a k.kalla production

The return of the blog.

It's been a long time coming. I've survived summer video camps, two trips to Las Vegas, a move to Minneapolis, the death of my fish, and the beginning of a new AmeriCorps year. I will do my best to encapsulate the past couple of months into this blog post.

The Return to Vegas - Part 1
I spent 8 days in Vegas in the middle of July. Less than a month later, I found myself there again. Paul Wasicka was one of the guys who I had been living with in the House of Pain. One of Tom's best friends, I had met Paul a few years agowhen he had visited Saint Paul to see Tom.

The Main Event of the World Series of Poker is kind of a big deal. Over 8,700 players bought into the tournament, each forking over $10,000 for a seat. Paul managed to make a pretty deep run. At 4 in the morning on Wednesday, August 9th, I received a voicemail from Tom: "Yo Kevin... he made it. You've got to come out here. Call me when you get your ticket." Paul had made it to the final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. Out of 8,773 players, only the final nine remained. Everyone at that table was walking away a millionaire, with first place receiving $12 million.

I had to scramble when I woke up in the morning and listened to my voicemail. I didn't have tapes. Or a video camera. I didn't have a plane ticket. Or money to buy one. I went to work for the day, and that night I was on a plane bound for Vegas.