Jessica, Secrets, Death and Poker Poker!
Can't believe tomorrow is Friday. This week flew by. Jessica, an old friend and recent blogger, came into town from Alaska for the week, and prefaced her trip with, "I have a secret to tell you." Well shit. That could be damn near just about anything now, couldn't it? I took a few stabs at the secret. Was she pregnant? Engaged?... Single? Someone gave her Facebook a congratulatory "6 months!" comment, so I was pretty confident with my pregnancy call. We had made plenty of long-distance drink bets, but she's capable of pulling off a bluff like that.
Well, the secret was definitely not quite what I expected, and I'll leave it at that. We had a great time and talked for hours on Friday night at the little German pub Tessa has blogged about a few times. Jessica was staying at her sister's house, which ended up being literally two blocks from the church I play basketball at on Tuesdays and Thursdays--in a part of town I'd never been before two weeks ago. Her sister's house also is only five blocks from the German pub, with LITERS of beer. We each got a liter stein, drank, and talked while we watched the incredibly age-diverse crowd stroll in.
After our liters, we each grabbed a Guinness and hopped in the hot tub. We never really hung out much at UPS, but we played IM sports together all the time, and had fallen out of contact for a good three years. Facebook rocks, (go die in a garbage bin, Astin) and we never would have found each other if not for that glorious internet monstrosity. I took her back to her sister's, but we made plans for breakfast the next morning.
We headed up to Sunflower for a scrumptious breakfast, so scrumptious, we had to put off our basketball plans for a few hours. I wasn't really sure what to do on a lightly raining Spring Seattle Saturday, then the Henry Art Gallery popped into my head. She is an Art major, and it was a really cool experience to go to an art gallery with someone who knows her stuff. We'd be looking at paintings and photographs, and she would point out all sorts of things about the images I would have never seen.
We actually got to the art gallery before it opened, and had 15 minutes to kill. When my Dad and I shot photos of the cherry blossoms a few weeks back, he really wanted to show me the amazing reading room in the UW library, but it was Sunday and the library was closed. I took Jessica to the library and we were both wide-eyed at the room. HUGE room, maybe 300 feet long with dozens of long tables stretched from side to side like canoe seats. The ceiling is another 60-100ft high, and light comes into the room through very brilliant stained glass windows lining the East wall. It is really a sight to behold, especially with the hundred or so students scattered throughout the room, studying away. Jessica and I roamed around the room with huge smiles. I don't think I could get any work done in the room, I'd just stare up at the ceiling, or at the windows, all day long.
Jessica's trip got a big hiccup when her Uncle passed away early this week, so we didn't get a chance to get that game of basketball in, but there is always this summer when she is in town... right Jessica?
Classes are going--sure makes the day go by fast having no free time! Tuesday night was actually kind of funny. Natalie (carpool buddy) and I drove out to a School board meeting in Lynnwood, which is a requirement for my Weds. class. I offered to drive, because I don't drive in our regular carpool (I'm a bum!). I arrive at her house and as we're walking from her house to my car, her boyfriend shows up. Oh hey! she says. Introduces me, and I move to shake hands, but he just stares at her. Hands her some food, then gets back in his car and drives away.
"Ohhh man... that wasn't good timing," she says.
Um... what?
"We haven't talked for two weeks."
Um... what? gulp. We laugh about it, but the boyfriend doesn't return any phone calls or texts. I startle when I drop her off at night and a car starts up across the street from me and blasts its lights at me. I hope she doesn't get beaten.
The next night, I'm walking out from work and get a call on my cell from an unknown number.
"Hey, this is Chris."
"Hey Chris... this is Natalie."
Um...
"What's Up?"
"I... don't think I'm going to make it for the carpool tonight. I cut my finger with a paring knife just now, and I think I need to get it stitched up."
I hear: "I've got two black eyes and my boyfriend has your license plate number."
Luckily, she shows up to class 30 minutes late, with a huge bandage on one of her fingers.
Besides death-by-Natalie's-boyfriend, I almost died thinking it was a good idea to check the alignment on my motorcycle by going no hands along 65th on my way to work Wednesday morning. The bike started having a seizure on me, with the front tire wobbling side-to-side like crazy. I grabbed the handlebars real quick and somehow didn't fly off the bike. Lesson learned! On the way to class tonight, some idiot driver in front of me decided to merge into a lane with another car in it. The cars actually touched before both cars veered to the opposite sides and slammed on the brakes. Not far from death there on a motorcycle.
I'm giving serious consideration to abandoning the motorcycle come late August/September... but we'll see. I've got the beginning riding out of the way, and if I ever marry into money, I can get the next step up--a bike that doesn't wobble as much when I ride with no hands!
Finally, Thursday night rolls around. Class gets out at 8pm and I get to REST.
The Good Doctor had a post about the sinful small-stakes Omaha Eight-or-Better game we all love, and I've been craving some since Monday. I sat down and had fun...
1) J45T no hearts. Limped family pot. Flop is AJ3 all hearts.
I call a bet hoping for a deuce. Turn 2. Woot! Blank river and the flush takes the high, I take the low, and a sucker mucks his flopped set.
2) Unraised pot. Make a pair of Aces on the river with a paired board and flush, folds around.
3) Raise pre w/ J2A7, win the pot on the JTT flop.
4) HUGE pot, QQ34 raise UTG, capped 4 ways. 8KQ rainbow flop, 3-bet 4 ways. J turn. Deuce River and I scoooop.
5) very next hand: J5A9 in BB. Flop 9K5 w/2 diamonds to my A-hi diamond flush. SB raises, I re-raise, folds to him and he calls. Turn 5, boat up. Check Raise Call. River case 5. He checks, I raise, he Re-raises (mwah ha ha), I re-raise, he calls and mucks his QQ w/flushdraw (behind the whole way I think?)
6) Try and steal with A57T on a Q46JA board, end up taking 3/4 the pot
And I got the fuck out of Dodge, up 3 buy-ins at limit O-8! There's a first time for everything!
I forsee ultimate frisbee and a whole lot of reading in my future!
Well, the secret was definitely not quite what I expected, and I'll leave it at that. We had a great time and talked for hours on Friday night at the little German pub Tessa has blogged about a few times. Jessica was staying at her sister's house, which ended up being literally two blocks from the church I play basketball at on Tuesdays and Thursdays--in a part of town I'd never been before two weeks ago. Her sister's house also is only five blocks from the German pub, with LITERS of beer. We each got a liter stein, drank, and talked while we watched the incredibly age-diverse crowd stroll in.
After our liters, we each grabbed a Guinness and hopped in the hot tub. We never really hung out much at UPS, but we played IM sports together all the time, and had fallen out of contact for a good three years. Facebook rocks, (go die in a garbage bin, Astin) and we never would have found each other if not for that glorious internet monstrosity. I took her back to her sister's, but we made plans for breakfast the next morning.
We headed up to Sunflower for a scrumptious breakfast, so scrumptious, we had to put off our basketball plans for a few hours. I wasn't really sure what to do on a lightly raining Spring Seattle Saturday, then the Henry Art Gallery popped into my head. She is an Art major, and it was a really cool experience to go to an art gallery with someone who knows her stuff. We'd be looking at paintings and photographs, and she would point out all sorts of things about the images I would have never seen.
We actually got to the art gallery before it opened, and had 15 minutes to kill. When my Dad and I shot photos of the cherry blossoms a few weeks back, he really wanted to show me the amazing reading room in the UW library, but it was Sunday and the library was closed. I took Jessica to the library and we were both wide-eyed at the room. HUGE room, maybe 300 feet long with dozens of long tables stretched from side to side like canoe seats. The ceiling is another 60-100ft high, and light comes into the room through very brilliant stained glass windows lining the East wall. It is really a sight to behold, especially with the hundred or so students scattered throughout the room, studying away. Jessica and I roamed around the room with huge smiles. I don't think I could get any work done in the room, I'd just stare up at the ceiling, or at the windows, all day long.
Jessica's trip got a big hiccup when her Uncle passed away early this week, so we didn't get a chance to get that game of basketball in, but there is always this summer when she is in town... right Jessica?
Classes are going--sure makes the day go by fast having no free time! Tuesday night was actually kind of funny. Natalie (carpool buddy) and I drove out to a School board meeting in Lynnwood, which is a requirement for my Weds. class. I offered to drive, because I don't drive in our regular carpool (I'm a bum!). I arrive at her house and as we're walking from her house to my car, her boyfriend shows up. Oh hey! she says. Introduces me, and I move to shake hands, but he just stares at her. Hands her some food, then gets back in his car and drives away.
"Ohhh man... that wasn't good timing," she says.
Um... what?
"We haven't talked for two weeks."
Um... what? gulp. We laugh about it, but the boyfriend doesn't return any phone calls or texts. I startle when I drop her off at night and a car starts up across the street from me and blasts its lights at me. I hope she doesn't get beaten.
The next night, I'm walking out from work and get a call on my cell from an unknown number.
"Hey, this is Chris."
"Hey Chris... this is Natalie."
Um...
"What's Up?"
"I... don't think I'm going to make it for the carpool tonight. I cut my finger with a paring knife just now, and I think I need to get it stitched up."
I hear: "I've got two black eyes and my boyfriend has your license plate number."
Luckily, she shows up to class 30 minutes late, with a huge bandage on one of her fingers.
Besides death-by-Natalie's-boyfriend, I almost died thinking it was a good idea to check the alignment on my motorcycle by going no hands along 65th on my way to work Wednesday morning. The bike started having a seizure on me, with the front tire wobbling side-to-side like crazy. I grabbed the handlebars real quick and somehow didn't fly off the bike. Lesson learned! On the way to class tonight, some idiot driver in front of me decided to merge into a lane with another car in it. The cars actually touched before both cars veered to the opposite sides and slammed on the brakes. Not far from death there on a motorcycle.
I'm giving serious consideration to abandoning the motorcycle come late August/September... but we'll see. I've got the beginning riding out of the way, and if I ever marry into money, I can get the next step up--a bike that doesn't wobble as much when I ride with no hands!
Finally, Thursday night rolls around. Class gets out at 8pm and I get to REST.
The Good Doctor had a post about the sinful small-stakes Omaha Eight-or-Better game we all love, and I've been craving some since Monday. I sat down and had fun...
1) J45T no hearts. Limped family pot. Flop is AJ3 all hearts.
I call a bet hoping for a deuce. Turn 2. Woot! Blank river and the flush takes the high, I take the low, and a sucker mucks his flopped set.
2) Unraised pot. Make a pair of Aces on the river with a paired board and flush, folds around.
3) Raise pre w/ J2A7, win the pot on the JTT flop.
4) HUGE pot, QQ34 raise UTG, capped 4 ways. 8KQ rainbow flop, 3-bet 4 ways. J turn. Deuce River and I scoooop.
5) very next hand: J5A9 in BB. Flop 9K5 w/2 diamonds to my A-hi diamond flush. SB raises, I re-raise, folds to him and he calls. Turn 5, boat up. Check Raise Call. River case 5. He checks, I raise, he Re-raises (mwah ha ha), I re-raise, he calls and mucks his QQ w/flushdraw (behind the whole way I think?)
6) Try and steal with A57T on a Q46JA board, end up taking 3/4 the pot
And I got the fuck out of Dodge, up 3 buy-ins at limit O-8! There's a first time for everything!
I forsee ultimate frisbee and a whole lot of reading in my future!
posted by MHG at
4/24/2008 10:03:00 PM
3 Comments:
WTF MHG!? You make mention of a secret that had you anxious in suspense for awhile, then you state that discovering the secret was not what you expected... and you "leave it at that"??!! Why would you bother mentioning the fact that a secret even existed if you were just gonna "leave it at that".?! Geez. I don't even know Jessica from Eve, and I'm still letting my curiosity bother me. Your prose had me sharing in your anxiousness, and now I don't get the secret revealed.?!
Be aware that this post has lead me to speculate wild facts about your friend Jessica! In lieu of receiving the actual secret revealed I'm jumping to random conclusions, including but not limited to: -her contracting the bird flu after an unfortunate recent meal at the local KFC... -her taking a photograph of a mysterious high level international criminal, resulting in a contract being placed on her head, and entering a witness protection program that's required her to change identities and move far far away. -her having started a recent affair with a popular politician which has lead to receipt of death threats from said politician's significant other. -Recent mysterious bug bite has lead to discovery of random super powers. ...
One of these was right on, huh? I knew it! (Okay, so I'm incredibly bored at work this Friday afternoon, forgive my banter.)
Hope you're doin' well...
Take care,
~Cayne
I'm bored, too. Home game?
-DrC
A garbage bin? Really? Seems rather declassée of you. Would I have to then joing the "garbage bin" network on Facebook or something? Is that where you are? You just want to poke me, don't you.
Jessica's a terrorist, admit it. She just finished 6 months of Alaskan terrorist training and is going to use Facebook to blow up stuff. She recruited you to feed them college-level meals during their campaign of terror.
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