It’s been an interesting day here at Beem manor.  I got up bright and early.  Hit the gym at 6:45am.  Hit Chuck’s Produce at 7:45 for their amazing chicken sausage breakfast burritos.  Got home home around 8:15….then my phone started going off.  Twitter alerts, phone calls, emails, texts.  All congratulatory, all humbling and all so kind.  I’m sitting here in bed at 7:20pm and I’m exhausted.  I accepted the position of track announcer at Louisiana Downs a little bit ago.  It’s been weird holding in a secret for the last few days from friends, co-workers and even family.  Sitting around Thanksgiving dinner and when they ask me what’s new I get to reply “Oh just hanging out in Portland, calling the horseys.”  I told my mom early and swore her to secrecy, which she promptly violated by telling my aunt within about an hour.  Today once I told her she could tell family members about my upcoming move, she proceeded to tell them all that I was moving to New Orleans.  I love my mom more than anything.  She cracks me up.

It’s a challenge that I’m both excited and nervous for.  I lived out of the northwest for 3 seasons at River Downs and while I had some amazing memories there, I had some terrible times too.  My gambling and anxiety were both at their worst over there.  So I’m going into this journey with a much better knowledge of myself and what I need to do to make this whole thing a success.  Working on setting up a community in Shreveport/Bossier before I even get there.  Looking for a personal trainer, a therapist, GA meetings and god forbid maybe a date or two.  It will be important for me to be social and meet new people as opposed to hole up in my apartment like I tend to enjoy doing.

But overall I’m quite excited.  I really think it’s going to be a great experience.  I’m going to make my trip down through the south and visit LA, Phoenix, El Paso, and Dallas before getting to Shreveport.

I’m pooped, but it was a fun day to share in the good news with friends and family.  The kind words on twitter and elsewhere really made me feel great.  Seeing my name on the front page of DRF and Bloodhorse and Paulick Report was weird as hell.  But having my mom call and say she was proud of me was really nice.  Having colleagues text and write and call and say such kind words meant alot as I respect them all so much.  Having total strangers who have heard me call races say they are gonna miss me at PM simultaneously broke my heart and warmed it at the same time.

It was a great day.  And only thing’s missing.  I wish my dad was here to tell the news to.