To-Do List while Job-Free

So, I've been job-free for just a couple weeks now and I've been busy, busy, busy!  I went to Vegas for five days right after I got done training the new girl.  And boy, oh boy, I needed a drink after finishing up the training...  I don't think I've ever been to Vegas for more than a few days at a time to gamble and just hang out.  It was pretty fun.

After returning from Vegas, I went over to Chris' house a few times to help him start cleaning out his garage.  Other than that, I haven't really done a whole lot.  The last few days, I've been on jury duty and officially got put on a case yesterday.

So I've decided I need to make a "to-do list" of what I want to do while I'm not working.  Some of them are totally practical, some are completely pie-in-the-sky-weird and some are just miscellaneous notes to myself.  Either way, the to-do list, which I used all the time while working, is going to become essential to getting stuff done while I'm job-free.

• Read some books:  some poker books, Your Money or Your Life, Getting Things Done, the Four-Hour Workweek, Eat Pray Love, and more to add I'm sure...
• Watch some movies:  Catching up on my Netflix list would be awesome... but that's to fill in the cracks.
• Travel:  May - Kauai, June - Atlanta for Oasis of Fun, July - Williamsburg, VA for Gulf Games, August - NorCal for MeepleFest.  There's a decent chance I might take a road trip to the east coast for Oasis of Fun and just bum around over on that side of the country until Gulf Games about a month later.  That would be fun.  Just plain fun.
• Volunteer on a regular basis - I want to volunteer at least a couple times a month with local agencies.  Most likely, it will be Project Angel Food (prepping food to deliver to homebound clients) and AIDS Project LA (food bagging or office work).
• Get rid of stuff out of my apartment.
• Exercise.
• Eat through my pantry & freezer to save $$ on food.
• Figure out what I want to do for work - I could just get a job doing what I've been doing, but I've been contemplating what all my options are and I'm trying to figure out which direction I want to go.  Do I want to make more money with more stress and responsibilities?  Or settle for less money, but potentially much less stress?  I'm hoping that I can read some books and do some soul-searching to figure this out.
• Floss more regularly.  
• Learn some German.
• Learn Morse code (?) - this is inspired by that episode of the Amazing Race when the Asian couple got eliminated.  
• Sleep a normal amount - I've been sleeping SOOOOOO much the last couple weeks.  I need to stop oversleeping.  It makes me feel lazy and unproductive.  I also would like to keep a fairly "normal" schedule.  I tend to lean towards the night owl side of the spectrum, so it's tough.

I'm sure there will be more and I'll just have to add them as I think of them.  

Update from Dallas

It's been another week since I've been in Dallas and wow, I'm sore! Why? Because I took my first Krav Maga class. It's a style of fighting that the Israeli army uses. It's for close combat. I enjoyed the class quite a bit, but oh my, I'm so freaking sore!

Monday night I went to see the Sex and the City Movie. I liked it, hardly surprising considering I loved the show. One thing I always love about that show is that there's always some kernel of relationship truth in it. Something that is relate-able. In the movie, Carrie calls herself an "emotional cutter." I started dying laughing because I've been feeling like I've been an emotional cutter lately. Why? (Maybe I should rename this post to "Why?")

I got an email from 42 out of the blue last week and we've exchanged some emails since then. Mainly just catching up, but naturally I've been thinking about him and our relationship more. Sometimes it makes me sad and other times it just gets me thinking about the past. The last few weeks have been busy with dating in between work stuff, but I don't feel like going into all that. Especially since I've hardly written anything about dating stuffs since 42 & I broke up in March. I'll have to write an update on that sometime soon, I haven't quite decided about that just yet.

On Tuesday, I worked and then went to play games with the Dallas Gamers. I ended up playing Kingsburg, Rails of Europe and Race for the Galaxy. Man, I *still* really love that game!

I worked today and then spent the afternoon and evening playing poker! It was pretty fun. My table was good. There were a couple cool guys there and I was Nickname Girl. I nicknamed everyone at the table (whether or not they liked it or not). We had Golf Guy (who was quite the cutie), Fiance Guy (who got later renamed to Tat Guy at his request), New Guy, Quiet Guy, LA Guy, Oil Guy, and Tan Guy (who later was renamed to Raiser Guy because he kept raising all the pre-flops). I think I ended up down a bit for the trip, but I am definitely getting better. I felt like I was betting better and I'm trying to get better at reading people based on their actions. My problem is that I just go with my gut and not really with the logical assumptions. That is an area that I need work on.

My First No-Limit Poker Tournament

As part of the continuing birthday celebrations, my friend Edward entered me into my first EVER poker tournament! It was especially exciting for me because it was also the first time ever that I've played no-limit poker! Both times I played poker in Vegas were at the $2-$4 limit table.

First off, I LOVED it!!! There were 110 entrants. I went all in on the very first hand, chasing a flush and lost. There was one rebuy allowed, which I promptly took advantage of and then managed to stay in until about halfway through, which for my first tournament ever, I think is pretty good! Edward ended up placing 13th in the tournament and won some money.

During the tournament, I sat next to "Hollywood" Tony Kayden and he was giving me tips and answering my questions. At one point, he said he was going to quit giving me tips because otherwise I'd have all his chips! It was awesome. I loved the betting! It's SO much better than the limit poker. I'm sold on the no-limit and can't wait to play again.

It's funny, I feel like I've been training for poker by playing strategy games for the last couple years. When I'm playing, it feels just like a game, just with real money instead of the fakey paper stuff! Travis lent me "Super System" so I can read about theory and what not. I think with a little practice, I could be pretty good at it. I'm willing to at least try!

My new gambling love... poker!

I went to Vegas last weekend for my birthday and the first night there, Travis asked if I want to hit the poker room. I've never played poker for any money ever and pretty much have just seen some World Series of Poker episodes on ESPN, so I have an idea of how it works. And of course, I know the order of ranking on the hands. It was getting close to 1 AM and we hadn't gambled at all yet, so I said, "Sure, I'll give it a shot."

We stayed at the MGM and their poker room is actually not a room, but a barricaded area. It was pretty cool. We put our names on the waiting list for the $2/$4 limit table and while we were waiting, Travis filled me in on the procedure of the table. After about 10 minutes, we both had seats at two different tables.

I started with $100 just to test the waters. According to Travis, I bet loosely because I almost always put in my $2 to see what the flop was even if I had crappy cards. Then, I'd even go ahead and put more money in to chase a card on the 4th or 5th one. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I'm sure there's lots of room for improvement in my betting strategy.

Travis would come over periodically and see how things were going. Around 3 AM, he said, "Just let me know when you're ready to go, we can leave anytime you want." I furrowed my brow and thought, "Does Travis really not know me?" He walked away and I told the guy next to me, "That's like a drug addict telling another, I'll stop using drugs when you do!" Around 5:30 AM, my eyes were getting pretty tired, so I told Travis I was ready to go back up to the room.

The verdict? I had $97. Not too bad. At one point around 4 AM (?), I had almost all my chips in a big pot that I won (whew!) and came back to almost even money. So, overall, not bad at all, considering it was my first time playing ever.

We played a bit at the Flamingo on Sunday and while I think I was betting a bit better, I didn't get that great of cards. So, I think I lost about $40. The thing I didn't like about the Flamingo was that we were seated at the same table. I prefer being at two separate tables. However, the Flamingo had this jackpot board, so you could win $$ if you hit certain hands, mostly 4 of a kinds and straight flushes.

I'm totally ready to hit Vegas again and try my hand at more poker. I have several friends who are into poker though, so I'm sure I'll get lots of advice from all of them. I'm sure I'm doing everything wrong, but whatever. I had fun.