its good to be back

After being home for 3 weeks I finally decided I had enough. Don't get me wrong, it was nice being back with the familia but like the czech saying goes "visitors are like fish, after 3 days they stink". Not to mention there really wasn't much to do...perhaps I am addicted to poker...or the lifestyle Its especially difficult when everyone else has a job and you're forced to sit around all day waiting for your mom to come home so you can borrow the car. At 25 I am definitely way past the point of finding that cool.

Anyway now on to the AC trip with the boys. Its always nice to get away with a couple of really good friends and just be silly. I of course often get a bit too silly and border on annoying so I can appreciate their patience. We headed out on wednesday after mark picked up dave and I. Here are our heroes...

Mark our fearless leader/driver

Dave the fluffer

and Charles as the storm trooper

We headed on a journey unlike any other before...a journey for fast food (see theres three of us not two, and besides white castle blows)

David was afraid for his life as you can tell and thus couldnt actually pose...either that or he's giving mark a nice hj

ok thats better

bano break at a rest stop...ku klux robot lmao, who makes videos in a public restroom

So we finally arrived at exit 69 where the fabled sonic was to be found but of course we still got lost. With our powers combined we are captain...gps?

how many smart phones does it take to find some food?

After much turmoil we finally arrived...

you can tell he's excited

can you tell i'm excited?

We arrived at Caesars around 11 and quickly hit the poker room right after dropping off our bags.

If expecting a comped room to be free makes me cheap, then call me scrooge mcduck.

a walk of our room and some debauchery

The games were pretty soft and I hit some cards so I can't complain. Dave and I ended up playing until 6 am and didnt get to bed till 8 after dave got us up to switch rooms. For some odd reason ours didnt have a window and the thermostat was stuck at 88...mmmmm i love saunas. Our new room did have this sweet TV projection onto our mirror which I've never seen.

The next afternoon we got up around 4 and went to grab some lunch at the pier shops.

View of the ocean and sunset, oOoOooooOoOoo

Cool inside boardwalk area where the restaurants were...for some strange reason dave wanted spinach artichoke dick errr dip as an appetizer :-/ yeaaaa errr indeed

Inside the mall

Caesars version of the Bellagio Fountains

Ahhhhhh its raining!

ok no more funny captions for the dumb fountains

now this picture has been a long time comming. unfortunately we got it without flash and were too embarrassed to return to take another as the ladies inside the store were giving us funny looks

That night we played at Borgata but it was pretty dead there. After a few hours Dave and I walked around for a bit until Mark was finished. The night ended with some good old fashioned man talks and a few rounds of chinese poker in our room. I've apparently got much to work towards

Final view out the room as we were leaving friday afternoon.

Mark needed to deliver some sonic to the wife and family so we made another stop on our way back. The slight detour ended up becoming a nearly 2 hour long festival of homoerotic video taping as we got the bright idea of making our own sonic commercial.

I believe the idea arose from the sheer massiveness of mark's drink...it clearly dwarfs my watermelon cream shake mmmmmm

44 ounces of goodness

Heres the final product

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=117560270186

muahhh, me love you long time

ok im late for softball, adios amigos

en, why, see with holl-y...yea im a rapper

Ahhhh what a grand week its been. I met up with Holly in the city last friday after she got in wed for new years eve. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend it together due to some poor planning but we both had fun with our respective friends. I feel like everyone's new years eve this year was a bit uneventful but I liked it that way. After trecking into the city from Long Island we decided to head out for the cupcake hunt of the century. We started off with Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery but Holly didnt do her due diligence and they were closed Next up was Billy's Bakery and thankfully they were open...

mmmmm buttery creamy goodness

call us harold and kumar

dont eat my CUPCAKES!!!

We then headed back to Long Island for dinner with my parents. Apparently Holly claims they remind her of Raymond's parents from Everybody loves Raymond, i guess my mom's overbearing and dad's rather cold haha either way theyre hilarious. Our yummy dinner was followed by some good ol pirated Curious case of Benjamin Button which I fell asleep half way through Gonna have to give it another shot.

Saturday we met up with Mark, Shazia, Dave and Tiff for dinner at Houston's. Mucho thanks to Andrew for hooking it up.

The food there is pretty damn good if you've never tried it. This was followed by some apple's to apple's which I swear is set up damnit! How in god's name is my 16th birthday more AGED than pirates...its a conspiracy I tell you. Sunday morning we hitched a ride with the rents to our hotel in manhattan. Of course ma dukes had to stop in Rockefeller Center for some picture taking.

Good thing pops has enough patience to light up a cig and wait in midtown traffic double parked hahaha.

My lifelong dream is to ride the zamboni machine...oh yea

Of course our cupcake hunt would not stop there as we went off in search of Crumbs. I must say after having their red velvet cupcake I was in love mmmMmMmmmm.

We finally learned how to share

can you say cupcake heaven...or is it HELLLL!?!?!?!

With all the calories we put on we had to make sure to keep off the pounds, what better way than to ice skate in central park?

one too many uncoordinated individuals

am i getting flipped off? tsk tsk

After dinner with some of Holly's friends we headed back to Rachel and Laila's place where holly stayed for new years to watch Slumdog Millionaire. It took a solid half hour to find all the appropriate cords to connect my hard drive to their mac and find a media player that would run the film but in the end it was all worth it. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, what are you waiting for??

Jamal Malik are you ready to play WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

Monday was spent relaxing with the misses. We shopped a bit and then got some chicken and rice (YUMMMM) while we waited in line at the TKTS stand for tickets to Avenue Q. 

After facing the cold all day it was time for a massage and facial...yea thats right I can be a man about it! And it wasnt that kind of facial sicko, despite what you may think with these videos that are circling the internets :-/ I must say it was damn nice to be pampered. Thanks hun

I had heard the show was awesome and I expected it to be so but I didn't figure I'd be in stitches all night long. The songs were hilarious with some ridiculous themes. Heres an actual song from the musical thats dubbed over some old muppets clips -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiNXoAp98IQ&feature=PlayList&p=C7E17FB85B8BC85F&index=19

its only taken me 4 years to see, not bad

yea im a badass, i take pictures in theatres

Unfortunately she had to leave on Tuesday to head back to the real world in San Francisco...BooOoOOoooOo.

Either way it was an awesome weekend spending time with loved ones Thankfully I didn't have to get too depressed on my own as Mark, Dave and I headed to Atlantic City on wednesday. Those escapades will have to wait for another night though since tomorrow morning is boarding! Yeaaa i live a charmed life and I'm grateful.

Its 5 am, do you know where your children are?

Well my parents know that I'm making a living at an illegal card room while back for the holidays...I sure have come a long way since being Valedictorian :-/ Its funny how they've both become accustomed to the notion that these are my dreams and I'm going to chase them for a bit longer. Now of course this knowledge hasn't stopped the constant nagging of "so are you going to find a real job yet?", "when are you going back to school?", "have you decided its time to leave vegas?".  I guess if my kid decided to drop everything and pursue a career in poker I'd probably have the same worries but hey sometimes you just have to do what makes you happy.

Now after having come back from this game I'm questioning why in gods name I ever left NYC. The people here are so bad. I don't know whether its the New York mentality to be overly aggressive, never know when to give up, or need to force things through but it sure leads to a great game. It seems everyone in Vegas is trying to grind out a living and it leads to alot of stale actionless games.

Ok so back to real life experiences and the reason I came back home, spending time with family and friends. I left for jersey on friday night/sunday morning to stay with fetus. We planned to go boarding at mountain creek then hit up the city to meet up with some friends. Unfortunately the conditions on the mountain were kinda mehhh but it was great to see some old faces especially my big bro and Rachel who came out for a few drinks. Heres a few pictures thanks to Rachel

andy and jimmy deciding what the evenings beverages would be

jumping cross the table for a picture...i need some sun

tired but i still came out to see you, damn lack of sleep and boarding all day

\

hmmm now we want...

yes more lemon soju

oh yea and fruit platters, gotta eat healthy when spoiling our livers

so ill is right

i needs me a grill like that

three new yorkers i miss, my big bro, tidus, and pb dai tau...i believe they are currently watching the porno that was going on behind rachel. as you can tell their eyes are amiss haha.

Lastly since I've been home I've been watching lots of movies with all the extra time. 7 pounds was interesting, I think alot of people hated it but since im such a sap I actually enjoyed the premise though quite ridiculous. As for Gran Torino I thought the film was awesome. Definitely a unique view on family relations, cultural differences, and age gaps. Clint Eastwood pleasantly surprised me with the mastery of his character...i swear thats my dad in a solid 5 to 10 years haha. If youre interested in seeing it let me know, I have a screener Time to hit the hay since I'm joining the rents tomorrow for another day at the slopes. The girlfriend gets in on wed, Woooot!

HO HO HO, no no not your mom...its Christmas time!

Wow is it possible that its been nearly half a year since I wrote in this? Time sure does pass rather quickly when you have little to no real responsibility. It amazes me that for the past year and a half for whats probably been the most interesting time of my life I have kept little to no record of my journies. Of course there are pictures but the fact that I haven't really explored in thought what I've come to learn from my experience makes it feel like I haven't taken full advantage of what my life has offered me. Its true that I once stated I'd get back into writing but hopefully I can keep the promise this time...at least to myself.

Anyway its now Christmas day and I'm back home in New York. It's nice to be around my parents again even if it means I'm a bit bored. Tonight I rumaged through some old boxes of mine in search of a cable to connect my laptop to our television. That mission of course failed miserably so there would be no public viewing of Gran Torino with mom and pops. On the other hand I did stumble across some old letters I received way back when in High School from a close friend and it got me to thinking. Now its no surprise that so much has changed since then but what I think bothers me most is the sincerity in which I believe they were written. What I mean by that is I'm certain that what my friend wrote she truly believed as well. If thats the case then why have we lost touch? Is it possible then that even today when I tell my loved ones that I will always be there for them that some day I may not?

Its scary how much time and distance can change things. I now view my life in three stages. There was New York, which took up the first 18 years of my life. Boston, which then became the next 6 years and finally Vegas where I currently reside. Each portion representing a very different facet of who I am. I'd like to think that I'm an honest, caring and genuine individual but with each move I seem to have left behind what mattered to me most. Of course this is probably all part of the process of growing up and finding oneself but I'm not sure how comfortable I am with it.

I just hope that when I look back I can proudly say I've done what I felt was right in my heart. Right now I know theres much that needs to be done but I'm positive that I'm finally set off in the right direction. More on that later as I have about a million updates and things to write about but sleep is probably more important right now. Merry Christmas and to all a Happy New Year.

Poker, poker is so fun...after an hour you need a gun

Im literally at a loss for words. Im quite sure by this point that someone is manipulating all that occurs in my life and is having quite the time doing so. The last message proved to go unheard as everything continues along the same beaten path. I don't believe much in a higher being so im not even sure who I think is listening...I guess this is all for myself anyway.

Well on to the fun stuff. Im going to try and make this as painless as possible as I don't really want to relive the misery for much longer. The first instance occurred in a game at the palms where I limped with aces under the gun. The cutoff begins to reach for his chips and I see he's excited...he makes a big raise and im sure he probably has kings or queens. The button goes all in for the exact amount of the raise. I then announce im gonna isolate and I make it 200 more. It goes back to the original raiser and he's like well ill put you all in...well surely no problem sir. I turn over the aces and he goes ahhh I need help. Well no sht sir and help you will surely receive. I look to the dealer and I ask if I can hold up for once in my life. Everyone turns up their cards, the original raiser has kings and the button who went all in for only 40 has 9s. As the dealer begins to put out a flop I see the window card is a 9. I think to myself sweet well if he flopped a set what are my chances the other guy will hit one too...oh hold onto your shorts batman because the fun doesn't stop here. Sure enough behind the window card is a king and that's all she wrote.

Now moving onto my escapades at the bellagio with our wonderful oversea language sharing friends the british. I raise preflop with ace jack and get a couple of callers. The flop comes 10 8 2 rainbow and its checked to me with our british pal behind me. I check and so does he. The turn pairs the 8 and its checked again to me. I decide to put out a small bet of 40 because I honestly think ace high is the best hand and I even welcome a raise. Well my brit pal was rather happy to oblige as he makes it 150 more. I know that of course he has either complete bollocks or a flush draw which hit the turn. I call looking for a blank on the river. Its a queen and I put a bocker bet of 100 out becaue I know if he missed he just can't raise. He ends up calling and I say well nice call I thought you missed...oh no he didn't miss at all...his queen 6 offsuit hit just beautifully on the river when he had no pair no draw. Bloody brilliant.

Now all of this sets up the culmination of the nights escapades when our pal straddles for 20. Its folded around to me on the button and I pick up kings. I know if I make some gross raise he just won't be able to help himself. I make it 100 more and he ends up calling. The flop comes King 10 9 and he checks. I bet 110 looking for a reraise since I probably look weak. Sure enough my buddy is rather happy to oblige when he states he'll put me all in for the other 500. Ok buddy no problem...he of course has king queen and of course the turn is a jack. Does the river pair the board? No no I don't have that magical ability.

Fuck this game and my inability to somehow pull through when im time and again an 80 percent favorite. You'll find me sucking down the exhaust pipe of my car. Good night.