It's Been Two Weeks...

and a lot has happened. Where to start? Oh, Carrie has been here for two weeks. That has been fun, and nice to have my wife here. It has also gotten more crowded, and my room seemingly has gotten smaller. And more cluttered. Like I said, it has been nice having home cooked meals when I come home, and also to be able to bring wine home and not feel like an alchy.

In other news, we (me and the rest of the Monmouth University Men's Basketball team) went to Laramie, WY. What an experience. We won our first game out there against the host team Wyoming. Just playing out there and getting through the game was a feat in itself, being that the elevation of Laramie is 7200 feet! I was winded walking around, partly because I am out of shape, but mostly because of the elevation. We lost our last two games against Pepperdine and Hampton. Both games were winnable, but we turned the ball over too much. Hopefully we learned something out there that will make us a better team in our league. That being said, Saturday we have our first conference game, on the road, vs. Sacred Heart. It is a winnable game, if we do not turn the ball over. I am not saying that Sacred Heart is bad, I'm just saying that is we play how we are capable, we should beat them. But, I digress. I would be remiss if I did not talk about Thanksgiving dinner and the people of Laramie. Unfortunately, I did not get to spend the holiday with my family, I did get the opportunity to eat with my "second" family and the Thanksgiving dinner at the Hilton Garden Inn in Laramie was fabulous. The Turkey was moist, the stuffing was flavorful, cranberry sauce was fresh, the green bean casserole was tasty, the mashed potatoes were creamy and buttery, the rolls were warm and garlicky, and most surprisingly, the sweet potatoes were "candied". As far as the people of Laramie were concerned, they were very friendly. A bit shocking I do admit considering there were a lot of "outsiders" in their town. The scenery on the way out of Laramie on our way back to Denver was breathtaking. The open range with bison, Black Angus, antelope, and many other wild animals which lead to the Rocky Mountains was a sight to behold.

Now, Let's talk about Denver. What a city! If I had to I would definitely move there. It was so clean, and again, the people were so nice. We stayed at The Westin Tabor Center, and it was such a nice place. The people there worked within our teams budget (which isn't much), and again, were very pleasant people. The only issue I had with Denver is one of its social gathering places called The Shag Lounge. And to be honest, I like a place with cheap drinks (surprise), and loud music (preferably hip hop but I can rock out with the best of them). However the clientèle, left much to be desired, and I was wondering why, until I saw this on the side of their billboard. All in all it was a good trip, and I am looking forward to getting a win this weekend at Sacred Heart. Until next time...

11/12/09 - A Fine Day Indeed

Today is a good day. Yes, the weather sucks. Yes, I have to work. Yes, I have to drive to JFK...during rush hour. But at the end of the day, my wife will be here. For good this time, not just for a visit. So today is a good day. It starts a hectic weekend. We start our season tomorrow. As previously stated, we've got Zeke coming in to town on Friday, got Bobby G. and the Seton Hall Pirates coming in on Sunday, and then we've got a 6 AM game on Tuesday at St. Peter's. So needless to say, I will be busy and tired come Wednesday. Lots to do, but this is when the fun starts. God I love college basketball. And I love my Wife. Until next time.

It's a Beautiful Day...

...outside and I am stuck inside doing film exchange. For those of you that don't know what this is, I pray that you never find out. For those of you that do know, you understand my plight. But it must get done. Other than that, on the basketball end, we are getting ready to go to Lafayette for a retreat and scrimmage this weekend. It should be a good time for our guys, or at the very least a very good meal on Friday night.

I am sure that very few of you know that I am a huge soccer fan. I believe that I became one when I started playing back at the age of 12. Or it could be that one of my best friends played soccer at UVA. Whatever may have triggered this doesn't matter, but let it be known that I am a fan. I say this because our men's team here at Monmouth has clinched a regular season league championship and will be hosting the conference tournament next weekend. They have a very good chance of winning the tournament this year, and if they were to falter, I think they have a solid chance to be an at-large team in the NCAA Tournament. This is a big deal considering that we are such a small school. I will be there to support, as not only am I a big fan of soccer in general, but I am a fan of this MU Men's Soccer Team and their coaches. It will be a busy weekend next weekend being that they host the tournament and we have our opening games as well. Friday and Sunday. MU vs the Fighting Isiah Thomas' and Random NEC Team vs. the Fighting Rob McCourt's in the first round of the NEC Tournament on Friday, and on Sunday we play Seton Hall.

Random Musings on a Thursday Afternoon

So I woke up feeling pretty good today. Good enough that I actually decided to go to work dressed like a gentleman. Dress pants, button down, with the sweater vest. Now I know some of you are thinking "sweater vest"? Yes, I said it. In our athletics office we have a few gentleman that do their thing when it comes to getting dressed for work. So, I couldn't come dressed if I didn't come correct. For example, one of my friends who is a football coach cam today in black slacks, a black button down, and a black and gray cardigan. A well dressed man indeed. It was a good thing that I came dressed today being that we had a special visitor in former Providence coach Tim Welsh. It was fun to sit with him for a few and talk about when he recruited me while I was in high school at RBR. Nice man, unfortunately I had to say no to him at the time. Seems like I could have played for him. But I will take the course of action that I took a thousand times over instead of wondering "what if".

With all of this basketball talk, we are getting closer to the start of the regular season. Only about two weeks left. As a matter of fact, we had a blue/white scrimmage the other day, and we have two more this Sunday and next Saturday. They should let us know where we are at in terms of what we need to tune up before our home opener vs. Florida International University and the Fightin' Isiah Thomas'.

On another note, my wife shall be moving back east that week as well, so it should be a good week with her moving back, and  us hopefully getting our first win in our new building.

Ok, some of you know that I like to play Guitar Hero. That being said, I may be hanging up my guitar strap. Only to replace it with a turntable. Of sorts. You see, there is this new game called DJ Hero. I got it the other day and it is really a lot of fun. Granted some of the songs are not the greatest, but the game play aspect of it is great. I felt like DJ Premier...if he was just starting on the turntable, and only had one hand. But, I will get better and undoubtedly, it will become my favorite game. The reviews that I have seen have all pretty much said that it's a good one, and I will have to agree. I wish I had four hands...so I could give this game four thumbs up.....

Just One of Those Days

It was a rough morning for me today. Didn't get the Dr. recommended 7-8 hours of sleep, I woke up with a headache, and major hunger pangs. Not good. Perhaps I could not sleep because I was frustrated. Have you ever been frustrated by the situation that you are in? That seems to be the boat that I was in last night, and am in today. I anticipated that I would be in a better career, financial, and family situation. I know a lot of people feel the same, and are in the same situation, but it still sucks. I know I am working towards something better, and eventually I will look back and laugh at what these times have for me, but right now I have to push through. I know I will become a better man and person after I fight through every bump in the road, so I am just going to put my head down and keep plugging away.

On the brighter side, I will be heading on down to Terpville for homecoming this weekend. It will be a chance to see some old faces, and some really really young faces. I feel like I was there just yesterday, however, I figured out that the current freshman class was in 7th or 8th grade when I graduated college. Wow. It should be fun though, and a nice get away before our season really starts. Perhaps I shall see some of you down there. If not, be safe.

Blog 2.0

So as I mentioned last night, I will try to seriously keep this blog going this time around. This is more difficult than I thought, sitting down and typing about what I am thinking everyday. But, here it goes. This week is the beginning of basketball practice. A start to a new season for us here at Monmouth University. We should be a much better team than last year being that we return almost everybody. We also get back one of our better players that suffered a torn ACL last year in our first game, mater of fact, within the first 10 minutes of our first game. All of that coupled with the two new freshman we have should mean better results than last year. Our out of conference schedule again is tough, but really what we need to do at this level of division one is win our league and make it to that big tournament in March.

Back At It

I will be back on my blogging tip from now on. Perhaps I will get some more followers too.

If you want to make God laugh...

...make plans. So I was planning on having a full-time job with benefits lined up by the summertime, but it hasn't happened yet. I was planning that my wife and dog and I would be living together by now, but it seems like the Big Guy has other plans for me. Hopefully, something will come about soon, as I am getting frustrated by not knowing what is in store for me. I've got a few options, but some look better than the others. Wish me and my family luck.

Oh, and I know that I don't keep this updated, but I will work to get it back to at least two times a week. I know the people want to know what goes on in the life of Tahj Holden, so I will try to give the people what they want!

New Year

Holy crap, it is 2009. How quickly a year goes by. I remember around this time last year I was in La Jolla trying to figure out how to help our team get a win. Some things change, yet some things stay the same. Fast forward to 2009m I am still trying to figure out how to get a win for my team. This time however, I am in New Jersey at Monmouth University instead of La Jolla Country Day, and it is 25 degrees and not 75. All that being said, we got a huge conference win this past Saturday over Sacred Heart. They were the second highest scoring team in our league and we held them to 15 points under their average, with I would say about 10 of their 56 points coming in garbage time. We have another big game against Central Connecticut tonight. A win tonight would bring us to .500 in the league and would make us undefeated in the new year. Wish us luck.