Vegas Baby, Vegas

Monday, October 23, 2006

I'm heading out 5am tomorrow morning to go to the Adobe MAX Conference in Las Vegas. I'm kinda excited because it's several firsts for me - first work-related conference in a few years, first work trip at the new job, first conference trip with fellow Flash developers, and a biggie, my first trip to Vegas since I started playing poker a few years back.

Just for a little bit of nostalgia, I peeked through my archives and came across a few related posts from over two years ago: a trip to Vegas with my girlfriend Yesi for her sister's bachlorette party, my first as an overage adult actually and the last one before this trip; and playing poker at Trav's place after he built his first table.

A lot has happened in the years since those blog posts were published. A short selected list:

  • The bowling alley I mentioned (sunset bowl) was shut down. A San Diego institution for over 50 years, it has been or is about to be razed and turned into condos.
  • Our little home poker crew has played every week solid, with few exceptions, and even started their own website to organize the games, discuss the local poker scene, put together trips and share stories and tips. (Not sure if I should link to it - what do you say, Trav?)
  • Trav went beyond his previous project of making a new poker table - he made an even better table and an entire room to go with it, with a fridge in the corner, poker-themed signs and posters, and a bottle opener built into the wall. The guy goes big.
  • The poker site I cut my teeth on for free play back then - pokerroom.com - shut down their U.S. operations and is no longer taking American bets as of last weekend because of a new anti-gambling law. I love being treated like a second grader.
  • Most importantly, Yesi and I have been going steady with nary a hiccup or cross word the entire time. It's easily the most drama-free relationship I've ever had, so devoid of stress that I take it for granted all the time. Well, most of the time :)

Looking back on my blog posts from way back when I started this thing, I realized something else too: boy, I used to cuss a lot, huh? I wonder if I use less foul language now or have only trimmed it back from my blog posts...

I hope you all have a great week, it's probably radio silence for me until next week. There's some good parties planned for the week nights and I'm staying an extra day after the coworkers fly back on Thursday, planning on going big with a poker marathon and giant tournament bender until I fly back Saturday morning. I can't wait to test the Friday stupid tourist scene and see if I'm one of them or have some skeelz after all. Wish me luck!

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