before tonight, the closest i had gotten to playing actual poker was watching the reruns of the world series of poker on espn and watching ‘rounders‘. last week at the triple birthday party, zach said he’d be having a poker night at his house. sure enough, we all met up and played poker. it was the first time anything had taken place in ‘the shed’ since at least the hurricane. the thursday night group used to meet there. i met four new people tonight. it was really interesting to hear about what all they do in the places they live, like sacramento, L.A., and nashville. since my family is from here, i don’t have to go anywhere, so i guess that’s a bonus on some level. it was a great night. i totally lost all of my money ($5) but at least i was not the first one to go out. it was a lot of fun to sit around, talking anything and everything, drinking, and there was some pipe and cigarette smoking involved. it was excellent, except for the losing money part. i still can’t believe i lost a hand when i was dealt pocket aces. :(

on the ride back i put on the elvis christmas album i got the other day…and thought of tomorrow how i’ll be doing the annual trip to my grandmother’s to see family and unwrap presents. christmas kind of snuck up on me this year. maybe cause of the whole two month life delay from september through october, i don’t know. i certainly have had to deal with an increase in traffic, even moreso than the post-hurricane normal. its been plenty cold lately but its just been an odd month or so, and now all of a sudden i have a 10 day vacation from work (thank God!) and tons of college football to watch. anyway, i need to wrap some presents for tomorrow. i think i’m finally starting to feel it.

merry christmas!