As I write this piece, I sit in the dayroom of a Minimum Security prison in the great state of North Carolina.  In September of 2004, I accepted a plea with the State Attorney General on 18 counts of Embezzlement / Obtaining Property by False Pretenses.  I served a prison sentence of 52 months and then served 28 of 36 months probation before I was violated for failing to pay enough restitution.  I then served another 12 months in prison and today, I am officially a free man.

Four hours ago, my leasing office was robbed.  There were two guys.  The tall one pointed a gun at my face while the other told me not to say anything and asked where the money was.  The gun had a long barrel.  The whole thing took thirty seconds and happened four hours ago ... and I'm still shaking.

My wife and I decided to go see UNCG and Miami play basketball last night.  We knew it would be a tough game but after all, we're both Alumni, and we haven't seen a game all year (if you don't count watching it over the web).

In fact, I haven't been to an actual game since they moved their home court from little Fleming Gym (approx max attendance of 2300) to the Greensboro Coliseum (where the ACC tournament is held every so often, max attendance 23,000).  That's a big difference in venues.

In the old days when I had first graduated the university, tickets were $6 and for several years, I even had season tickets.  But last night, when I logged online to check things out before we walked out the door, I was shocked.

Tickets on the court floor were $50.  The floor level was $25 and the cheapest thing going was $15 for the upper level.

I told Carmen, then gathered $30 in fives and ones and we headed out the door.

I'm thirty-nine years old and I still think of myself as twenty-something.  I have a feeling this is what the old saying about being "young at heart" hints toward.  As a result of my still feeling young, I sometimes drag my hulking frame out onto the basketball court and try to keep up with the young bucks.

Until the last year or so, that was no problem.  But I think that approaching-forty thing isn't just about it being a nice round number.  I think there's more to it.