ha!  i stayed in.  exhibiting a lot of self control skipping both the giants game and the poker night.

although i’m still up for mischief if anyone out there sees this…..and has my cell….

I keep telling myself I need to stay in.  Well,  i’m heading
out to Bayside again tonight. Its tuesday, and it is poker night. I
would have taken the night off,  but it’ll be the chance to meet
Melissa’s boyfriend Lark,  and put the stories to a face,  as
well as see my other poker buddies.   I doubt i’ll be there too
late just in case any other friends want to call me up and grab a
drink. (nudge nudge nudge)

Crap,  the “now listening” module is broken.  And i’ve been
listening to some very cool new stuff today.  Guess i’ll have to
review it later…..perhaps an extended post when i get home tonight
covering the multitude of thoughts which have been running through my
mind lately….

coming soon: 

rant about all the publicity that “inhalable insulin” is getting
rave about the return of BARRY BONDS!!

I spent the afternoon at the Ghiradelli Square Chocolate
Festival,  sampling such yummy things as chocolate stout
beer,  a chocolate tiramisu sundae,  and chocolate dipped
madelines,  among other things. We also got to watch a bunch of 10
year olds pig out in an ice-cream sundae eating contest.  Of
course,  the fat italian kid beat out the diminutive red haired
girl,  and it brought back a memory of being at the county fair in
the milk chugging contest. (which i won when i was nine!)  
In fact,  i think the milk chugging prepared me for Elder Hall’s
MLTs, a fun tradition which lasted for at least a couple years while I
was at Northwestern.  (for those who know me,  ask and i’ll
explain further)  Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite at
in-and-out,  and headed over to Pier 39 to enjoy our
lunch/snack.  While checking out the sea lions,  a seagull
divebombed us,  taking a swipe out of miss m’s burger.  It
grazed me, but i think it hit her fairly hard.  As the tourists
surrounding us were laughing at what happened,   I joked that
the bird was only going after out-of-towners, which was why M was a
target.  Of course,  as i was saying that a second seagull
(or maybe the same one, on another mission)  swooped down on us
again, this time tagging me in the back of the head.  If the gull
had been any bigger,  it surely would have been “concussion by
seagull.”  Now that is one thing i bet they haven’t seen at SF
General.

Moving out of the suburbs and into the City was a huge step for
me,  one which I was quite scared of,  because of how tough
it is to “start over.”  I was worried that i wouldn’t meet any new
people (it was tough when i lived in the suburbs) and wasn’t quite as
happy in my job.  Most of my worries have gone away.  My job
is fantastic,  and even more important,  I have new friends
who i see regularly who make me forget about the few worries I
have.  I can’t help but smile when I hang out with them;  I
get that twinge of “aww, its time to go, now?” when we have to go our
separate ways.  But I also smile because I know I will see them
again even sooner than I expect.    Am I complete? 
Probably not….but i don’t want to ever dwell on those things which i
haven’t found yet,  i want to celebrate that which i have. 
Okay, enough cheese for now.

My latest annoyance with myself?  The fact that I sometimes
stammer when I am speaking. Usually I notice it and get very
self-conscious about it.  Maybe I just have lots of thoughts
running through my head or something.  I can’t quite explain
it.  It could be slight nervousness,  but i’ve noticed it in
situations where i know i am completely comfortable….anyway.

yeah,  go eat at Jardineire.  Its absolutely amazing.

i feel like i have much to say,  but am not quite sure how to say it. 

the movie “junebug” which i watched tonight,  really touched me,  and i’m still trying to figure out why.

today was amazing,  and i have to thank my friend monika for such
a cool idea as a “movie crawl.”  only a couple others showed
up,  but the size of the group was perfect and everyone was really
cool.  some of these things have been hit-or-miss.  this was
no question.

…frustrated…

I have a habit of picking up funny nicknames. 

I almost wanted to stay in and take a nap,  but I knew that I
would only be sulking and over-thinking certain things if I had done
so.  I pulled myself together and managed to make the trek over to
Bayside Sports Bar on Union&Octavia for their tuesday night “poker
night”, which is really just about ten or so regulars who play poker in
the back of the bar.  I found out about it through Jared and
Lyndsey, a cool couple from PacHeights who i met at a sf-newcomers
poker home game a couple weeks back.  It took me a while to warm
up to them,  but i think they like me after tonight.  They
seem to respect my poker play a bit now that i’ve been consistently
finishing in the money,  or near the top of all the
tourneys.  And they were lending their advice and rooting for me
in the second tourney when they went out early. 

I managed to place third out of ten in the first tournament,  a
$25 buy-in,  with third place getting their money back.  I am
always happy for a little “free entertainment”  The second
tournament was a $20 buy-in with 8 players.  I am a tight player
in general and don’t play a lot of hands,  and most people seemed
to notice.  I threw in a few bluffs here and there,  very
well-timed and they managed to work well for me surprisingly.  I
did a lot better in the second tournament,  outlasting both Jared
and Lyndsey (who i consider to be excellent poker players,  even
if it is possible that they might be colluding…) all the while I was
cracking jokes and giving shit to the other players.  I got
incredibly short-stacked where i was down to 340 chips or so against
two players with what must have been a few thousand chips each. I
managed to double-up with some amazing cards,  yielding me the
nickname, “cockroach” ’cause i wouldn’t die!   We got kicked
out by the bartender, so we ended up chopping the pot three ways, 
so I won $53 in that last game.  ($33 profit for the night) Not
too shabby.

Things have been going really well at work,  but i can’t get into that here for various reasons.

Happiness on a ten point scale:
Work: 7   [coworker has been out, new boss as of last week,   but good things are happening]
Friends: 8  [they've been there when i've needed advice lately]
Family: 8 [going to dinner at Jardineire this sunday! woohoo!]
Dating: 4 [yeah, this area could use some focus!]
Living: 5 [must do laundry,  must add cool things to my apt!]
Health: 7 [great blood sugar control,  but need to eat healthier]
Poker: 6 [good live play,  medicore online play]
Sleep: 8 [lots of sleep each night,  not waking up in the middle of the night]

Not much else to report….good night everyone.

It is eerie when you watch a movie and the lead character looks almost
exactly like one of your friends.  It happened a couple weeks ago
when I was watching a trailer for “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” as Val Kilmer looks just like my friend Pat from college.  Tonight,  I was disturbed yet again with Red Eye
as Rachel McAdams looks just like my West Virginia friend,
Yolanda.  I’ve seen Rachel McAdams in other movies, and didn’t
make the connection, but with the dark hair…..its just a little
weird.

I hung out with my Italian friend Michi,  who i have talked to for
years and years (maybe seven?) online but have never actually met
before today.  She lives in Venezia,  and i’ve given her guy
advice on numerous occasions.  I don’t think i had even seen a
picture of her.  (Who knew we would ever meet)  She is
shorter than me,  brunette,  was wearing cute glasses. 
Totally the type i’d go for….if i even have a type.  She was in
the US for the summer studying at Michigan,  and now shes visiting
a host family from a previous trip,  and her friend at
berkeley.   But i’m realistic…even though someone is
intelligent and attractive, i’m not going to fall for them if they live
in another country.      Well,  thats one of the many reasons,  i guess….but anyway. 

And how come Red Eye doesn’t have a soundtrack cd…..the score was great.

i had some really strange dreams last night,  none involving
poker,  1047,  diabetes,  or the like.   i
can’t quite remember them.

i really don’t have anything to say right now.

I played in Full Tilt Poker’s Hurricane Relief Tournament on Saturday
night.  $30 buy-in with the $10 tournament fee matched by Full
Tilt and going to Red Cross.  So for every one entered, $20 went
to charity.  An awesome event, 718 players,  including
bloggers Iggy,  Dr Pauly,  and poker-pros such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson,  Erick Lindgren,  Phil Gordon,  Kristy Gazes,  David Singer,  and the professor,  Howard Lederer.

Thats me (pistolpete02) with the slicked back hair, playing a couple
hands at Howard Lederers table.  Didn’t get a chance to make a
dent in his chip stack.  One day,  one day!

Finished 87th,  ahead of quite a few poker pros. (Kristy Gazes
– 402nd,  Chris Ferguson — 369th,  David Singer –
229th,  Erick Lindgren — 110th)  Not too bad!