This March Madness is starting to get a little crazy. Almost done with the first weekend and the set Sweet 16, and the overall leaders on Yahoo have missed 5 or 6 picks out of 46. That's out of 5 million-plus brackets!
Everyone in my pool has Kansas going to the final game except two. BAM had Pitt winning (sorry BAM!) and Josh has BYU losing to Ohio State. Kansas is in a somewhat tight game with Illinois right now. Most of the games have come down to the wire, and I've been glued to my second monitor setup.
Was talking with an ultimate frisbee teammate of mine who tries to write 1500 words every day. I may start with a much more attainable goal of 300 words every day, just to get the volume and routine down.
Teaching is somewhat of a blur right now. I'm onto the tail end of my 1st full year teaching my own classroom, and I had my first teacher-in-service day with no students, and I decided not to go to any of the professional development meetings downtown. It was freaking amazing. The school was void of kids, and each teacher was grinning--actually able to get work done and cut through the piles of homework and things put on the back-burner.
When I get to school the first thing I do is check my work email, and then make sure I have everything in order for the day. Most times everything is planned out the night before, but not always. Once I've got the planning shored up, I move on to grading and inputting grades, which tends to become a larger and larger stack of papers as the week goes on.
Looking forward to writing more, but not making any promises! Super busy during the week, and the next few weekends will be spent outside of Seattle.
The 20th annual Spokane Hoopfest was a pretty amazing experience. The streets of downtown Spokane were completely filled with basketball hoops. Around 7,000 teams participate and 200,000 people come to watch. I joined a team led by Wynne, who is a friend of mine from college and she would always organize our intramural basketball and volleyball teams.
We drove down from Metaline Falls at 5:45am on Saturday morning and made it to Spokane with plenty of time for our 9:00am game. Parking could have been a nightmare, but we found a shady spot under the freeway for only a few bucks. We ended up losing both of our games on Saturday, putting us in the consolation bracket Sunday. Both games were close, and we could have won both, but we weren't too shook up about losing. There are two ways to win t-shirts at hoopfest: you can win the entire division, or you can win the jester shirt by winning the consolation bracket. Also, if you win your first game and lose the next two, you don't even get to play on Sunday. For the rest of Saturday, I walked around downtown Spokane taking photos of hoopfest, watched basketball, or polished off a jumbo cherry snow cone... I'm talking soccer-ball sized snow cone.
I wasn't really sure what to expect at a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, but watching the other teams play, it seemed like there were a lot of terrible basketball players in our division. Then we played our first game and completely bombed. Air balls, dribbling out of bounds, you name it. There were a few factors I hadn't considered before stepping on the court. First, the street falls off on each side, so a 3-pointer from the corner is shooting at an 11ft basket. In the middle of the street there are noticeable ridges in the street due to cars with studded tires in the winter, so if the basketball hits one of those ridges wrong, it won't be where you expect it to be while dribbling. The wind really affected shots, too, and your shot might be on line when you release it, but the wind knocks it off course on the way.
The style of basketball was interesting to me, and the winning teams were really good at posting up. Our team noticed this after our first game and tried to bring it into the post more in our second game Saturday, but the three of us suck at posting up, so we were out of our comfort zone. Being tall and skinny is usually pretty nice for basketball, at least 5 on 5 basketball, because I can run up and down the court like a gazelle and shoot over people from the outside. In 3 on 3 basketball, there is not much running, and shorter more muscular people could man-handle me on the block and I couldn't shoot outside due to the court and the wind. I felt pretty useless on Saturday.
In between our first and second games on Saturday, Wynne and her family surprised me with a chocolate birthday cake. It was my golden birthday, as I turned 27 on the 27th of June. Hoopfest was a great place to be on my birthday, and I was soaking it all in. Chocolate cake in 85 degree weather before a basketball game might not have been the best idea, but the thought of bringing a cake for me was really nice.
On Sunday, we were down 7 to 12 in our elimination game when things finally started clicking. I luckily banked in a two-pointer (3 pointer, playing by ones and twos), then Wynne and her brother made a couple of nice post moves while we locked it down on defense. We tied the game at 17 with under a minute to play. The other team missed their shot and it got passed around to me with only a few seconds left to play. I had an open shot and tried to bank it in from the elbow and missed. The game went to overtime and first team to 19 wins. Both teams have a possession and miss, then I come off a screen from Wynne and drill a 2-pointer from the top of the arc for the overtime win. It was pretty sweet to finally feel like I helped out the team!
Our last game of the tournament was the consolation championship game, which pitted us against another team with short, strong guys that I wasn't looking forward to. I guess our team figured out how to play together, because our defense was water-tight and we were gelling on offense. I finally started hitting my 2's, and Wynne and her brother were dominating the boards. We won 20-9 and got 13th place t-shirts! The only bad part about the weekend was retrieving our 13th place shirts along with hundreds of other teams at exactly the same time!
I've been slacking. Big time. The majority of my summer break has been spent playing Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, World of Warcraft, and Team Fortress 2. I've spent a lot of time checking up on blogs and wasting plenty of time on Facebook.
But right now, I'm spent. I spent the last 2.5 hours running around at Greenlake playing Goaltimate. Goaltie, for short, is a sort of newage ultimate game with a big goal in the middle of the field, and is played kind of like half court basketball. There is a lot of running and cutting involved. Add to the mix that some of the best ultimate players in the world (both men and women from USA World's team), makes for one tired MHG.
Last night, I got in two hours of basketball with a friend from the teaching program. The church he goes to opens up their gym from 9pm-11pm Tuesdays and Thursdays. We had five on five going for the full two hours. I can't tell if I'm more tired from the basketball last night or the goaltie tonight, buy my dogs are barking.
Today may be the last in a string of 28 days in Seattle with no measurable rain. I am sitting out on the back porch with our two cats keeping me safe. Watson is on the flimsy back railing, and Ichi is sitting guard at the top of the steps. Also, my water bottle filled with Gatorade is keeping the flies away, apparently, because each time I go to drink some, I am greeted with a few new drowning victims.
Note to self: I still strive to write. Do I write on a new blog, or this one? Daily writing? 1000 words. go.
I'm not sure why I hadn't really felt it since moving back to Seattle last August. The last eight months I've mostly spent my time re-acclimating myself to my home town. Everything is different through older eyes. Everything seems smaller than it once was, which is depressing in a way.
Riding the 1200 miles up from Tahoe on my motorcycle, behind Dad in the Explorer, I had lots of time to think about my future. I knew living with my parents was going to be bittersweet. I love my parents, and love living with them, but I'm also ashamed to say I'm 25 years old and living with my parents. Somewhere in the middle of Oregon, I remember tackling the pros and cons of living with my parents, and I had this great vision of walking down to a local pub with my parents for dinner. We would buy a pitcher or two of beer, play some pool, and have a fun and relaxing evening together.
Last night, we did just that. The three of us played a game of shuffleboard (shuffle-puck?) and on the first throw of the evening, with no warm-up, my Mom rolled the puck down the sandy counter and it stopped perfectly along the back edge of the counter for a 4-pointer. We didn't roll another 4 all night (although I think I did manage to knock her 4 off the board). Dad and I got a game of pool in after dinner, and he was confident that I would sink the 8-ball out of turn. This is usually a good bet to make, but somehow I managed to sink it AFTER hitting all of the solids in--there's a first time for everything!
Today was another one of those perfect Spring days in Seattle, where everyone and their mothers go outside to catch some rays. Greenlake was popping again this Saturday, and I got in a good three hours of ultimate. John from my teaching program was out at the field with his pregnant wife and her sister who is a beast at ultimate. The four of us headed to Baskin Robbins after ultimate, and I got a triple-scoop Chocolate Mouse Royale. Dear God it was good. I hadn't had Baskin Robbins for years, and I was ecstatic to find my favorite flavor still intact. I actually feel like I am throwing my money away if I buy any other flavor of ice cream at Baskin Robbins, because Chocolate Mouse Royale is THAT good. Dark, rich chocolate, filled with little shavings of hard dark chocolate--come on! How am I not gonna eat that?
Speaking of pregnant wives, when I got back to my cell phone after ultimate, I received a picture message of Marc's baby, Claire. I love that name, and he is the first of my friends to have a kid, so he got to snatch the name before any of us... bitch. Congrats, Marc and Sarah :)
I got a few games of Magic in with Tyler, then the two of us headed to Marshall to hoop it up. Tyler hasn't shot a basketball in six months, but he still won the first game of 21. He retired on top while I hopped into a game of 2v2. My teammate was the other guy playing 21 with us, and seemed to be pretty decent... until we started playing 2v2, doh. We started off ice cold and he threw up a number of air balls. I think the other team scored 5 points before we sunk our first bucket. We were down 5-10 and 6-11, then I caught fire. I remember thinking "alright, time to get hot." 8-11. 10-11. 12-11. It feels so good to play bball when your shot is falling, and it was raining 3's at Marshall this afternoon. We finished them off when I faked a 3 and drove baseline to lefty in a rare layup (I don't make layups... ever).
Life is good.
Seattle is still different in my mind than the daily view I take in, but days like this connect the past to the present. I remember the sunny spring days down in Tacoma (close enough), where ultimate frisbee out on Todd Field played out from about 3pm to 8pm. The players would come and go, and the girls bathing in the sun would do the same. In Seattle, I remember plenty of sunny afternoons in Springs long ago, playing basketball and baseball games until dark.
Spring might just be taking over as my favorite season. I've always said Summer, but with Spring you've got these rare, amazing days that are my favorite. You've also got the anticipation of Summer. With Summer, you've usually always got nice days, but you look forward to a wet Fall, Winter and Spring.
Today is almost over, and I'd rate it 5/5 on spirit, 5/5 on body, and 2/5 on mind. Time to go read!
**Ichi strolled in this morning, he must have been locked away in a garage or basement somewhere--glad he's OK and thanks for the well-wishes**
The madness is in full effect. I'm starting to come down with a *cough* cold. And I'm pretty sure I won't make it to work tomorrow *cough* damn.
Work days like today aren't actually half-bad. Boss-lady wasn't in, because of cold, so I kept my yahoo bracket refreshed every minute or so during the games.
I picked way too many upsets. I reasoned that since I had a fairly conservative elite eight and final four, I should go nuts on the first two rounds with upsets--because I don't have either team going very far. There is always a 12 seed that upsets a 5 seed, but I didn't need to pick three of the 12 seeds to advance. Maybe that was a bit much.
I picked the #11 KSU over #6 USC upset, which is the only game D-Tran missed in the first 16 games. It was a no-brainer for me, I mean Beasley > Mayo, and the teams are fairly similar. Also, the game was played in Nebraska, which isn't exactly a neutral court. USC reminds me a lot of last year's Golden State Warriors: at home, they are scary and can shoot the lights out--and no one can stop them if they are clicking--but on the road, when they don't shoot well, they can get beaten by anyone. Match that up against a very hungry Beasley and KSU squad, and you've got yourself an upset.
My only sweet 16 team gone is George Mason--and I only picked them because I'll be down in Portland with a bunch of Washington State grads--so I had to pick George Mason for the major upset to root against all of them on Saturday. I'll be rooting for Notre Dame now!
I'm the only one in our bracket to pick Tennessee to win it--go Vols!
Well, good and bad news. The GREAT news, is that I got accepted into the UW-Bothell Teaching Program, which starts at the end of March. I didn't have too much doubt whether I'd be accepted or not, but I'm glad I don't have to worry about it anymore. This is what I want to do, and I can't wait to start classes in a month!
The bad news: I'll have classes Monday and Wednesday nights (like I do now). That is bad news, because BB3 is coming up, and I would LOVE to play all of the events and go represent the Seattle bloggers in the WSOP. But, as this is my year of work, unlike last year's year of fun, I'm going to focus on work and school. I'll just have to railthe new MOOKIE champion, and hope he goes nuts over the next few months, and wins a seat! I'll still probably try and take a whack at the skills game or riverchasers every so often, but it will just be a for a shot in the finale--not to gather points to hop up the leader board.
I hadn't done anything stupid in the last few days... so I tried cooking tonight. Granted, the clam chowder came out of an aluminum can, but it DID involve turning on the stove. And when I turn on the stove, things either go terribly wrong, or something starts smoking. One might think it hard to mess up cooking a can of clam chowder from Trader Joe's. There are two steps: open can and plop material into pan; add a can-full of milk. Heat it up and eat it!
That's good cookin'! But...
Always the but...
What if you don't HAVE any milk?
I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I've watched an episode or two of Macgyver. When you're stranded on a desert island, you man up! You crack off a shoelace, blow a half-bubble with your bubble gum, then use the gum wrapper and materialize a paper-clip from nowhere to make a fucking helicopter and fly yourself to safety... do you not?!
There I was, glop of clam chowder in a pan, no milk. Just like Macgyver.
Well, milk is sort of watery, and water is sort of watery--so why not just use water? I suppose there is a slight chance the consistency of milk and water might not be the same. Awfuckit! What is the worst that could happen? Whatever that is, I'd have a reason to blog today--all systems go!
It actually turned out alright! No smoke alarm party in the kitchen, either--I was shocked. Hell, I'm still shocked.
What other stupid things did I do today? I played basketball with the North Seattle Community College team in a pickup game at the gym. These guys have been playing for the last four months. I'm a skinny, white kid with hair out past my ears. That was pretty stupid. Fun, though! I didn't score in either game I played, but my team won the second game, so it wasn't a total demoralizing afternoon of basketball for me.
And... I'm going to the symphony tomorrow night? That'll be interesting?
Woke up around 10:30am after playing Starcraft a bit too much the night before. I got in a round of FIFA, which was my previous post. DTran was originally planning on arriving in Tahoe around noon and playing basketball with me at Kahle for a few hours, then heading down to the casinos to play poker. He ended up getting a late start out of the Bay, so he didn't show up until almost 4pm.
I decided to go hit Kahle anyway, and I luckily found a spot with two wily veterans: half-court shooting Dave, and his partner in crime, Mike. Our fourth teammate was a scrappy young guy who owned the boards. We were potent. Dave, Mike and I were on fire from 3-point range--and when you have 3 players making over 50% of their 3-pointers, and an awesome rebounder, we pretty much hit a 3-pointer every time down the court. We won six games in a row before finally falling to another pretty stacked team of youngsters. For not playing basketball the last month, I was glad to find my shot still intact.
Basketball ended around 3pm, so I went home to shower, then headed down to Harvey's to meet up with DTran. They hit some bad traffic, apparently a burning car on the roadway (which is super-dangerous in the forest-fire prone Tahoe National Forest). I got to the casino before them, and still wasn't sure which game I wanted to play. I'd been debating between $2/$3 No Limit, and $3/$6 Limit. I have only played in the $2/$3 NL game once since moving to Tahoe, and I lost $200 in about 15 minutes, before eventually winning it all back over the next hour or two. For the most part, NL is a lot more fun and challenging to play--but I finally decided that if I played the $2/$3 NL game, I'd be playing with "scared money," which is no way to play no limit.
I got seated right away at $3/$6 Limit, and after watching a few hands, I was very glad with my decision to play Limit instead of No Limit. The table was a very friendly table, and the entire first orbit at the table, I don't think I saw a single pre-flop raise. Good table to be at! The table banter was also extremely light-hearted and funny. Players took their bad beats in stride, and poker karma was in full force. If someone took a few beats in a row, he'd get a big pot within the next orbit.
The table dynamic was almost perfect, and I'm glad I am finally able to recognize when I'm at a good table or when I should get up and find another. The table had four or five old, retired guys who played very tight. One old Asian guy who was willing to mix it up, but for the most part played tight. Two late-20's Filipino guys sat down at the table, and for the three hours I was at the table, it was pretty much the two Filipino guys making fun of the old guys (or each other), then the old guys firing right back at the young guys. I was in the middle of it all, jawing back and forth at everyone--but all in good humor, and there were lots of laughs.
About 30 minutes into the session, DTran arrived and he brought two friends, Jeremy and Hy-son (like Tyson with an H). The three of them all work at Google on the Gmail team. Jeremy is on a six-month work visa slash internship with Google, and he is originally from Paris, France. Hy-son is from Vietnam, and I didn't quite catch if he is on an internship, or if he is working permanent at Google. Needless to say, they had money to gamble with! I don't think I've ever really met any French people before, but Jeremy was pretty cool. Nice guy, funny, and had a a funny french accent to go with his humor. I resisted doing the annoying French laugh in front of him (hau hau hau), but it was difficult... very difficult.
The three of them took a while to get seated, and while they were waiting, I get really my only memorable hand from the evening:
Get dealt KcQd in the BB. Five limpers to me, and I check my option.
Flop comes AdJdTd. Flop the straight, and have a draw to the 2nd highest flush.
SB checks, I lead out for $3, and one of the two Filipino's directly behind me raises to $6. Rut Roh, he either probably has the Kd, or a made flush, or possibly a set is what I'm thinking. I don't really see him raising here with anything less. I'm not really sure what the two guys were thinking who cold-called the $6 bet to my right, but I decided to call as well, with all the money in the pot--and hoping for another diamond.
Turn comes 6h. SB and I check to the re-raiser, who bets out $6. One caller, SB folds, and I call, hoping for that last diamond. As the dealer burns the final card before the river, I think to myself:
"Diamond, Diamond, Diamond... man, I sure hope that guy doesn't have the Kd if another diamond hits... how cool would it be if the river is the Kd??? Royal Flush!"
Then...
BAM!!! King of Diamonds!!!
I lead out for $6, guy behind me re-raises. 3rd guy reluctantly folds, and I let off the other guy easy by just calling (I didn't want to be THAT much of a dick). I show the Qd and rake in a pretty big pot. Everyone starts hooting and hollering, and I got a jackpot worth $529 for hitting the Royal flush! Tipped the dealer nicely, and thought about swimming in the sea of red chips in front of me :)
7/7/07 the luckiest day ever? Royal flush jackpot says yes! That is the first Royal I've ever had, and after it happened, all I could think is how glad it didn't happen at the penny/two-penny tables on Pokerstars, where all I'd win is the $2 pot, and have no jackpot :)
I made a conscious effort to not loosen up with the $600 in front of me at a $3/$6 table, and I folded like a madman! I had a blast at the table chatting it up with all the old guys, who had plenty of stories to tell, and couldn't wait for someone to listen. I downed 4 Sierra Nevadas, and just had an all-around blast.
I checked in on DTran and friends periodically, and tried to make a "whoever makes the most money wins" bet with DTran, but he saw my Royal flush already. Damn! David was doing pretty well, and had a healthy $150 or so in front of him after buying in for $100.
Jeremy, on the other hand, wasn't doing so hot. His big hands weren't holding up, and he'd only win the blinds with Aces. His table eventually broke, and he ended up sitting directly to my left for about 20 minutes before he busted out and opted not to rebuy with his shitty luck. His bustout hand happened when he only had $5 left, and found As3s. He ended up flopping the nut flush, but an opponent found quads on the turn. Unlucky, but also very lucky that he didn't have anymore money to lose on the hand!
Hy-son apparently flopped a straight-flush on his table, for a $250 jackpot. He got up and left quickly thereafter, happy to win money his first time at a casino.
We finished up playing at about 6:30pm, and were ready for some dinner. David was last to get up from his table, so we bet on how much he won. I didn't get a very good look at his stack, but Jeremy said $40, and I went with $30. Hy-son picked $35. We all put a dollar on it, and Jeremy finally won something, when DTran came back and announced $47.
We headed to Sam's Place, and I chowed down a monster Calzone, and washed it down with a very large Hefeweizen. J had a burger, and DTran and Hy-son couldn't finish their monster calzones. Jeremy taunted David and said it was just three more bites. David had probably 1/3rd of his calzone left, and he bet Jeremy $5 that J couldn't eat it in 3 bites. He took three HUGE bites, and just barely made it. It took him a good 5 minutes to finally chew and swallow all of that last bite, and I don't think anyone else at the table could have done it.
Hy-son and I paid for Jeremy's meal, because we won the big jackpots, and he had shit-luck on the night (besides prop-bets!). After Sam's place, we headed to my place, then walked down to the beach. It was just after 8:30pm when we went down to the beach, and it was starting to get dark. That didn't stop us from bringing a disc and a football though, and we ended up playing 2v2 football on the sandy beach.
Me and Jeremy vs. DTran and Hy-son. The teams were made at Sam's place, when Jeremy had finished his burger and we agreed that the next person to finish their meal was on J's team for games tonight. First play from scrimmage, J tosses up a duck, DTran intercepts it and returns it for a Touchdown. Balls!
0-1, playing to 3. Next possession, we miss four passes in a row, and turn the ball over. I make them start from their goal line instead of ours (wily!), and I end up intercepting Hy-son and returning it for the equalizer.
1-1. Next possession, DTran lobs a nice pass to Hy-son for the score.
1-2. Jeremy and I work the ball down the field, and get a nice little slant to me for the score.
2-2. They start with the ball, and I suggest losers buy drinks for the drinking games tonight. David quickly agrees, because they have the ball. By this point, it was almost completely dark, and it was getting hard to see the ball--so I honestly didn't think they'd complete a pass.
Then comes the greatest play of sand-football ever at Zephyr Cove.
David is the QB, and sticks the ball out at the line of scrimmage and shouts, "Blue! 42! Green! 16! Hut...Hut... HIKE!"
And as soon as he says HIKE I snatch the ball from his out-stretched hand and run it in for the score!!!!!! We Win!!!!!
After a bit of rubbing it in, we head to Safeway and get a 12-pack of Sam Adams, 4-pack of Guinness for DTran and I, and a 6-pack of Fat Tire. We didn't really plan on drinking heavily, but I wanted to show them beer pong, and perhaps a drinking game or two.
We ended up playing beer pong with bottled Sam Adams Light. It was much better than our usual Natty-Ice at the house. Jeremy and I rocked the house against DTran and Hy-son. I was on fire, and on our first shot, Jeremy sunk his, and I bounced mine into the middle cup for a quick 3 drinks for DTran and Hyson. We got the balls back to shoot again because we both made em'. J missed his, but I sank mine for a 4-0 lead.
DTran and Hy-son missed their first six or so shots, and I ended up sinking my first 5. At one point in the game, we had them down to two cups, and we had all of ours still. Can you say, "Rout?!" By the end of the game, they ended up only hitting one of our cups, but both Jeremy and I air-balled shots on the single cup, so we had to each drink a cup for the air-ball. So technically, the DTran/Hyson combo had to drink 17 of the 20 cups--but I helped them out by drinking 3 of their 17.
Jeremy and I then lost to Hy-son and Cody, when Hyson caught fire at the end. He first sunk it in the same cup Cody sunk his in, to send us down from four cups to one--then he made his first shot at the solo cup, to ice the game. Losing at beer-pong gets me wasted fairly quickly, so shortly thereafter I hit the hay.
We woke up this morning around 10:30am, and walked down to the Zephyr Cove Resort, where half of the house used to work. I actually don't think anyone still works in the restaurant anymore, but at one point Jen, George and Cody all worked there. Jen's in Shasta now, George moved to work the jetski rentals, and Cody works at Push Fitness. The food was damn good, and David "I'm rich, bitch!" Tran picked up the bill, cause he's like that.
We headed down to the beach, and were just planning on checking out the scenery and tossing the frisbee and football--but we ended up getting hot and all jumped in the lake. It felt great after the burning sand on the feet! We got lots of tossing in, and played fliers up for a while. Can't wait to get back to Seattle and have people to toss with more often.
All in all, great weekend, and 7/7/07 delivered in a big way :)
Not sure what I'm going to do this afternoon, it is a toss-up between frisbee in Truckee, and chilling at the house for the afternoon. Leaning towards frisbee, but I'll give Lis a call and see if her and friends will be playing.
I'm up to 1700 words in my screenplay. I'm happy with the progress so far, but I realize that the big hurdles are yet to come. When I sit down to write, I have two Word documents open, one with the screenplay, and one for brain-storming. It works well, and I keep a rough outline of where I want to go next on the brain-storming side. I haven't done a great job of sticking with the outline, but it seems to work. Also, I haven't done any editing yet. Lately, I've been obsessed with making sure I don't have any glaring grammatical errors--but if I do that on the screenplay, I'll never finish.
With Script Frenzy, you don't have to upload anything, you just put in your word count--which is another reason I haven't worried about any editing yet. It is both good and bad--I wish I was able to sneak a peak at what some of the other writers have written, but I haven't been able to find many already-written screenplays, or even partially-written screen plays for that matter.
A kind of cool idea just popped into my head--it sure would be cool to finish my screenplay out at the Coast. I'll be there on June 30th, and I've always thought the Coast would be a perfect place to write. Who knows, I might save the ending for out there.
Another thing I'm not really sure how to do is share my screenplay. Both share it as I continue to write it, and share the final draft once it is complete. Sharing it before it is finished might not be the smartest idea, but I'd like to put it somewhere online once I'm done.
"The Hermit at Harry's Crossing" is the screenplay I'm working on. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but it might be a cross between "Bridge to Terebethia" and "Home Alone". There isn't much fantasy involved, but there are two kids who like to explore, with an outgoing girl (when she's with Harry), and a conservative guy. Their exploration leads them to find a hermit living out in the forest. A bit like the salt-man in Home Alone, he frightens them off at first. But Mel's curiosity gets the best of her, and as a single-child to a single-parent Dad, she has to find out why someone would choose to live alone out in the forest. The Hermit turns out to both teach Mel and Harry many valuable life-lessons during the summer, and he also learns a lot about himself from his two new friends.
Exactly what he teaches, and what he learns--I'm not quite sure about yet. But I'm leaning towards him ending his hermit-like ways. Also, whatever he ends up teaching Harry and Mel will end up changing them for the better in some way.
So yes, lots of things in the story to still think out--which is fun. I wrote a few hundred words this morning, then took a break to clean up my clothes that I have let slowly envelop my room. I packed up a lot of my winter clothes, that I can hopefully take back to Seattle in June on the plane. I was listening to Pearl Jam's Lost Dogs CD while cleaning--damn, that CD is good!
I still have quite a bit of cleaning to do besides my clothes, but it was around noon, and I was up for some basketball. I zipped over to Kahle on my bike, and was there in time for the second game. My team was awesome again. We could all shoot and played good team-defense. Lots of switching, and lots of communication on defense helped us win six straight games before I had enough winning for one day and came back home. When our shots were on, we just pulverized the other team, and when our shots weren't falling, our defense bailed us out. It was good times, albeit exhausting.
Sunny and 70 degrees at 2pm. Beach time! I sure am in a unique spot to live. I live in a ski town, a gambling town, a mountain town, a lake town, and a beach town all in one. I walked down to the beach with a Bud Light I stole from the fridge (did I mention the open-container law town part? :) ).
Every other time I've been down to the beach, it has been practically empty. The first time, there were still icicles on the boat ropes... but still! Today was a completely different story. The beach was PACKED with people. Lots of scantily clad people. I couldn't help but feel out of place with all the tanned ladies and muscular men. Especially because I was sporting the best farmer's tan since Elmer Fudd. Ten games of ultimate frisbee last weekend really grooved those tan lines in.
I hopped in the water and dunked myself after a bit of hesitation. Spent 15 minutes drying off in the sun, while trying to rid myself of the paleness. Then I got up and decided to walk down the beach a bit to see if I could find Kristara and Jen. The beach was ugly-packed. I ended up walking through the parking lot, because in some spots, the beach was literally standing room only. I definitely prefer the solitary beach--although admittedly, much of the scenery wasn't bad to look at!
I found Kristara and Jen on the other end of the beach, with a bit more space to themselves. It was a good spot, that I'll come back to when I go beaching in the future. They had some friends who work that para-sailing boat, who offered to take them out if there weren't enough paying customers to take out on the last trip of the day. I guess there are some perks to throwing parties every night after all!
These guys can get boat rentals for super-cheap too, at around $50 for a day, which would probably be split between at least ten people. So I'm looking forward to that sometime this summer. We chatted for a bit, then the para-sailing boat came back and Jen went off to see if they'd get their para-sailing chance. My pale torso had enough sun for one afternoon, so I headed back up the hill.
Kristara and Jen showed me a nice little beach-side trail while we were soaking up the rays--and I think I'll go for a little run and bring my camera along to see if I can get a good sunset shot or two. If I get lucky, I'll post a shot or two~
Only got a trace of snow last night. I figured we'd get a few inches, the way it was dumping yesterday, but I'm not complaining. We're supposed to get an inch or two tonight, so hopefully all the patients cancel their appointments at the clinic on Friday! Weeks just breeze by when you're only working part-time. I'm tempted to get another job, but I sort of feel like flexibility at my current job is important (and I have no clue how long Pam will stick around)--and as long as I break-even in Tahoe money-wise, I should be fine for the move back to Seattle. Yet another reason not to get a motorcycle, bah.
Ended up winning the chess game against Tyler late last night, but he put up a much tougher fight than I envisioned. He's got some skills, and I'm probably feeling a bit like my Dad was a decade ago. Tyler's going to beat me eventually, but I'm going to hold on for as long as I can before I let that happen :)
In other chess news, Jordan hasn't made his first move yet. Lots to ponder on that first move, I know, but you can probably make a mistake on this one move, and still come back to beat me, buddy! OK OK, he's got a lot of work going on, but he deserves a bit of ribbing.
Played in a couple more poker blogger tournies last night, including The Mookie and The Dookie! Guess which one I did better in? Right! Love that Green Day album! The Mookie had 74 runners, and I finished 62nd. I was greedy and got burned, not much else to say there! However, I did outlast Jordan by one slot, which we should probably factor into our chess game by him losing a pawn or something fair like that. In The Dookie, I got a little lucky and ended up finishing 3rd out of about... 14? I cashed, which was nice, but it was probably only for $10 or something--I think that win covered my entry fees for the night. Didn't I mention I'm a break-even poker player somewhere?
Basketball was fun today, got out of work a little late--which made me right on time for bball! I ended up playing from just before noon to about 2:30pm. We had a pretty good squad. We were all in our 20's, could run, could shoot and could play defense. It was a nice change from a few of the teams I've been on lately :) I caught fire to start the afternoon, and was 5 of 6 from 3-point range. This got some attention, and I wasn't able to get the open looks for long. The only games we lost were on the 'winner's' court, so we played pretty much non-stop for 2 1/2 hours. I'm pooped!
Survivor tonight. Such a tool, but so addicted I can't help myself. Alex is supposed to be a ninja this episode, refraining from all contact with the tribe. I can't really see this being entertaining television, but maybe the producers will toss him a katana and a black ninja outfit. I'm not holding my breath.
I'm in a creative writing mood, and for some reason James Bond in Siberia popped into my head in the shower. Dare I try to create a James Bond scene out of my imagination?
When I'm driving I usually zone out and begin hopping from thought to thought like a connect-the-dot puzzle. Every so often though, I'll pause my hopping around and wonder how much thought is happening within a one-mile radius, maybe a 10 mile radius. I did this a lot on my drives to and from working at Zeek's pizza on Denny Way in Seattle the summer of my sophomore year at UPS. There were just SO many people driving within a mile of me, I could barely fathom the amount of conscious thought going on so close to me.
So, today I was stopped at a light on my home from work, my thoughts hopping around. I saw a raindrop on my windshield, and it hit me again. I wonder how many people in Tahoe just saw a drop of rain, and completely changed their mood, or even changed their plan for the evening. I was thinking about tossing the frisbee after work with a few people from the pickup ultimate group, but the weather forecast called for "isolated T-storms," and I was in my work shoes. I was leaning towards not playing anyways, but that raindrop sealed it for me.
I smiled. There seems to be an amazing majority of people in California who simply cannot handle rain. I freaking love it. I love Seattle because it fits me so well. It rains a lot--so I can play my games, watch my TV, and lounge my ass without feeling too guilty, "it's raining, I obviously can't go running today." But when it isn't raining in Seattle (which, contrary to popular belief, is quite often), I am extremely motivated to be outside--because I know the rain will eventually come, and I'll get to rest then.
When it rains for days and days, some people get tired of it, not me. I get restless laying in my bed staring out at the rain, wondering how Ichi can possibly be happy lounging around all-day, every day. That's when I say, "Hey, it's only rain," then go running anyways. I think my most memorable runs have been in the rain. The run I remember most vividly was on a rainy night in Tacoma. I had been writing a paper (I forget the subject) for about two hours, and I was bored. My writing was terrible, and I was getting sleepy watching the rain fall outside of my 4th floor window. After realizing I had only written two lines in the last fifteen minutes, I decided to go for a run.
I remember a fairly brisk, rainy October night. I ran past the rotunda and down Alder to the top of the 30th street hill. Instead of going down towards Old Town, I just kept going on Alder--which turned into a very nice, very hilly residential neighborhood. I walked down the hill, just one block of it, and turned around. The hill looked pretty menacing from here. Not long--just one street block, but it probably gained 75-100ft of elevation. I ended up sprinting up that hill six times, walking down in-between sprints with my hands on my head, letting my thoughts go crazy. By the fourth sprint I knew I only had a few more left in me. After the fifth sprint, I knew I only had one more run in me, and I should probably start thinking about my writing assignment. By the end of the sixth sprint, I knew the perfect way to finish the paper.
*getting even more rambly*
What makes people do what they do? VT guy? George Bush? You? Your best friend? Your S/O?
I overheard one of my roommates talking about her "stupid" math professor, and how all of the answers were so obvious. A mirror image of me in the same class years ago, she didn't see why she had to prove how she got the answer--she got the right answer, why did it matter how?
I'm finally understanding that the Why? has EVERYTHING to do with it. I grew up thinking that the "effort" grade was only there to keep more kids from failing. I played all the sports growing up, and only the bad kids got praised for their effort. It's the cold, hard truth. I got praised for my effort almost every at bat in little league, and (outside of T-ball, I was a T-ball ALL-STAR!) I was either the absolute or second worst hitter on the team.
This is one reason why I want to coach youth sports so much. I want to say "nice effort" to every kid that gives a nice effort. The overweight kid might have thrown the bat into the stands on his swing, but he gave a healthy effort--"Nice effort! What a swing! Look at the outfield backing up after they saw how far you threw that bat!" The little MVP of the team just made a spectacular diving catch--"Nice effort out there! Way to grab that ball!"
I took a shower last night and was thinking about how my dad absolutely could not stand sports growing up. He had prejudices against the people who liked to play sports. Some of his prejudices were valid, others were not. It wasn't until I started growing up, that he finally got into sports. I've loved sports my whole life, because I've played them my whole life--and I've had such amazing parents to point out the goods and the bads along the way. Some of my dad's prejudices were valid, there are some "terrible sports" out there, who are taught from an early age that winning is everything. Their dad's are the coach, and they get to play the most, score the most points, and have the biggest egos in the gym. They don't pass the ball to you if you can't make a shot. Basically, they make the game no fun to play.
On the other hand, there are so many more "great sports" that I have met and learned from.
Bad Sport: "Hey, didn't she just drop the last 5 passes we threw to her?" Good Sport: "She's never going to catch one if we don't throw the disc to her." BS: "She won't drop one if we don't throw it to her, and we'll win!" GS: "Who cares if we win? She might as well pull up a chair and start sun-bathing if we don't ever throw it her way."
My mom grew up playing lots of sports, and is a pretty competitive person, but is also a very good sport. Competitiveness and being a good sport are two things that often clash. I love soccer, but watching players fake injuries is just about the worst thing in sports for me. There is only one referee on the field, and he's got to watch all of the 22 players at all times? Impossible. Making his job harder by faking an injury? Ugh. I am glad that my mom never sacrificed being a good sport to win. What also helped is that my dad was learning the games with me. He always had a lot of questions to ask or things to point out. My parents were also always great listeners when it came to my youthful tantrums.
I'd be mad because I didn't get to play in the final inning, when the game was tied:
M&D: "You played great today, you made a couple of great catches at first base--that one you snagged out of the dirt saved your team at least one run, probably two." Me: "So why didn't I get to play the last inning?" M&D: "Your coach has got to be fair to everyone on the team, you got to play 4 innings, just like everyone else on the team."
Of course I'd then get mad and start slamming doors. It must have been hell raising me, but it's good to know that at least some of their wisdom got through to me.
It was fun to see my dad's eyes light up at the positive things he never realized about sports. He loved watching me play basketball. The first three years I played basketball at Rav-Eck community center we didn't win a single game. Not one. And we still had a blast. We didn't have a single good player on our team, nor did we have a coach that allowed kids or parents to put down others. It didn't matter to us that we weren't winning, because nobody made it matter. Winning was so foreign to us, our enjoyment of the game wasn't winning, but rather the possibility of making just one single, solitary 2-point basket. When that magic moment came, the five of us on the floor would high-five, our parents would leap out of their seats and cheer wildly while fireworks blasted and parades roared--then other team would of course race down the floor and hit a layup. We didn't care--we had just scored! Party Time!
Watching my face when the bad side of sports happened was also very helpful for me. He'd watch something that he always thought happened in sports while he was growing up--like a father yelling at his son for missing a shot, or not passing the ball at the right time--and my dad would just look down and shake his head. Those were the reasons I'm sure he never really wanted to play sports, or probably didn't want his kids to play sports.
I remember him telling me a story when I was probably in high school. He said he got his growth spurt in high school, and was nearly 6'5" by his senior year. Because he was tall, he was recruited to play various sports, including basketball. He didn't think this was very fair to the kids who had been playing basketball all their lives. I was 13 at the time, and he said, "Never in my life have I been able to shoot the ball the way you can. But because of my height, they wanted me on the team. I told them I hadn't played, and I was no good, but they didn't care."
Of course, once they found out that my dad was telling the truth, and that the ball hit him in the face more than it hit him in the hands--they cared. And cut him.
When I was growing up, I don't think there was a single more-exciting time for me than 30 minutes before a basketball practice or game. I would get super jittery and I'd be bouncing off the walls. We'd head up to Andrew's house to start the carpool, or over to Tyler or Trevor's house to pick them up for the games in North, South or West Seattle. We'd have on our little matching uniforms with a big winter coat over the jersey.
As we got older, the excitement didn't fade. I'd drive my big Dodge Ram van around and pick up Tyler, Andrew, Trevor, Ray, Chris, Noah and whoever else could fit. We blasted Dr. Dre and Eminem. We'd show up to practice and just have a ball for an hour. Winning obviously didn't matter in practice. We didn't play high school basketball and nobody was getting cut or benched for missing a basketball or throwing the ball away. Andrew and I constantly tried to perfect our pick and roll. I'd always try to pass the ball through a seem too tight, and Tyler would invariably pick it off for the steal. Ray would practice taking the charge and flopping onto his back with an "Ahh!" and a thud. Noah would practice trying to put the orange ball through the hoop.
Even now, with no real friends in Tahoe, the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday pickup basketball sessions at Kahle Community Center are highlights of my week. I look forward to each day I play. Sometimes I'll play great and catch fire, other days I can't hit the broad side of a barn. But I always have fun, because I can always run (minus sprained-ankle days) and play defense. I can always pass the ball to someone who actually is having a hot shooting day.
I just realized why I like basketball so much. Each and every time down the floor is unlike any other. It is like a new Spring every play. Nobody cares or remembers who won the 4th game of the day last Thursday. It doesn't matter that Dave just made a 3-pointer over your out-stretched arm. Now it is your team's turn. And in basketball, the score is so high that one mistake isn't going to ruin your team's chance for victory. Even at the highest level of basketball there are probably hundred's of mistakes for each team every game, for the simple fact that you have 5 people trying to play together cohesively, and that isn't easy. But, the fact that so many errors occur, makes it a game that has the possibility to create a friendly, understanding community. Everyone makes mistakes.
There are asshats out there, and they can quickly ruin a friendly game, but I've also had some pretty amazing moments of humanity on a basketball court. Including an entire team kicking their best player off their team because he wouldn't pass the ball; Ballers sticking up for little(weak) guys, then the little guys making the winning shot; and even douche-bags realizing how their actions are making them become someone they don't want to be.
Enough writing for one sitting, time to go to the gym and shoot some hoops (and not re-sprain my ankle)!
Lots of things to update: sports, ankle, poker, Stacey, blogging...
This weekend started out a lot of fun. Got off work on Friday early and remembered to use up the rest of my $10 iTunes gift card from my sister. I had my eyez set on "All Eyez On Me" the two-disc compilation by Tupac.
I don't have enough good rap, and what's better than some of Tupac's best? I smoked a blunt and listened to the rhymes of Tupac while catching the first game of the Red Sox/Yankees series (OK, I don't smoke, but it just sounded right). Now, I'm not the biggest fan of watching baseball on TV (or in person, for that matter), but watching the Red Sox and Yankees play is always a good show. Their rivalry is right up there with any rivalry in sports. I root for the Red Sox primarily because I can't stand the Yankees. When you have an unlimited budget, and it seems like half of your team is going to the Hall of Fame, where is the challenge?! Now, the Red Sox aren't much better, I'm pretty sure they are the 2nd biggest spending team--but the only reason for that is because they are trying to compete with the Yankees.
The Yankees had the game in the bag and Alex Rodriguez had hit two more homeruns to add to his amazing April. The Yanks had their Hall of Fame closer, Mariano Rivera, in to close the game out, when the craziness started to happen. Boston scored five or six runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to come from behind and win the game. Feeling good about the game, I decided to go hot tub down in South Lake, then head to the casinos to play poker.
The hot tub was empty, and I soaked in the tub while contemplating writing and life. I keep having ideas for characters to base a story around, but whenever I start writing I get all caught up on the background--which doesn't make for very entertaining writing. I'll have to work on just diving in and writing the entertaining parts, then weaving in the history as I go. While contemplating life, I decided that I'm pretty sure I want to move back to Seattle come November or so. It could be earlier than that, it could be later, but I don't really want to miss out on friends and their lives anymore. Knowing that I'll be leaving Tahoe then also impresses on me how important it will be to soak up all of Tahoe while I can. That means lots of hiking, lots of swimming, and hopefully lots more pictures :)
I started to prune in the hot tub, so it was time to move on to the casino. The obvious problem being, 'how do I change out of my swim trunks?' I ended up parking in a dark and gloomy corner of the casino parking structure, where things much worse than getting naked had been going on. I looked around and didn't see any movement, so I wriggled and squirmed out of my trunks (which is much harder in a car seat than I thought it would be), and into my strategically placed shorts and warm-ups. I got out of the car, pretending like nothing sinister had occurred, and of course the first thing I see is two people in a mini-van right behind my car staring at me. I quickly break eye-contact and head to the poker room.
I check in for $3/$6 limit (in my comfort zone, money-wise) and get a seat right away, which was unexpected. After a quick scan around the table, I actually recognized one of the guys at the table, which surprised me. He is one of the better basketball players I play with on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. It was pretty comical, because he sat there with about three buttons undone on his shirt, showing off his possibly waxed chest. He also had a lady caked in makeup on his left arm. If I didn't know he lived in town, I would have presumed they were on an anniversary trip to South Lake... or maybe that he was entertaining a hooker (hope he doesn't read this!). I smiled to myself and pretended not to know them.
Other people at the table included two wiley-looking old asian guys, a college dude, two ladies who were pretty solid players, and a middle-aged guy to my right from Cameron Park, who I chatted it up with. I told him about the Grass Valley music fest I was going to this summer to see Ani Difranco. As soon as I said "Grass Valley music fest" his eyes lit up.
"Do whatever you can to see Tommy Emmanuel."
My new friend was coo-coo for Tommy Emmanuel. I've never heard of him, but apparently he is the best guitarist in the entire world, according to Mr. Cameron Park.
"He makes Eric Clapton and Santana look like beginners."
This, of course, perked my interest. I am intrigued, but he isn't playing on the same night Ani is, so chances are I probably won't stick around (and pay for) another night of music.
The actual poker was pretty uneventful, I got pretty lucky and didn't have many difficult decisions. I had pretty bad cards all night long, but that was fine with me because I just folded until the good cards came. I ended up winning a few big pots, and finished up $86 for the three hours or so I played. Surprisingly, the basketball buddy and his wife went busto within the 2nd hour. I had made a mental note to stay out of any pots with them, because I just assumed they'd be sharks. In their defense, they did get pretty unlucky with a few hands, and that is all it takes to crap out at $3/$6.
I came back to the house at about 12:30am or so to a house full of strangers. But they were friendly, drunk and high strangers, so all was good. When lots of people come over we have to re-arrange the furniture in the living room so everyone can fit in and see each other. This means blocking any route to the kitchen, and I was craving some food, so I hopped over the end of a couch and was treated to a very happy site in the kitchen. Cans upon cans of Coors Light (Silver Bullet!) covered both counter tops. If I hadn't had such a fun and profitable time at the casino, I would have been bummed that I missed such a fun time.
I thought (as did my roommates) that they would have a little drink here, then head out to the other people's house. But Kristara apparently started up Asshole, and was the first president, and was a mean bitch--so she got her comeuppance and everyone got trashed, lol. That would have been a site to see :) I finished some left-over pizza and people decided it was time to buck up and go home. I'm not sure if any of them was in a good state to drive home, but I was in bed and asleep by the time they made it out the door.
Saturday morning was fun, woke up around 11:30am and decided that basketball at noon sounded fun. Grabbed my ankle-brace out of my sports box and wrapped my ankle up good. It didn't feel too hot, but I could always just work out a bit if running on the ankle didn't feel good. Skipped breakfast because I didn't want to run after breakfast like I did on Thursday. No warm-up for my ankle, because when I got to the gym I was the 10th person to show up, so a game started up.
I saw the guy from poker the night before and we had a fun little talk about it. He said he and his wife only play once a month or so. It was nice to finally have a conversation with him (still don't know his name), because we tend to play against each other a lot, and we had gotten into a little argument on Thursday about a crappy call by him (or so I say!). He's a nice guy though, and I made a point to be on his team today.
I'd say my ankle was at about 10%, but we won the first game somehow as I hobbled up and down the court. I was actually skipping most of the time when I changed direction, because I had to use my right foot.
We lost the 2nd game and I was ready to stop playing basketball for the day, but by that time 8 more people had shown up, so we had two games going--and by losing on the "winners" court, we had another game on the "losers" court. So instead of abandoning my team, I played another game... and lit it up! We played a team that didn't have very good defense, and in a game to 11 by 1's and 2's, I made four 2's to score 8 points. I couldn't really do anything but shoot threes, because I could hardly move, so I'm glad they left me open!
Winning that game put us on the winners court again, and my ankle was screaming at me to stop, but I played again because I'm an idiot. We got beat pretty bad, because this team played defense, and I couldn't really play defense. Back down to the losers court for game #4, against the team I lit up. This time they decided to guard me, and we got whooped. My ankle praised Jesus, and I went upstairs to work out a bit. After working out I came back down to the basketball courts and watched as my team (minus me, plus Mike, a cagey veteran) won their game on the losers court, then ended up beating the reigning champs on the winners court. That felt good, because I didn't want them stuck on the losers court all day because I couldn't play any defense! I'll probably take it easy on my ankle this week, because of the Sacramento Hat Tourney next weekend. Can't miss that, so I'll have to miss some bball this week, dems the breaks!
After bball on Saturday I was CRAVING a French Dip. Not sure why, other than I hadn't had one in a long time, and that I skipped breakfast. I hit Sam's Place for the first time in a month, and the food was grubbin' as usual. When I got there, there was a breaking news special about the Blue Angels. One of the planes crashed at an air show in.. Brunswick? I think? That'd be a pretty horrific site to see.
(this clip isn't the crash video, just a random clip of them flying over Lake Washington)
I grew up with the Blue Angles flying around Seattle every summer. They'd do warm-up runs all around the city, flying right over all the houses, inbetween the buildings in downtown Seattle--it was pretty nutty to see. Then we'd watch the show and see the four planes flying literally within feet of each other. I always thought it was extremely dangerous, but at the same time, watching them do it year after year it seemed like they were pretty much invulnerable (and untouchable, because as a color-blind kid, I knew that was something I'd never be able to do). Not invincible anymore :(
One of the other TV's just so happened to be showing game 2 of the Red Sox/Yankees series, so I watched a few innings while I chowed down the dip and spicey (and I mean spicey!) fries. Big Papi hit a two-run shot to put the Red Sox up by 4, so I was content when I left in the middle of the 5th inning (and they held on to win).
I headed back home and thought I might get some Vanguard in with the gang, but it wasn't to be. Played some spades and listened to the Tupac CD again--that CD is where it's at. Had a pretty nutty spades game where me and my partner were at 359 (9 bags) and our opponents were at 473 or so. I was first to act and went double-nill (no passing), because it was really our only hope. I was surprised to see a hand that just might work... although even if we got my double-nill, my partner would have to bid his cover hand perfectly and get no bags, or else the opponents would win. My partner bid 4 and we pulled it off perfectly. No way we should have won that game, but we did!
I didn't have any plans, and was feeling lucky, so I headed back to the casino for the evening. I got a seat right away again, and only recognized one guy at my table--one of the old asian guys from the night before. He ended up leaving about 30 minutes in. The rest of the table was hilarious though. This is what the table looked like:
Seat 1: 23yr old guy who I chatted with all night, lost his first buy-in and went to the ATM and came back saying defiantly, "I'm not going to that damn machine again tonight!" He also was there because he and his roommates were vastly different, much like me. He said, "Well, it is either poker, where I have fun and might win some money, or sitting at home with my roommates who just do shrooms and watch SNL on Saturdays." He used a line I had been waiting to use for some time now--in response to "good players don't (play 7-2 offsuit, cold-call three bets on draws, yada yada)"--"good poker players don't play $3/$6 either!" Which got a hoot from the table. He also had a broken ankle. Mine is just sprained, but eerie similarities!
Seat 2: 30-something husband of Seat 9, good poker player and also a really funny guy. The lady in Seat 8 couldn't stand the guy because she thought he could "look into her soul." He called her down with crap two times and she folded, cursed under her breath, then went on a smoke break both times. He hit quad nines in a big pot where I folded a pair of Kings with a Q kicker on the turn to his aggression. The jackpot was about $150 for his quad nines. About five hands later he hit quad 8's, which only got him the $30 pot, because jackpots were only for quad 9's or better--I didn't feel too sorry for him though.
Seat 3: 40yr old guy with a golf hat. Wasn't very good at poker, but was a jester. He'd show his cards every time and could hardly believe his bad luck when he was behind the whole way. He and I chopped a huge pot in a hand that I live-straddled and woke up with AK, which was his hand too.
Seat 4: 50yr old hilarious black guy. He did pretty well, and had more than his fair share of big hands. Had a cackling laugh, which I usually can't stand, but he was laughing at himself more than at anyone else, so it was alright. He was joking around with me and seats 1, 2 and 3 all night.
Seat 5: 50yr old skinny Italian guy with a hairy chest and an unbuttoned shirt. Not great at poker and pretty quiet all night.
Seat 6: 40yr old guy. First time at a casino, and got a run of cards. Eventually the lady in Seat 9 said, "you never bluff, do you?" which of course got him to bluff in the next hand, like clockwork, lol. He had some pretty funny lines, I remember laughing, but I can't remember any specifics.
Seat 7: 60yr old guy who nothing could possibly go right for. He'd have AK and flop AK, only to lose to a set on the river. He eventually would just look at me across the table and shake his head as he got beat again and again. Apparently he thought I understood his hardship? I did, and I'd be a shoulder to cry on as long as he kept calling when he was beat!
Seat 8: 60yr old lady who had a temper and liked Camel cigarettes. This lady was funny without trying to be. The guy in seat 2 would call her with nothing and she'd fold and go into a tirade, then leave. A few minutes later she'd come back and assure us all that she was in complete control of her emotions, until she lost another hand, then she'd storm off again. We didn't specifically make fun of her, but she was the cause of a lot of the table laughter.
Seat 9: 30-something wife of Seat 2. She was originally from Germany, and she unknowingly hit a straight-flush for a $240 jackpot. It was a pretty ridiculous hand. I had AK in the BB, the flop was T-J-Q, all clubs. She bet out first to act, I called the bet, Seat 2 re-raised, Seat 4 re-re-raised, and Seat 7 re-re-re- raised. She called all the bets, and I insta-folded my now ugly flopped straight. The 8 of clubs peeled off on the turn, and there was a crazy amount of betting again. When all the dust (and the 3 of diamonds on the river) settled, she had the 9 of clubs for the straight-flush, I had the flopped straight, Seat 2 flopped a set of Q's and was hoping to boat up, but folded on the river; Seat 4 had the A of clubs; Seat 7 flopped a K-hi flush (and stared at me after the hand, looking for some hint of understanding, I suppose). Talk about a juicy flop!
Seat 10: your hero!
I ended up drinking seven Sierra Nevadas through the night, and didn't leave until 2:30am. I finished down about $70, and continued my break-even poker playing. A bit frustrating to keep breaking even on weekend treks, but I have a blast, and I'm not losing money, so hey hey!
Got back home and took a fun trip down memory lane by checking out my old livejournal. There are some pretty funny comment conversations back there with Stacey, Tessa, Kristle and other friends. Which got me wondering what Tessa, Brien and Kristle are up to nowadays. I read through some of Tessa's recent posts on her new blog... she's still got it! She continues to write a very entertaining blog updated almost daily, and makes me wish I had kept on blogging (and also motivates me to blog now!).
I wasn't able to find out much about Kristle and Brien. A few entries down in my livejournal were at a really fun and exciting time in my life, when I was just about to move down to Sacramento with Kristle. Kristle, Brien and I had a great time the last few months of college together... then Sacramento (and Japan for B) happened, and I think the bad situation in Sacramento put a hold to whatever friendship we had. Since I'll be moving back to Seattle in November most likely, I spent some time wondering last night what all these old, possible friends are up to now. Anyone know what happened to these two?? Last I heard they were living in South Seattle?
Ended up hitting the hay around 3:30am and woke up this afternoon at 3:30pm... nice! Waking up tomorrow for work is going to suck, ah well.
Had a nice chat with Stacey today about lots of things, including her new relationship with Ben. Not a huge shocker there, and I'm sure they'll have a lot of fun together. Her plan was to stay single for a while, but guys tend to have other plans when it comes to smoking hot, bass-playing ladies :)
Holy crap, 3-hour blog entry! I think I can extend it with a few pictures... time to search!
