TMI, Part 1

Thanks for waiting.

Things have settled down here. My exhibit closed Saturday and I took it down Sunday. Some time ago, 36 asked what it would look like if I critiqued my own work. Well, I did the second best thing and gave a talk about the work on Saturday afternoon, and I have a transcript of that talk, along with some installation shots, but you'll have to wait for that post a couple days. Oh, and it's long.

I would like to imagine that one or two of you have been waiting to hear more about my trip east, particularly about the poker I played. I'll tell you what: I'll start out with the poker before moving onto another little story, and I'll do so with the warning that those of delicate sensibilities might want to avoid the second.

My buddy, Mike, drove us down to Foxwoods from Salem. We booked a room for an overnight. Our plan was to play poker for most of the night and use the room to nap.

We didn't get to the casino until 5:00 PM or so, and in that the place is so huge and I may never get back to see the place, we decided to walk around a bit. And as it turned out, Mike seemed to ave other plans, which included finding a bar and drinking for free while we played video poker. Well, OK. Besides, the bartender was easy on the eyes.

But that meant too much booze to play poker and we had yet to eat, so eat we did. And then we napped. Or rather, I napped; Mike collapsed.

I awoke about 11:00, popped a beta blocker, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the poker room. We had scoped it out after dinner and it was pretty busy, and now a couple hours later there were still maybe thirty tables going, and this a Wednesday night.

Two 1/2 NLHE tables had seats open and I flipped a coin. It soon became clear I was sitting at a table of regulars. It was a Wednesday night, after all. I'll give you just the highlights:

Some hand I forget in which this older woman called me down and won; Aces cracked by 67 suited that the same woman held after a 5 x BB bet; and, Jacks beat by K3 suited after another 5 X BB bet. And that was all she wrote. I would have reloaded but I had forgotten to bring a roll with me and I didn't want to tap out my ATM limit for the day because I thought I might play the next day. (Thinking about the game later, I believe they correctly read me as a nit and played me accordingly.)

I was wide awake so I wandered around for a while. Just as I was heading to the elevators to try and sleep, Mike walked off of one. He had been up for a while but had been sick, throwing up. Yeah, I could tell, or smell. I gave him a mint and we headed back to the poker room. He wanted to play some Limit and I had enough money for that.

Nothing like spinning one's wheel for three hours. Lost $10 after being up about $50. And by the time I got back up to the room, the beta blocker had worn off, I was exhausted but wired, and Thumper let me know it would be a race to dream world before he kicked into his old behaviors.

No poker the next day. We got up too late and another friend was coming to meet us and pick me up for part two of my adventure.

And now, just writing about the poker has put me in a mood to not write anymore, so forget about what I wrote earlier about the second part of the tale. At least for now. Maybe tomorrow. Just know it gets worse, but I am still laughing.