The wind blows, a chill is in the air. Christmas then New Year's will soon be upon us...

"Now is the winter of our discontent."
-- Shakespeare, From King Richard III

Let me tell you a tale, accompanied by the three greatest prose writers of my era. As I sit here and drink my third scotch and water, I look back upon my professional athletic career. The wins. The losses. The comraderie. The grandiose lifestyle I had become so accustomed to.

"This fast life soon shatters/ 'Cause after all the lights and screams/ Nothin' but my dreams matter"
-- TuPac, From "All Eyes On Me"

Now, it is all gone. Without reason. Without warning. In one fell swoop, the fates dealt me a cruel, unjust hand; one that I chose not to take a chance and play, but fold, and wait for the next round.

"[T]his thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine."
--Shakespeare, From The Tempest

By sitting out the next round I mean getting a job, and settling down, saving for the future, and spending more time with my wife. This is all well and good, except for one thing. I now have to work. The corporate world is a heartless beast, guided by deadlines and bottom lines, a world completely foreign to me. A world I have come to loathe with every waking second.

"I am dying, Egypt, dying."
-- Shakespeare, From Antony and Cleopatra

So I sit here, and compare the two worlds, and my life as it has progressed over these past months, which have seemed like an eternity. I have left one place and been cast into another.

" Straight from the frying pan into the fire..."
-- Jay-Z, From the "Black Album"

I am two different people now. It is if I died and was reborn as 8 to 5 DJ. Gone is European Basketball DJ....forever...How do these two compare? Let me count the ways......

Event European Basketball DJ 8 to 5 DJ

Event	European Basketball DJ	8 to 5 DJ
overtime	A five minute thrill seeking battle for supremacy. Do or Die. Awesome	Alone in an empty office with the janitor into the night
chicks	Plentiful. At games, bars, or clubs, or bars. Hit on constantly.	Women in my office are NOT ATTRACTIVE. At all.
lesbians	Sexy. See two chicks making out for the hell of it just for attention.	Extremely frightening. Yells at everyone. Again, scary.
boss	Coach. Inspired you to get better and want to succeed.	Makes you want to drive your head through your computer screen at a high velocity.
hours	Practices, then Sunday and/or Wednesday games. Plenty of free time to wile' out.	8 - 5. 1 hour lunch. Time has never passed so slowly.
sleep	Whenever I feel like it. Naps aplenty, but was never flat exhausted.	Always flat out exhausted, yet never get off my ass at work.
going out	Any city I wanted to in my country. Team usually picked up most of the tab, or we got free drinks anyways. Not uncommon to order bottle after bottle of whatever just for the hell of it. Came in when I felt like it.	I have no idea what this is anymore. My social skills have all but left me as a result. There is no telling what I would do or say if I ever went out again.
TV	Sports or movies until all hours of the night. Enjoyed watching new shows and following some reality TV.	Sporscenter. Monday shows on CBS. That's all the mental capacity I have left to fill.
wake up	Whenever, usually around 10:30 or 11. The only problem was deciding whether that would be AM or PM.	6:15 AM. Have to swear like a Tourettes patient to motivate myself every morning.
go to bed	Whenver, if at all.	Slip into a coma 10PM sharp.
favorite drink	The bar. Almost nightly.	H2O and coffee. Weekends a few drinks during games.
peers	Some of the best athletes in the world. Guys who share a common interst.	Dudes I would not have thought twice about ever before, friend or otherwise.
travel	You name it, I've probably been there.	40 minutes of traffic filled hell each day both ways. And it's only 11.3 miles away.
body	Extremely finely tuned. Ripped and toned in every way imaginable through daily workouts and liftling.	Slowly attacking itself in a vain attempt to end my being. Work out twice a week, if I'm lucky.
salary	I'm not even going to go there.	My pockets are always nervous.
most feared injury	Any "CL" tearing.	Carpal tunnel.
feeling after work	Satisfaction, pride, self worth.	Like giving myself a lobotomy with an unsharpened pencil.

What keeps me sane is coming home to my wife and looking forward to watching games on the weekend. That is it. I only heard vaguely of this place when I would phone back to the US to talk to people on the daily grind, and I remember feeling the slightest bit of pity for them. Now that "them" has turn into "me" and that "slightest bit" has turned into "chasm filling amounts". Thank you William, thank you Jigga, and thank you Pac for bearing my wounded soul to the masses so eloquently. Time to go do back flips for The Man....

"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one."
--Shakespeare, From The Merchant of Venice*

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* Shortly after writing this column, European Basketball DJ ate 8 - 5 DJ and shat him out of his body forever. Check out DJ's new team in Finland. Hope you speak Finnish.

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