The fireworks are cranking up in downtown Asheville, so I guess it's time to bid adieu to 2008.

This time last year, I was enroute to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure - my fifth straight. It feels a little weird not to be going, but wholly appropriate. I got my licks in there and had a great time, but it was time to move on to something else.

Those of you that are going to be there, have a wonderful time. Make sure to get out and play in the ocean some, but if you want to go swimming with sharks, please do it with Stuart Cove, if you get my drift here.

I guess the most astonishing thing about 2008 for me was Barack Obama. Had you seen me at the Atlantis last year, and said "Who's Barack Obama", I would have probably guessed a utilitiy infielder for the Red Sox or something. By August I was signing up to work for the guy's election. I just read that something like 76% of Americans think he's a "good leader", which is of course hard to do when he hasn't taken office yet. But he's putting out reassuring vibes, and right now, we need that in a big way. I also find it encouraging that clearly a bunch of people who didn't vote for him think that he is/will-be a strong leader. Again, we need that. For instance, when the whole Blegojevich thing broke loose, a bunch of Republican party types tried to tie him to Obama. And guess what - some senior Republican guys in the Senate and elsewhere said, "Back off - (1) Obama isn't involved in this, and (2) we've got bigger fish to fry right now." Even John McCain said it. I guess when the chips are really down (and people, this country is pretty short-stacked right now) it brings out the statesman in some people and they start thinking about the good of the country rather than their own political agenda. Praise god.

On the professional front, I had a blast doing the second half of the European Poker Tour season, [1] We have one of those little digital picture frames and I look at it sometimes and see the pictures from all over Europe (and Kenya and the Galapagos too) and think "Wow, who hit me with the lucky stick?" It was easy to leave Liverpool, wonderful to return to the U.S., but man, I miss the people of the EPT. I guess it's always that with careers. You forget the w*rk pretty much immediately, but the folks who you've touched, and who touched you, stay with you. Moral of that story: pay attention to your coworkers as much as the j*b you're in. You will be able to recall them long after you've totally lost exactly what it was you did there.

And then coming back to the U.S. and ending up at CardRunners has been a dream come true. Taylor, Andrew, Brian, and all the guys have been incredibly generous and gracious with me. They tolerate my fuddy-duddy nature with good humor, and treat me as an equal. That's quite a compliment coming from a small group of guys the ages of my sons who have created not only a wildly successful commercial enterprise, but really an entire industry. One of the great things about the poker business is that I spend a lot of time communicating and being with dynamic, intelligent young people. It really does help keep me young. I'm lucky to be in the poker business, and deeply proud to part of the CardRunners/StoxPoker team.

Personally, well, it's clich©, but I'm certainly the luckiest guy there is. I've got an extraordinary wife, two amazing sons, and family and friends who mean the world to me. I'm having the time of my life living in Asheville. I've got a dobro teacher named Tyler Kirkpatrick who's an amazing player and a wonderful young man. He's rapidly turning into a friend (and hopefully fishing buddy) too. Anyway, between the lessons, practice, and the jams, the Scheerhorn guitar (aka "dobro") is getting a good workout and I'm actually getting better on the instrument. But of course, as Taylor points out in his blog, the point is not to prepare yourself for what comes next, it's to be in the moment, because when this minute is over, you never get it back. So I've stopped saying that I "practiced" dobro. No, I played dobro. If that made me a better player, excellent. But I spent that hour of my life playing a musical instrument, and if it were to be my last hour on the planet, there are few things I'd rather be doing.

By the way - I'm getting an astonishing lesson in "living" from my wife, Lisa. She's recently gone back to nursing a couple of days a week at the Cardiac ICU at Memorial Hospital in Asheville. Already 2-3 patients have died on her watch. That happens when you're a nurse, and especially when you're on in a CICU, but when she tells the stories, it reminds me how precious it is simply to be breathing (something else Taylor pointed out in his year-end blog). One guy who passed away just last week was in his 30's (or maybe 40's) - had at least one pre-teen kid.

I got to spend a bunch of time standing in trout streams this past year since we moved to North Carolina. That's a been an enormous blessing too.

Taylor closed his blog with an admonition to enjoy 2009. I second that. Be in the moment, listen to more music, tell your framily and friends that they make your life worth living (they generally do), and have coffee with a friend you haven't seen in three weeks or 30 years. [2] As Lisa's stories from the "office" remind me quite poignantly, there's no guarantee that I'll be here for the 1/1/10 blog entry, or even the 2/1/09 one.

Peace,
Lee

[1] Speaking of the European Poker Tour, my former colleague at PokerStars, Tamar Yaniv, is waking up somewhere in Tel Aviv about now, married. Assuming she bothered to go to bed rather than dancing until dawn. Congratulations Tamar; I wish you Ahavah Olam.

[2] Over Thanksgiving, I had a delightful sandwich and beer dinner with a woman I'd known in high school and her husband. I hadn't seen her in something like 20 years. She and her husband have been married 28 years (!), raised two kids, got one of them through a life-threatening illness, and she teaches first grade. I mean, she's getting 6-year-olds turned on to reading. That's heroic stuff, right there.