Reading/Listening, Harryette Mullen, Relationship, Poker

Reading: Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme. I'm only fifty or so pages in as I didn't touch it for much of the week, but I love it. In the introduction, Barthelme was quoted as saying that there isn't any emotion in his stories. I think he's wrong. I think all of his stories have a sentimentality to them, it is just hard to access at times because it is presented in such a strange, unfamiliar way. I look forward to plowing through it.

Listening: Monster by Matchbook Romance. I heard it on the loop at Journeys over the weekend while shopping with my parents and couldn't get it out of my head. After an intense search, I found it on iTunes (I didn't know its name) and have listened to it eight times today. I like the creepy chimes and the transitions to the more traditional rock-like chorus. The words are pretty sweet too.

Harryette Mullen was awesome. I love the way she twists language and dwells on sounds. Several of the poems in the book play with word combinations that sound similar to other word combinations. Certain poems are very difficult to read as you have to first read it on face, then go through and figure out what she is trying to sound like, and then reread it with the alternate words substituted. Very, very cool stuff.

So my infatuation has grown into a full on phone romance. It sucks that we have to get to know each other over the phone, but it adds an odd intensity to it for me. Her willingness to stick with this makes me feel indescribably awesome. Jeff and Mike are kind of sick of me, which is annoying, but if it were one of them I would probably be giving me shit as well. Lesson for the women who read this blog: Men may advance in age, but they stop maturing at around thirteen. No exceptions.

I haven't been getting good sleep lately so I've intentionally avoided playing poker. With the elimination of the lowest tier of SnG's to get into the Round 2 I can't play as many satellites as I was before. Further, my perpetual sleepiness always strains my HU game and makes me more likely to tilt, so I've been avoiding all poker. The bug finally bit me a day or two ago and I sat at a micro Omaha H/L table. I dumped $5 in about an hour because I played nearly every hand. Hopefully I'll get decent sleep this week and be able to put in a few hours on Thursday or Friday night.