Thursday, September 13, 2007

Lincoln, Solitary, Poker (or, Computers Hate Me)

I went back to Lincoln to take care of stuff today. I picked up nearly everything from my old apartment except for two things that I forgot. I also printed my tax return at Wesleyan. While I was there, I bumped into a guy that I used to work with named Garrett. He was headed to one of the lectures that is part of the Visions and Ventures lecture series that Wesleyan hosts every year. He was meeting up with the infamous C. Dap for the lectures and a few short minutes after parting ways, I received a text message informing me that I was an "Ass" for not going to sit through a lecture when not required of me. What I was not informed of was that Chuck D. was the lecturer. Chuck Fucking D. I would've loved to hear Chuck D. talk for awhile. Lacking this information, I agreed to stick around and hang out for a bit after the lecture. I went and spent nearly an hour at Best Buy, picking up The Reminder by Feist. As much as I love the Teddybears, the CD has been playing pretty much non-stop in my truck for three weeks. I want to Teddyburnmyselfalive. I could easily plug my iPod in, but I just haven't for some reason. I heard one Feist song on MySpace today, listened to a few clips on iTunes, and then iBought it. I haven't listened to much of yet, hopefully it will be as good as my sixty second impression thought it was. Anyway, I ran a few more random errands, got some delicious Jimmy John's (the #14 as usual) and then met up with Garrett, Chelsea, and Katie. We had a couple of drinks, I rambled about stuff, they rambled about stuff, then we all went home. I had a very good time. We will have to do it again.

On my lonely drive home I realized that my life is a lot like the interstate at 1:30am. For the most part, I'm trucking along by myself. Occasionally I'll pass another bored soul and we'll exist in each other's space for a minute or two, but then I'm off again. Tom Hanks had Wilson in Castaway. I yell at my computer monitor when I die playing Diablo. My life has been very quiet. Jeff is gone from about 8am to 7pm every day, and all of my other friends here are in med school or law school, meaning that there is no point in even trying to reach them during the week. I've met Melissa, the blind lady who lives on the top floor. I actually had a weird "What do I do?" moment with her last week. I usually pass her on my way out of the building as she is taking her seeing eye dog outside to use the bathroom. I don't know why I used "bathroom" there. Revised: I usually pass her as she is taking her dog out to poop. One evening as I was leaving she was coming down the stairs. I accidentally threw her off her game by holding the door open for her, and then she asked me if I saw a cab in the parking lot. I flagged the cabbie down, but then froze up. Do I walk her to the cab? Is that insulting? Do I just leave? I chose to try to verbally guide her between the Dodge sandwich that awaited her. I didn't do well. She thanked me anyway and said goodbye and I ran away like a frightened schoolboy. I've also met Jay, the very obviously Indian (dot) that lives next door. We tried to have a conversation but between my mumbling and his accent we ended up just smiling at each other, shaking hands, and praying that we would never need to communicate to each other in a life and death situation. Aside from these rare occasions, I don't talk. My only sounds are the click of keys as I send my random thoughts through the intarwebs and my two fans humming away. Sometimes I play music. Sometimes I watch TV. Mostly it's silence.

Even after three weeks poker is stomping my nutsack. I won that $30 HU yesterday despite some bad luck, and I just got pwned today. I played Juggernaut, who is not very good. He is WAY too weak-tight to be playing HU, however, my aggression forces him to call on a lot of draws. Tonight, he hit all of them. I miraculously went 1-2 against him. I would get up to about 13-14k in each match and then he would river a straight of some sort. In my two losses, they were both gutterballs. That would set me back a bit and I could never recover. I was making good folds, good reads, and good bets, but I was getting punished. To prevent me from playing like garbage, I joined some $5 HU matches and played like a tard. I lost all of them. Four, I think. Sadly, I got in with the best hand in all of them. I was just overbetting everything and getting paid off, but I would get in on a coinflip and lose, or get them in drawing thing and lose. I don't care about the $20, but the instant return to shit luck just isn't going to fly. I'm going to play a match or two tomorrow, but if I drop to more than one four-outer in any given hour I'm taking another big chunk of time off. With all of the other things stressing me out right now, I don't need the thing I turn to as an escape to be pouring fuel on the fire. Bankroll at $701.02, Londer in bed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i know how you feel. Last night, last hand I get dealt K7 off suite and call to see a flop. board comes K74. Usually there is a lot of action on the last hand and I had already announced a raise of the pot preflop. So I raised and got min raised. I pushed all in and got called by the old guy that always chases. He turned over 85 off and the turn peeled of the 6 for him. weak. river blanked. later

bretlonder said...

It's sick, right? I would call the turn and river cards all match because it was whatever he needed. If he was AIPF or on the flop, it came on the turn. If he called my turn bet, it hit the river. It was just sick. I was discussing with Jeff though. This can all be forgiven, except I get to pick when I want my miracle out or, more likely, my miracle fade. I choose the last hand of HU play in the WSOP, where I get my money in good and fade probably a 17 outer. When that happens, all will be right.

C.D. said...

Well you know where the fun is now.