STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
By Diamond Dallas Page

Yo Cutters…

What's up?

First of all, sorry that I haven’t been around for the last month, but my schedule has been ludicrous. By the way, in this email I’ll be name-dropping like an S.O.B. I’ll start with what happened this weekend and work my way back.

Our friends, the Schneiders (John... you know, Superman’s dad and his beautiful wife Elly), went to Santa Barbara for a day about two weeks ago. On the way home, they asked us if we wanted to go bowling with Joe Pesci. Kim said, “Are you kidding? Of course. How does that happen?” John told us he was at a celebrity auction and he bought a bowling afternoon with the Home Alone duo of Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. I’m a huge Pesci fan. We both actually dated the same girl years apart back in the day. She was much older than me (she's love that comment), anyway she was smokin’ hot. I was very curious if he would remember her. After a ten-egg breakfast with my bros F.J. and David at Hugo's, I was heading to the gym to (believe it or not) train Rob Zombie. I’ve got Rob into natural juicing, yoga, and the slow burn method of training as taught to me by Marc Mero, a.k.a Johnny B. Badd who, by the way, looks absolutely fabulous since he got a divorce. It obviously the best thing to ever happen to him and now he’s got hot a 21-year-old girlfriend to boot…Good Gawd!

As I’m sitting at the stoplight on my way to Gold’s Gym to meet Rob when I hear a beep of a horn. I look over to see a guy in sunglasses, smoking a cigarette and extending his hand to shake mine as he says, “Hey, DDP…big fan.” As I take a closer look, I realize it’s McCauley Caulkin. This is totally surreal. I mean I'm going bowling with the Home Alone guys the next day. I shake his hand and tell him I’m a big fan of his too. As we hit the next light, we wind up in the same spot. I'VE GOT TO TELL HIM. I yell over hey bro (I couldn't remember the proper way to say his name ... but bro always works) I gotta tell him a story about Joe Pesci…and he says he’s not sure he wants to hear it. I tell him how John bid on the bowling afternoon and he started laughing out loud. The next day at the bowling alley, which had the best sandwiches I’ve ever had... yeah a bowling alley. Daniel Stern was a total class act – what a guy. I’ve told you before that John Scheider is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. When a guy achieves a level of fame that these two have and still remain a genuine ... that always makes an impression on me. Daniel was just as nice and accommodating and John or I would be. They both get treat people the way you want to be treated. About an hour goes by and there’s no sign of Joe Pesci…and then the mob boss showed up. He got a flat tire on the way and to prove it he had the receipt showing he had to pay over $300 to get a new tire. He was exactly how I thought he would be. In the beginning he was a little quite but after awhile he loosened up and he was funny, cool, entertaining, a little over the top at times. To watch him and Stern together was like being in the movie. There was barely anybody in the alley, so nobody really bothered us and we got to just hang out. John and Elly took some classic pictures, which will be on the site as soon as I get them. I want to thank John and Elly for involving us in that with their two ... make that three beautiful children.

By the way, Pesci did remember the girl we both dated and we shared some fun stories.

The week before I flew through Atlanta to see my protégé and my mentor’s son Cody Runnels (son of Dusty Rhodes) win the 189-pound state wrestling finals for the second year in a row. What’s really great about this story is that last year Cody was 48-0. This year, he lost a match. I explained to Cody that this was a good thing. Nobody always wins. It’s not how many times you go down, it’s how many times you get back up again. Losing can really help build character and this kid has a boatload. What was really sweet about this state championship victory was that he got to face the one kid that beat him this year. Cody ate him alive. Only the family members get to sit at ringside, so to speak, and there are only five chairs but there must have been twenty family members there. Cody insisted that I be at ringside with his brother Dustin, his father, his mother, and his grandmother. It was a great match and I’m very proud of him. Look for big things from him in the future.

I brought my girl, Brittany, down with me who most of you have heard me talk about here. She’s like a daughter to me along with her sister Kimie
(named after my own Kimberly). I wanted her to see what was possible with the right amount of hard work, sticktuitiveness and the tenacity and not taking “no” for an answer.

From there, I was off to Baltimore to talk to the Jemicy School. The Jemicy is a school dedicated to dyslexics. I spoke to the H. S. classes in the morning and in afternoon, I spoke from kindergarten to eighth graders. My favorite student there is Kendall Baklor whose mom and dad Di and Kent just happen to be the publishers and partners on my book, Positively Page. When we wrote the book and talked about my dyslexia, they had no idea that Kendall would end up having the same thing. Kendall hated school, until heading to the Jemicy program. I never saw a happier group of kids, who love school more than at that school. They truly make learning fun. Ben Shifrian does a heck of a job. There are some pictures on the site of me talking to the K through 8 classes along with Kendall and her sister Callie. Callie isn't dyslexic, but she came down to the school to see me and support her sister.

You’ll notice that a lot of the kids are dressed up as wrestlers or what they think look like wrestlers. That’s because they all got dressed as wrestlers since DDP was coming to speak. This was a first. There was even a kid dressed as a cow. I guess he was the Fabulous MOO-lah. Or maybe Stone Cow Steve Austin. The pictures are at the end of what I am calling my inspirational conversation, where I am holding the World Championship title. When I bring out the World Championship title I'm just trying to show the kids that all things are possible if you live life at 90%. I could go on and on but I have already written way more than most of you have read.

In closing, we’ve got the pictures up on the site of the Jimmy Kimmel Show with Hulk, Nash and I are hanging with our friend Minzer and Hulk’s son Slick Nick. We also have some new pictures sprinkled throughout the site in the Celeb area, and others. Watch for the Schneiders, Pesci and Stern photos to follow with the next installment of the email.

Be Unstoppable, and live life at 90%

Diamond Dallas Page