but at least you'll get the idea. I hope you enjoy it.

Magnificent Su

This is my first blog post....EVER!

Writing has never been one of my strong suits but it's definitely something that I'm currently working on getting better at. I figured what better way to challenge myself than to share some of the things I write with the general public and take some criticism. Especially those that are constructive.

This leads me to the point of this post which is to outline a few of the reasons I started this website. For one I'm a basketball player and I was at a conference/meeting/educational forum that dealt with life outside basketball. One of the messages I got from said conference besides saving my money and investing wisely was to make sure my E's balanced out. The E's in this case are Entertainment and Education. The message was to make sure that even though my life, inevitably, would be consumed by basketball, and most basketball players spend their time outside of basketball working on getting entertained, an equal amount of time should be spent getting educated.

This website is one of my many efforts to balance my E's out.  Unquestionably it's possible that the majority of the content you see on this site could seem like entertainment but the reasons for that are  a lot of the things I find to be educational may not be what you find to be educating. Also, a good portion of the time I dedicate to educating myself is spent reading and it takes some time to clearly outline, describe, and convey what I learned from what I read in writing (I'm working on that). Also I find taking trips, seeing different parts of the world, and having new experiences to be extremely educational as well.  Hence, this website is going to cover a wide array of subjects and activities.  Expect a lot of pictures, videos, music, writing, motivational quotes...etc.

Besides being a basketball player which takes up most of my life, I'm an amateur web designer (really amateur...this website is my best work), camp coach/counsellor, and a professional life liver. By life living I mean do my best to live in the moment and enjoy the present; enjoy what life has to offer today and take everything else in stride. Of course this is done with a strong consideration for what the future has to offer as well.

It’s all about growth and progression and I hope this is the beginning of something great.

Thank you and I appreciate your support.

Magnificent Su