Hey Gang--Happy Monday!I apologize for the late start this morning, but I have a good excuse--I actually got a full night's sleep for the first time in what seems like forever. I've been fighting a mild head cold for the past several days, and last night was the first time in a week that I haven't woken up every two hours completely stuffed up.
Oh, I've still got a little bit of the bug, but the coffee is brewing and I've just taken my drugs, so I'm feeling pretty damn good, if not 100%. Here's the thing, though--the past couple of times I've caught the funk, I knew exactly who gave it to me. So now I just stay away from those people and their nasty germs.
I had a semi-busy weekend. I got called in on Friday night, and worked a couple of hours, but Friday night is the busiest night in the casino, so basically every dealer was there. But about an hour after I arrived, the games started breaking, and before long, I was done. One of my gals had come down to play that night, so I hung out for a bit, and eventually sat down in the 4-8 game instead of going home.
That was a good move, because I ended up making an additional $160 on top of what I made for my couple hours of work. I was tired and cashed out in the middle of the night, locking up my profit, but I ended up hanging out with some friends until almost 8:00 in the morning on Saturday. Somebody had the bright idea to do shots while we were playing, and I swear I had seven shots of Goldschlager over the course of the night. So I had to stick around and sober up before driving home the next morning. Overall, it was a pretty good night.
But that ruined the rest of the weekend for me. I felt like crap when I got home, and although I was exhausted, even the medicine didn't help and all I could do was catch little tidbits of sleep here and there on Saturday. I finally collapsed for good around 6:00 pm and completely zombied out for the rest of the night. I was told that I'd probably be needed to work on graveyard again that night, so I was good with resting up for a few hours anyways, but then my phone was ringing and one of the gals wanted to do something, and then a bit later it was ringing again because one of my buddies wanted to go down to the M and play some cards and then get some dinner. Normally, I'd be totally up for this sort of weekend buffoonery, but I had to decline. I felt like crap and was just too tired. Besides, if I got called into work that night, I would need some sleep beforehand.
Around 1:30 or so, I woke up and called the poker room, but they had the situation under control. The floorman asked could tell that I was sick and asked if I'd be willing to come in around 3:00 am if they needed me. I said I would if they got into a bind, but otherwise I'd rather just stay in bed. Turns out that he didn't need me and I got a couple more hours of rest.
I ended up just wandering out to the couch and clearing a bunch of junk off my DVR that morning, and then watched the Nascar race from Atlanta (BTW, Carl Edwards is a punk-ass biatch that needs to a tire-iron to the nutsack, if you ask me). Also, while hanging around the house that day, I figured my apartment, and my bed in particular, was a germ factory that was probably keeping me from getting better. So I sanitized everything I surface I could, even using the Clorox wipes on all the light switches and door knobs, and then I stripped my bed down and washed everything--mattress pad and pillows included. That took pretty much the entire afternoon, but man, what a difference it made. I slept like a baby last night.
On the other hand, I learned that a fleece blanket will hold about fifty times its own weight in water, which will send the washing machine into a conniption fit if it's the slightest bit unbalanced...
So what else is new around here? Well, besides that couple of hours of poker I played on Friday night, I've been away from the game for a couple of weeks. I keep getting called in on my nights off (a good thing!), and I'm still smarting a bit from that ridiculous series of bad-beats I took a few weeks ago at the M. Even though I prefer to play no-limit, buying in for $65 into a 4-8 game is a sure way to make sure you don't take a ridiculous beating.
Besides, I was just sitting in for the social aspect of it, fully prepared to KISS that money goodbye, drinking with my friends and just having a few laughs for a bit. But there was one guy in the game who decided to come after me, thinking he could re-raise me all the way down and get me off a hand, and both times when the show-down came, I forced him to show his cards and both times they were absolute rags. He just figured that he could get me to lay down and fold whenever a 'scare card' hit the board, but both times I had pretty good hands and rode them out.
But since I haven't been playing very much, I haven't had any good poker stories to tell. On the other hand, all of you poker-heads out there need to get your fix, so I've got good news for you. Remember Josie, my guest blogger? Well, she plays all the time and started up with her own poker blog. So if you want some more tales from the green felt, add her to your daily rotation.
Since I was a little under the weather, I didn't mind at all being stuck here at the Batch Pad for the weekend. It kept me from spending any money, and it was rainy and yucky outside all weekend anyways. And it looks like it's probably gonna stay that way until Wednesday. But it was still nice to sit out on the patio last night once my chores were done and enjoy a good smoke and a glass of Grand Marnier.
I think I got that whole pipe-smoking thing down. Fifteen years ago or so, when I first tried it, it was so damn frustrating that I gave up in disgust and stuck with cigars. But now I figured it out. Last night I managed to keep a bowl of the Captain Black lit (with one match) for a solid half-hour without having to re-light it. Those of you pipe smokers out there will understand that that is some kind of impressive feat, especially for a rookie like me.
And as much as I love my Partagas Black Label cigars, smoking one of them is an hour-long commitment. I don't mind that at all, but I can fire up the pipe for just fifteen minutes if I want and be done with it (especially if its cold outside). And did I mention the wonderful smell of the pipe smoke? It's like aromatherapy for straight guys. While I was out on my patio last night, one of my neighbors wandered by, about fifteen feet away on the sidewalk and said Damn dude, that smells awesome!
So I think I'll add pipe smoking to my ever-growing list of vices.
Speaking of vices, they're coming to town in a big way. March Madness is just a week-and-a-half away, and with it comes the Harmonic Convergence of Buffoonery; Three-plus days of gambling, drinking, and debauchery that would make the ancient Romans blush. I'm looking forward to it, although this year seems to be a bit more low-key than the others. My Phoenix gang won't be here at all, nor will Doc Al, but most of the other usual suspects will be in attendance. I didn't even reserve a hotel room this time around, so unless I'm sleeping in a planter outside of the valet at the MGM Grand, I'll have to keep myself sober enough to drive home late at night. Either that, or talk some young lass into letting me stay the night...
Anyhow, that's about all I got this Monday morning. I hope you office drones are enjoying your day. I think I'll spend the rest of my morning enjoying my coffee, curled up on the couch doing some reading. My workweek starts tonight.
Mikey
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