Reflections

We’ve had some big rain storms in the last couple of weeks. Today, we lost power for the second time in less than 2 weeks. Thankfully, that’s the extent of it for here. Just up the road in Rockville, lots of people had to evacuate their homes because of a potential overflowing dam.
Also, in Philadelphia, in the Manayunk area, several blocks of Main Street had to be closed due to flooding.
So… speaking of Philadelphia and Manayunk…. that’s the area where I think I’ld like to live. But we’ve got some work to do before then. I don’t want to commit to purchasing anything there until I’ve sold here. My condo will go on the market here next Monday. I don’t know how quickly it’ll sell, but I am pricing it failry aggressively, with incentives for the buyer as well as for the buying agent. I just hope it goes fairly quickly, so I can go ahead and buy something in Philly… I really don’t want to have to move twice.
I saw Superman on Monday. I thought it was very good. The movie lasted about 2 and a half hours, but it only felt like an hour. I also think I’m crushing on the new Lois Lane… no, not on Kate Bosworth, but her playing Lois Lane. Anyway, the movie had great special effects. And although the story did have some holes in it (Kryptonite nearly kills Superman, but then he basically just picks it up and gets rid of it???), the movie was fairly well written. There was even a mini-surprise in Lois Lane’s son and tons of possibilities for another sequel.
And before the movie, they showed a preview for Spiderman 3. Let me tell you, it looks FANTASTIC!!! Bad news, though… it won’t be opening until next May 4… that’s 2007.
Well, there’s one more movie that I’m really looking forward to… and it’ll open in just a couple of weeks. Clerks 2, another of Kevin Smith’s movies, opens on July 21. I love all of Smith’s movies (yeah, even Jersey Girl), so this one will have to be great! Just a couple of weeks away!!!
Lastly…. Happy 4th!!!

I’ve spent a little time trying to tweak my site back to what it was… some of it worked, some didn’t. At least it looks nicer now!
I’ve even posted my XBox 360 GamerCard, so you can see what I’m up to on XBox Live. Hell, if you catch me on XBL, send me a message or invite me to play against you.

OMG… I’ve been on hold with Gold’s Gym for over 30 minutes… If my call “was important to” them, I wouldn’t have waited for so long.
OMG… the school year is over… working Summer programs is a much slower/easier pace than the school year… I’m so ready to slow down…
OMG… It’s official… I’ll be moving to Philadelphia at the end of this summer. I’ll be working with Meriwether-Godsey (I don’t see myself ever leaving them… EVER) at our only account in PA, Germantown Academy. I’m in for quite a change. It’s a different type of account in many respects — it’s a P&L (vs a fee at EHS), it’s a day school (vs. Boarding at EHS)… it’s a Monday to Friday gig… and they only serve Breakfast and Lunch… So, I’m going to have to get used to working mornings again… but I should be done by 4 pm or so every day… so Happy Hours are back to being possible again!
OMG… did I mention that I have to move to Philadelphia in the next couple of months? Talk about culture change!! Yeah, it’s still a big city (like DC), but Philly isn’t in the South… And the roads seem narrower there. But everyone has seemed awfully friendly there so far. BUT, I have a convertible, and have to move to a “colder” area to live? 🙁 But maybe I’ll love it there!)
OMG… this past weekend SnB had their final regional poker tournament before the annual tournament next week. To qualify for the regional, you had to win a nightly game or score in the top 50 of those who didn’t win… I won three times, so not a big deal there… To qualify for the annual tournament, you had to win a regional (only six winners totals), or score in the top 100 of those who played in regionals — but to score any “real” points, you had to finish in the top 30 of any regional… In 3 attempts, the closest I got was to about 50th place… so the only way I could qualify for the annual tournament (in my estimation, anyway), was to finish in the top 25-30 of this regional…
Well, I went into this regional with the mindset that I was giong to do just that… make the final 3 tables. And I did mighty well, I think.. but I didn’t make it. I was heartbroken… and I feel like I only played 2 hands badly during all of the tournament.
Some highlights:

• Catching pocket 8’s on the button, and having the flop fall 6-8-6… flopping top boat is a great feeling… I won a good amount of chips on that hand.
• I think that every flop that I saw with a pocket pair, I caught my set… there were some hands where I folded a small pair, and they didn’t hit… it felt like luck was heading my way.
• One hand, I was dealt AK, and raised 3x the Big blind. I only had one caller (and he was very short stacked)… the flop came all rags, so put the guy all in… he called, and turned over pocket queens… the turn and river were blanks too…. I didn’t lose too many chips that hand… but it was the first badly played hand that I came across.
• I tend to tighten up a little towards the middle of the tournamants… not sure why. but I have noticed that, and am working on it… but when the table I was playing at was broken up, I entered the new table as a short stack — where I was top 2 at the previous table. So, I had some making up to do. I probably hit the table with around 5600 chips or so, and the blinds were 500-1000. So, I was into short-stacked playing mode… When I decided to enter a pot, it was all-in, or a fold. Well, I don’t know how it happened, but my “middle-tournament-tightening-up problem” was less tight than the other players at this table. Every time I went all-in, I got a fold. I increased my chips to about 16,200 without ever showing down my cards. It was great… my bluffs were folded to, my raises with small pocket pairs were folded to, my raises with an ace were all folded… I didn’t show a card for an hour…
  And then it got to be about time for the next break… there were 27 players left, and the blinds were 2000-4000, and I had 16,200 chips, and I was probably about average stacked (if not, slightly above average) for the table. With about 3 minutes before break, I’m in the big blind. And everyone folded around to me except the small blind. I haven’t looked at my cards yet, and the small blind ponders it a bit… and then folds.. I won the pot without even looking at the cards…so I turn them over one by one for the whole table to see… first a K, then an A… I would have been able to play that hand with big slick if everyone hadn’t folded to me… my table image of being a raiser could have cost me extra chips… my image also was that I would defend my blinds ruthlessly.
• And on the last hand before the break, I’m the player before the button. Everyone folds to me, and I look down at A-10 suited. I have 18,200 chips. I have to raise… the blinds are 2000-4000, and raising three times the big blind would basically have me pot committed, so I went all in. The dealer folded, the small blind thought and thought and thought, and called me…. he had a few more chips than I did. And then the big blind thought and thought and folded. I was heads up and a little worried. The Small Blind turned over pocket 6’s… I was behind, but only slightly (I was about a 49% – 51% underdog — basically a coin toss). The flop came 3-4-9. I was futher behind (at that point, I had about a 32% chance of winning the hand). The turn came a 5. I had a gutshot straight draw, which was negated by his open-ended straight draw (If the 2 came, he’d have a 6 high-flush, beating out my 5-high flush — I was an 88% – 12% underdog)…. and then came the river… a Jack. In one moment, my chances were gone. There’d be no reaching the extra points… there’d be no qualifying for the annual tournament.
• I’ve replayed that hand in my head COUNTLESS times since then. If I had played it slower, would he have folded ? There’s no way he would have folded at the turn… he was open-ended and had a pocket pair… Would he have folded with just one overcard on the board? I don’t know.
• The guy who busted me almost busted out on his very first hand of the tournament… He flopped trip aces, and had a lower kicker… he was down to 375 chips. Nice Comback!
• The guy who busted me out finished the regionals in 2nd place… Even more impressive comeback!!!

OMG!!

I was walking from my car to the office, and looked down on the sidewalk, and saw something interesting.
See, the students had what they call a “Mass Meeting” (what you and I would call a “Pep Rally”) in the building in front of this particular sidewalk. So, I assumed what I was seeing was a plastic or rubber frog or something. But I wasn’t sure exactly what is was.
So, I picked it up to examine it, and turned it over, and saw its face… then I realized that it didn’t feel like plastic or rubber. It was a dead baby bird… eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww…. It must have fallen out of a nest in an overhead tree. Poor thing…
… I was kind of disgusted… I dropped it back onto the sidewalk, and since then have washed my hands at least three times…

Look out… another theme post…
LOST # 1 : My seasonal-Survivor Wrap-Up
The wrong person won this season of Survivor. The right person didn’t even finish second. The person who won actually finished third. Yep, Terry should have won. He was outnumbered 6 to 1, had the immunity idol, and won nearly every immunity challenge. When it came to the last challenge, he didn’t win… and thus got voted out. I guess that it didn’t matter who Danielle picked, she was going to lose against either Terry or Aras. So, she made a promise and didn’t own up to it. All too typical in the game.
LOST #2: The TV Show “Lost” ROCKS!!!
Yeah, I’m hooked! I’ve gone through my “favorite shows” recently: Alias, Buffy, Angel, Wonderfalls (yeah, you probably didn’t see that one). But Lost is FANTASTIC!!! I unfortunately only have one “Lost-friend” to discuss the show with each week. And yes, the show needs discussing after every episode. Only 2 episodes left this season, and I have NO IDEA where they’re heading… just the way I like it!
LOST #3: Lost the Account
Nope, not good news… My company lost the account where I’m currently working. I do feel OK about it for a couple of reasons. First, no matter what reason that they’re giving, I am confident that it’s not a performance based decision. They’ve given so many conflicting reasons, and so many people have been two-faced throughout the entire process (which is so typical for EHS), that I have no reason to feel badly about it. Second, I’ve been ready to leave EHS for a while — in fact, I asked to be relocated at least two years ago — it just didn’t make business-sense at the time. Third, I work for the greatest company in the world — they’re behind me, they’re supporting me, they’re going to continue to take care of me. It’s still up in the air where I’ll be working next fall, but I’m still M-G!! But I will say this — I’m hoping to be somewhere a little more blue!! I’ll keep you posted!

I know, I know. I finally get Reflections up and running again… and then I don’t update it very often… bad bri-man.
Anyway, this week will be a busy week at work, and possibly an emotional week. I won’t get into the emotional part of it, until it’s all said and done, but I will mention the busy-ness of the business.
Tonight we ran a sushi bar for the kids. They L-O-V-E-D it, but it was a lot of work. Thursday, we have an tons of catering for an Admissions Re-visit. And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, it’s Parents’ Weekend. Think they cram it all in at once? Then Monday will be busy too. Things’ll slow down a little bit, but pick right back up again the following week. Then slow down again, and pick back up again… When is graduation anyway?