Mikey Burnett Opens A New School In Tulsa

Former UFC fighter Mikey Burnett opened a new school in Tulsa today. The new gym features a large grappling area and will feature adult, children's (and more importantly for me) old men's classes. I went there to support Mikey because he is a great person and I feel privileged to call him a friend. We both attend the Brookhollow Ward of the LDS church and he always has words of encouragement to everybody he meets. At this point I don't know if I'll be able to take classes myself because I work 2nd shift so until I get off of that shift I'll try and get myself in good enough shape that when I do get to take a class I won't totally gas out in 3 minutes or less.

Mikey has a wealth of experience that he can impart on you so if you're in the Tulsa area check in on him and learn about MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Tai Chi. Here's his contact info:

Mikey's Gym
3320 E. 32nd St
Tulsa, Ok 74135
(918) 551-6222









Published by Don Leach

A Video and More Pictures of the Grupo Fantasma Concert

Published by Don Leach

Report On The Grupo Fantasma Concert in Tulsa

On Sunday, September 25th I had the pleasure of taking my son to see Grupo Fantasma in concert at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. It was sponsored by the Tulsa Children's Museum who actually don't have a building yet and instead have roaming exhibits to take around the area. The concept of the show was for children and parents to come and enjoy the music together and all were encouraged to get up and dance however the music moved them in the aisles and that advice was well followed. I've wanted to see Grupo Fantasma for some time so this was a great treat for me, especially when you factor in the very low ticket price of $10, which is insane for this Grammy Award winning latin/funk/soul/ska/whatever else you can think of band.


There was a 2PM and a 4PM show listed and since I had other commitments later in the day I chose the 2PM show. Afterwards I was lamenting that I was unable to see the second show because the band was flat out fantastic. About the 2nd song into the set my son told me that he wanted to dance so off we went. He barely moved and after about a minute he informed me that he was finished and wanted us to go back to our seats. People were dancing around all over the place and it was just a huge bunch of fun, a great atmosphere topped off by some incredible music.


Towards the end of the show some children were pulled up from the audience to play percussion instruments with the band and my son wanted to get on stage with them but he didn't want to go down front even though I told him that was the only way to get selected. Eventually he agreed to go if I went with him but by that point it was too late. All the instruments were taken. This disappointed him drastically and prompted a serious attitude problem from him. Luckily though there was a room opened up for the children to go into where they learned about making milagros, were encouraged to dance and had a change to look at rocks and other things under a magnifying glass. This uplifted his spirits and earlier bad feelings were forgotten.


All in all it was a wonderful day and I enjoyed experiencing it with my son. I just wish that they could have things like this much more often. You can bet I'll be looking more carefully to see what's happening in the area because it was a great time.



Published by Don Leach

Frat Life 101: The Drinking Game

Back in the days when I used to drink I never was what you'd call a big drinker. Usually I only drank when there was a party and you would never find me drinking on a Saturday afternoon as I sat watching a football game. As a matter of fact I was called a lightweight, both literally and figuratively. My weight stayed consistently at 130 pounds no matter how much I ate (and I could eat a lot) and it normally took about a beer and a half for me to be really buzzed and not much more to continue it for the evening. Guess I was a cheap date. What I was really, was a drinking novice and on one fateful night that status was taken advantage of by my pledge brothers. Don't let your dirty imagination take over here, I'm talking solely about drinking.

On that night that I still remember to this day (well, at least part of it) I learned a valuable life lesson, just because someone is your friend doesn't mean you should trust them, especially when alcohol is concerned. On a weekday night most of the pledge class was gathering in Joe's room in Logan Hall before heading to the house for our weekly pledge meeting. As we sat there Joe offered to trade shots of rum with anybody who wanted to. Since he had no takers for some bizarre reason I said I would do it even though this was totally out of character for me. Did I mention that I was a lightweight drinker? That point would be clear for all to see shortly.


Joe and I commenced drinking and very quickly we ran out of the Coke that was there for the chaser and kept going with just the shots of rum. At least that's what I thought. Unbeknownst to me Joe was switching bottles on me and he was only drinking water whilst I was consuming rum and it turned out to be a lot of it in a short period of time. How much you ask? Don't be shocked when I tell you that it was something like 19 shots in half an hour. Yeah, I know, I was smashed.

The rest of the night was a blur broken up by solitary moments of clarity. Some of what happened was related to me the next day and I have to believe it because I have absolutely no memory of it to this day. Somehow I walked with my pledge brothers to our dingy, rundown frat house (I say that with pride) and the members were shocked that I was in that condition early on a weekday night. They weren't happy once they heard the explanation either since it really went against everything they were trying to teach us about brotherhood.

I was laid down on the couch while the meeting went on although that didn't stop me from trying to interject my opinion. Afterwards my brothers were instructed to get me back to my dorm room so that I could sleep it off and not do any harm to myself. Man, they were pissed at the rest of the pledges, or so I'm told. I have no recollection of the walk to and from the house that night but once I was brought to my room they tried to put me in my bed and leave. Notice that I said tried. As they walked out I got out of bed and started to follow them out the door so they turned around and put me back in bed. Once again I followed them out the door and once again they turned around and put me in my bed firmly telling me to stay put.


Did I listen? Of course not. This time as I followed them out of the room they grabbed me and put be in my bed threatening to kick my butt if I got out of the bed again which prompted a drunken ramble from me about not needing them or anybody else, that I was alright on my own dammit. Needless to say this freaked out my roommate who had no idea what was going on. Come to think of it this night might have majorly contributed to his reason for asking me to allow him to switch rooms with another person but that was much later.

This time their threats against bodily harm took hold and I did not leave my bed. Instead I quickly sank into a deep, drunken slumber from which I did not come out of until after I had missed all of my morning classes the next day. I staggered over to the cafeteria and melted into a chair and decided quickly that it was in my best interest not to eat anything for a little while longer. As the members, pledges and sisters came to the table I had the details of my blacked out night filled in for me and I was repeatedly asked why I had chosen to drink in the first place. The honest truth was that I did not know why. In hindsight I can guess that I was trying to fit in and gain acceptance from those that I trusted the most only to have that trust abused.

My only question about that night was why the other pledges did nothing to stop this from happening. Why had none of them told Joe not to do it or even just informed me of what was going on? Where was the brotherhood? I guess we were all just learning about ourselves and didn't know when to say the joke had gone too far. As I said earlier I learned a valuable lesson from this experience and while I would trust the others with many things, drinking was not one of them. I vowed never to have a repeat of that night and I didn't. Well, at least not until I was in the Army in Washington, D.C. but that was much later and under entirely different circumstances and that's a story to be told in the future.

Published by Don Leach

The High Cost Of Getting Into Shape

My march towards becoming healthy continues on. Last week I had a consultation to see if I needed a new sleep study. I had one about five or six years ago and it showed that I have severe sleep apnea. After my son was born I stopped using my CPap machine because I was usually the one getting him from the crib so he could feed and then returning him to the crib. Basically it just made no sense to take it off for a few minutes, put it back on, take it off again for a few minutes, put it back on for about an hour or so and then repeating it all over again. So I got out of the habit of using it and didn't go back to it. Then it disappeared. My wife swears she didn't do anything with it and that it's in the house somewhere but I can't find it so...........anyway.

Anyway, at my consultation they took my vitals, etc and found that my blood pressure was 116 over 73 which is a long way from the 146 over 93 range that it was in. Great news, it looks like the medication is working. They also weighed me and I found that I've lost five pounds since I started working out. Now I know that five pounds isn't a lot but hey, it's a start. To tell the truth, I've started this week by adding another set to my workout routine on the weight machines and today I did two full sets on all of the machines. I don't want to fall back after I've had such positive results so far. Whenever I leave the gym I feel tired but good, sort of more aware of life and I definitely feel more positive about life.

Of course the consultation determined that indeed I did need another sleep study and that came about last Tuesday night. I took the night off from work and did everything they instructed to make sure I would be able to go to sleep. The time came and I arrived at the sleep study lab promptly at 7:30 PM ready for the study. After doing some paperwork I was given a little bit of time which I used to flip through the channels on the television and then I read a few pages of my current book. The tech came in and started hooking me up which is not an altogether pleasant experience.

Note: This is not me, just a free picture I found on the internet.

If you've never had a sleep study before then allow me to describe it to you. They attach a bunch of wires all over your body as well as some EKG leads and bunch them altogether with a few belts around your chest and stomach area. Other lines run down through your shorts to your legs. Then they use some kind of adhesive on your head and attach a bunch more wires there. These are all kept together and attached to wherever they need to go around the bed. Then they put an oxygen sensor on your nose and you lay back to go to sleep. I had taken an Ambien (prescribed of course) to make sure there would be no problems with going to sleep quickly. My co-workers had assured me that the Ambien would knock me out.

Only it didn't. I truly felt like I never actually went to sleep. It was horrible. Think of it, you're lying there with all of these wires attached all over your body and you basically have to lie still, with little movement. That's tough for me to do. I constantly roll onto either side, tossing and turning throughout the night but I feared that if I did that on this night I might mess something up and have to do the test all over again. Finally the tech came back in and took off all of the EKG leads and so forth but leaving the rest of the wires intact. Now it was time for a full face mask CPap, the kind I call the Darth Vader. Half of the time left seemed like I was fighting breathing with the mask and then eventually my mind got used to it and I really fell asleep. Seemingly shortly thereafter the tech came back in and unhooked me from everything. I took a shower and got dressed.

Note: This is not me, it's some guy named Joey that I found on the internet.

These things always seem worse than they are and in fact it probably didn't last nearly as long as it seemed to me. But the Ambien had absolutely zero effect on me and was useless, I was on my own. I must have a high tolerance for it. The doctor came in and went over the results and he used the very official term when he stated that I have "Very severe sleep apnea." Apparently anything over thirty instances of your sleep being disrupted in an hour is severe. I had eighty-two. Almost three times the number for it to be severe.

Needless to say the paperwork has been turned in to my insurance company and now I only await word from them as to whether I get a new machine or not. Clearly it's needed but that doesn't guarantee that they'll okay it. I mean after all this is an American insurance company we're talking about and keeping down costs is holy for them so until I hear the affirmative I'll remain guardedly optimistic. This looks like the second to last step (until something new comes up) for me to get my act together and finally get in shape.


The last is for me to change my diet away from too many bad things (junkfood) and move towards more good things (veggies and fruits) and that will come more slowly. I can only hope that I live up to the expectations for me from my doctor, my wife and most importantly myself because if I'm not doing it for the right reasons I'll fall off the wagon at some point. For now I'm enjoying doing it and can't wait to see what the future holds.

Published by Don Leach

A Paul Westerberg Quote Sparks A Song

While reading the book "Our Band Could Be Your Life" by Michael Azerrad I started the section on The Replacements and came across this quote from Paul Westerberg: "Sometimes you don't want to be creative. You just want to be normal and not have to worry, or think, or write." Of course it got me thinking and my creative mode kicked in so in about fifteen minutes I came up with these lyrics. My plan is to give them to two different friends who write lyrics and see much they change, maybe even get two songs with a similar core but they become totally different. Then if only I could get them recorded, even lo-fi would be fine and all would be well with my world.

Grow Up Somewhere

Nothing to do no place to go
Always driving down the same road
Staring at all the pretty girls
We're never gonna talk to
This night ends the same as the last
Always looking for the big blast
Sometimes I just wish I could
Turn normal like all the rest

Are these supposed to be the happy years
This time filled by all the pain and fears

Take me away from this one horse town
Take me away from all this running around
I know something is in me better than this
So take me away before I take me down

Walking up and down the same old halls
Same old faces mock and haunt me
Looking at the life I know I’ll never have
Not sure I’d want it all anyway
This day drags on like all the rest
Waiting for the thing to relieve the stress
Don’t tell me things will get better
When will my future become my life

It's not easy when you don't grow up somewhere

All words by Don Leach and may not be used without permission.

Published by Don Leach

Brand Loyal

If I had to describe myself the first thing that comes to my mind is the word plain. Now don't get me wrong, to me plain is a good word, being plain is a good thing. If you add average to plain perhaps that's closer to the point. I prefer clothes that are average and plain, no labels, nothing that's in or cool at the moment, no company logo. Just plain is fine with me. Of course that makes me different from a lot of people in the world but that's fine with me, I've never felt like I fit in with what the mainstream world does anyway.

My color preference has always been for darker or earth tones. It's very rare to find me in a red shirt, hat, etc. As a matter of fact I don't think I own much that is red. Orange and yellow are out of the question. I just don't like things that are bright because overall bright equals flashy and that goes against my whole plain ethos. This also bleeds over into other areas, like cars. I've never owned a brightly colored car in my life and never will if I can help it. Right now I've got an old white truck and that's as bright as I can get. Most of the vehicles I've owned were older, a good deal of them beaters and I've never even owned a brand new vehicle. The closest I ever came was one that was three years old.

I've been that way as long as I can remember. Back in the 70s when I was a child designer jeans became very much in demand. Everybody had to have them at my school. Everybody but me that is. To me it didn't make sense, the only thing really different about these jeans was that there they used some extra stitching to put the brand name on the pocket. Otherwise they looked pretty much the same as any other pair of jeans. That's it. For the privilege of paying three or four times the cost of a regular pair of jeans that's what you got. I still don't get the sense of paying solely for a name.

Another descriptive thing about me is that I'm what you call brand loyal. On the rare occasion that I do choose to wear something that's not plain I will wear something that shows my support for a team, product or cause. However I will not wear another teams clothing no matter how popular they are or even if I am given the clothing for free. For instance, I am a fan (sadly) of the Cleveland Browns and will only wear a shirt from them, not any other NFL team. The NFL of course wants people to be fans of the league more than any one certain team. That way they watch more games which drives up ratings which drives up the cost of commercial time which means more money in their pockets.

Many years ago my younger sister went to Florida and when she came back she gave me an Orlando Magic (NBA) t-shirt. While I didn't expect and even appreciated the gift, it sat in the bottom of my closest for about a year before I gave it away with some other clothes to charity. More recently my mother-in-law had sent me two shirts that I could wear to work but both had designer logos on them and I asked my wife if she could get the receipt so that I could return them and get something plain. Well, my wife is from Peru that was considered to be rude but I'd rather be rude than let them sit and end up giving them away. One good thing that came from it is now my mother-in-law knows what I like (and how I am) and about three weeks ago she sent me two more shirts, exactly how I like them. In both cases I really appreciated the thought and the gift but I had to stand by my convictions.

To sum it all up what does this messof opinions mean, other than that I'm weird? I can't really say. It's just an apt description of me, what I like and what I feel like. I feel quite happily that I'm plain and brand loyal, it's just the way I am for better or worse. The lesson is don't go sending me a bunch of bright flashy shirts (bowling and rockabilly type shirts do seem to be an exception) although if you do I promise I'll find them a happy home and I'll truly be thankful that you thought of me.

Published by Don Leach