Dec. 27, 2010

Sophomore guard Josh Bartelstein will give an inside look all season at the 2010-11 version of the Wolverines.

Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope you all had a great and relaxing holiday weekend. We were back at work today getting ready for the start of Big Ten season and our huge game against Purdue Tuesday afternoon.

Before we can talk about Purdue, we must first talk about my first Christmas. I had seen all the movies and heard all the songs about what Christmas was supposed to be, but never first hand had I ever experienced a true Christmas. Normally I went with my family to a movie and ate some Chinese food.

Well this would all change because I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Chesterton, Indiana, with Zack Novak.

So after our win against Bryant, we hit the road and began the drive to the great city of Chesterton. You see for almost two years I have heard story after story about "cheese town" and all the mythical things that happen there.

So just some important facts everyone knows before we break down my visit. The MTV show MADE has made two episodes at Chesterton High, but Zack did not appear in either. It takes 25 minutes to drive from one side of Chesterton to the other. Lastly it doesn't have one truck stop, but two in fact.

I woke up Friday morning and Zack told me he was going to take me to his favorite breakfast spot in Chesterton. I was starving and very excited to enjoy an omelet and maybe some pancakes. After driving for a little, we pulled into a little restaurant that I could have sworn was in Spanish.

I thought maybe we were turning around or something was wrong with the car since there always seems to be an issue, but no we were eating Mexican food at 10:30 in the morning. I really was not feeling this, first off I don't like Mexican food and second I really dislike it at 10:30 in the morning, But Zack said this was tradition and sure enough I ate chips and Salsa for breakfast that morning. I can assure you the service was great since there were only two people in the entire place.

After breakfast, Zack had to do some last minute shopping so we continued on our way to the outlet mall. Novak is very big on the coupon book at outlet malls. He must have it to see all the great deals and what different stores have to offer.

So the night before Zack signed up for the premium package at the Michigan City Outlet and was very happy with himself he already had it taken care of. Well we showed up Friday and sure enough we didn't get any coupon book. Some very old lady working behind the desk, made it very clear these were PRIME outlets and she kept repeating it over and over to Zack. One big thing I took away from this trip was Michigan City has a prime outlet mall and not a premium outlet mall, however I still have no idea what the difference is.

Remember when I said Zack always has car trouble?

Well his bad luck struck again as we were leaving his friends house. Some lady cut us off and Novak pulling his best Jeff Gordon impression hit the brakes very hard. He did save my life probably, but he ruined his brakes in the process as they were shot. I really couldn't stop laughing as we just got the car back from the shop last week and already it's undrivable again.

But the best part of the story is the car we returned to campus in. Zack had to borrow his brother's car who attended Purdue. Well this car has a big Purdue decal on the license plate, which wouldn't be a big deal but we play them in a day. So if any fan see's Zack get out of a car with Purdue stuff on it, trust me he hasn't gone crazy and it is only a temporary move. Actually I probably shouldn't promise that because the Zack's real car only can last a week without some other issue arising.

Finally we made it to Christmas Eve dinner at Zack's house. I got to meet his entire family and they were all very nice to me. His mom is a great cook and I've never seen so many appetizers before. However everyone was very hesitant to tell me anything in great detail for one big reason -- My Blog.

I can't tell you how many comments I got from people saying "be careful what you tell him, it might end up in the blog" or "that's the blog guy, don't tell him that." They were all joking of course, but Novak swears that everyone was on their best behavior because of me being there.

For almost a month now I have heard nothing but how many gifts I got for Hanukkah. Well multiply whatever I got by five and that is what Christmas is like. I have never seen anything like it. Maybe because they are all opened at one time, but I swear I spent a whole day watching Zack open gifts.

My job for the weekend was to be Zack's personal gift holder and this was a true workout. I can tell you anyone who celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas; they are just one of the luckiest people in the world.

That's all for now and I promise to answer questions next time, I just got behind. See you all Tuesday as I hear it is close to a sell out.

Keep sending your questions to askjbart20@gmail.com.

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