Does life really have to just kick my ass constantly?

I call about my car yesterday. His wife picks up and says he has the car fixed, but the billing statement isn't done yet, and he's busy. So I say, NP, I'll get it in the morning. So, I go to get my car. I pay $613.30. He hands me my key. I go to my car. I turn the key, it turns, starts, dies. I turn it again, it doesn't start. I turn it again, it dies. I sit there as if I'm dreaming and I need to come back to reality. I turn it again, it wont start.

I go tell him. He says, it was working fine, cuz i drove it around to make sure. He goes, does the same thing I just did. He goes to his shop comes back and sprays something inside a big tube. still nothing. He says, maybe it's the computer system. Let it sit 10 minutes with the key in it. I sit there wait, wait wait. try it. Nothing. Finally, I go back to the shop give him the key, and he goes "I'll reboot the computer when I get a chance."

I leave.

WTF am i supposed to do? I need my car back. My dad's car, which I've been driving, which has a giant fucking contusion in the passenger side, tags expire tomorrow. I dont even know if he can get new tags with the car in that condition. Even if my car is ready tonite, I have to work tonite and monday and tuesday. My car's tags currently say Sept 07. I never got my tags renewed. When I was going to, it broke down. So, I have no time to get my tags done until Wednesday, when I go in late. THis is so frustrating. Can't I just have something go my way? I don't cause trouble. I don't do bad things. I help people out when I can and when they really seem to need it. Yet, I just constantly git shat upon. In the past I would've blamed myself and said God was punishing me for looking at porn. If I believed in Karma, I would think, Oh something good is gonna happen soon. But, I don't believe in either of those things. Now I just believe that life is life.

My life isn't that bad. really. Its just little things like this that seem to never go my way. But, part of that is me and the poverty I have to live in. This mechanic sucks balls. But, I chose him because he's cheap. LIke most things you get what you pay for. But, it doesn't mean I can't bitch about it on my blog.

Full Tilt continues to Haunt me

So, last post was about my car situation. For 3 weeks I have had the money for my car to get fixed, sitting in my drawer. Well, money doesn't last long when its in my possession. I was borrowing from it as well as my brother. But, it was fine, my brother said he would withdraw from poker in time to pay for the car. So, today My brother goes to make a withdrawal using Moneygram, which he's been using for a few months now. Moneygram gets the money to him within a day. But, Guess what... FTP doesn't offer money grams anymore! LOL. its so amazing. So, now even if my car is actually ready tomorrow, it's going to be at least a week, prolly longer, knowing ftp, before I have the money to pay for it. I don't play online poker anymore, yet FTP keeps finding a way to F me over. this shit is amazing.

My Car-RANT Situation

Okay, so you may remember exactly one month ago, me posting that I put my car in the shop. It still isn't fixed. For the last 3 weeks I have been told "Monday" then Monday comes and it's not ready. So, this past sunday my brother wrecked the car my dad has been lending me. He claims someone ran a red light and hit him. The guy who ran the red light claims his light was green. So, it's going to investigation by the insurance companies. Regardless, I'm left with a car, that thankfully still drives, but I can't open the passenger side door. So, last monday I went to the guy at the shop and said, hey, I need my car. He said it would be ready Tuesday. I go Tuesday, expecting to get my car... the head gasket is still on his garage floor and he claims that the "guy who works on the head gaskets (apparently there is 1 person left in the entire world) did it wrong" and he has to send it back. This is so very frustrating and I plan on never taking my car to this guy again. Last time, years ago, I had the same problem. My head gasket blew and this guy didn't get my car back to me for over a month. Last time the excuse was the mechanic's strike. This time, it's someone else's fault. There is always something. The only good thing and the ONLY reason I take it to this guy is because he does it extremely cheap, because he knows my brother in law and basically my wife's whole family. It sucks being broke. A job that would've costed me 1400$ at Midas he is doing for 600$. Regardless, it wont be going back to this guy. He assured me that it would be ready this Wednesday and his wife was even there writing down a note and taking my number again. I really hope it is. If it isn't I'd like to say I'm gonna take it somewhere else, but honestly I wouldn't want to have to pay for the tow, so hopefully it doesn't come to that. I need my FING Car!!!!!

Some Home Game Poker

My brother and I went to that home game I mentioned, last nite. It started off with 9 people and we played a 20$ freezeout. A guy we haven't seen since our home game days, BOB, happened to be there. It was cool to see him and talk about the good ol days. All in all it was a decent night. I didn't catch crap in the first freezeout and went out 5th, then in the 2nd one I was doing really well at the start but then fizzled out towards the end and finished 1 from the money in the 2nd one, that only had 6 people in it. People played a little weird. For the most part, they wont bad or good players. They pretty much played their hands. But, some of them kept limping with like giant hands and playing them very non-chalantly, so it was a little tough to read people at times. It was certainly very friendly. It was a good time and work permitting, I'll probably go again. Hopefully, next time though we can get a good cash game going, cuz I don't really like live freezeouts. My brother did get 2nd place which should've been first place in the first tournament. He was headsup and hammered at the guy, who was Bob, btw, for a few hands in a row. Finally, Bob repopped and my brother pushed, he called. My brother had QQ, Bob had AJo.

Flop comes Q78. "Well, shit i'm drawing dead," Bob says.
Turn T
River 9

SO he caught runner runner straight to beat Andrew's flopped set after thinking he was drawing dead on the flop. Pretty sick. 2 hands later my brother was all in and shipp the 1st place money to BOB. Bob was the first to go out in the 2nd tournament.

But, it was decent and that's 2x I've played poker in the last few days. Maybe I'm getting the itch again.

First Time in 2 1/2-3 months

I'm not sure exactly how long its been, but last nite I did something for the first time in months. I played poker. Live poker. I went to the Lumiere (St. Louis' newest and best casino) and sat for a few hours at the poker table. I made 150 bucks. Their lowest game is a 1-3 No limit game. I sat with 50 big blinds. So, basically, I doubled my money. It was nice. I think I won like 6 hands overall and only had to showdown 1 time. Pulled off a few bluffs. Overall, there weren't any great hands, but I felt like I totally had the entire table pegged. I played really well. Surprisingly well, for someone who hasn't played in so long. But it just goes to show that this is a skill you can have for life if you develop it right. On one hand I actually split a pot with another guy, but there was a 3rd person in it as well.

Preflop, UTG I was dealt AQs. Not a great hand under the gun, but I make it 4x the bb with the intentions of folding if reraised (there were maybe 2 3 bets all night, very passive table, like most NL tables around here, live). I get 3 calls. Flop comes Q85, rainbow. Obv, a good flop for me, but if I get action I'm worried. No one was raising with pairs, they were just calling really. So, i bet almost pot, I bet 40$. Get two calls. This worries me a bit. Next card is a K. Prolly the worst card I could think to come. The guy a few seats down has his chips in his hand, and I ask him how much he has left. He has like 110 left. Damn 100$ chip. I was hoping he had like 60 left, so I could just put him all in. Other guy still has a ton of chips and I don't like my hand a whole bunch anymore. So, I check, to see what they do. guy checks then next guy bets 40. Okay, this seems to be a pattern with these live guys at least at this table. They would bet the same amount on the flop and turn or the same amount as their opponent if they had basically the same hand they had before the turn. So, this guy didn't improve, is what I determined. Still the guy behind me is bugging me, and because he wasn't really in my vision, I had the least amount of info on him. I call the 40$ and the other guy calls. River is a blank, it checks around. I show my AQ, so does the guy at the end and then the other one mucks. So, I split a pot worth about 50$. not bad. Chasing is super expensive in this game.

Nothing else really stands out. I won another 50$ profit in a hand in which I bet the whole way and the guy folded on the river, another chaser. A hand at the table behind us was interesting. There was a guy who all of a sudden began bitching. He's like "now, what I don't understand is you called 12$ with 72?" Basically, the board read 772X, with the river to come and he had bet and the guy pushed all in for 400$. So, he flipped his cards over and began naming hands that had his 22 (2s full of 7s) beat. He was being pretty obnoxious. He's obviously not folding here, but he takes a full 5 minutes before finally calling. The guy shows over 97, hits a 9 on the river. There's a big "WHOA" and the guy flys up from the table and takes a lap around the casino floor. LOL. The other is left collecting the 1k pot, smiling from ear to ear, and assuring everyone that "this never happens to me." It's pretty funny to me actually. Bad beats happen and this guy had like 6 outs from the turn, so really it wasn't THAT bad. But when the guy finally got back to the table with like 1/6th the amount of chips he had when he left, he just sat there steaming. I was hoping to see some live action Monkey tilt, but I may have left to soon for it.

Truth betold that hand kind of messed my game up. I was already playing with money that if I lost, it would kind of hurt us a little bit. I mean, not really, but it would've made the next week and a half less comfortable. But, that's what I do, you know. So, going into the game I was kind of apprehensive. So, of course then when I do get 150$ up, see that hand happen and think, there's no way I'm folding 22 there. I get worried that I could lose my profit and my 150$ stake in one hand. I don't think I played a single hand after seeing that hand happen. I played until the blinds were about to hit me and I left. It's definitely not how you're supposed to go into a poker game, but obviously, I'm no where near bankrolled for a game like that. I mean, I don't even have a bankroll period. But, anyways, that's gambling, isn't it. It was a good night. I made some money. Showed myself that I still got it. And killed a few hours. I've been invited to a poker game on Thursdays, that I may attend. I think the stakes are like 20$ and they play basically 1 table tournaments, but it might be fun, so I might check it out.

Maybe I'll quit my job and start playing poker full time again.

hmmm


Nah.

(my wife's heart just skipped a beat)

Busy Weekend

So, this weekend was the Big draft day for my Fantasy league. Every year we are reminded about how long the day truly becomes and how miserable the draft can make us all. I think the main reason is just that we have it at someones house every year and there isnt enough space for everyone to be comfortable and then 4 or 5 members aren't nearly as devoted as others. So, when their time comes to draft every round they have to snatch people's sheets then proceed to call out names that were drafted 2 or 3 rounds ago. Oddly, enough these are the people that complain the most about the longness of the draft. It was suggested that next year we just do it all over the computer, so that as one member said "I can play Final Fantasy while I draft." That's D-E-D-I-C-A-T-I-O-N at its best right there. Regardless, we got through it. I'm pretty happy with my team this year. I mean, I guess Im happy after the draft last year, but this year I feel like I have some real quality depth at each position as well as a few players that could have outstanding seasons. My plans this year was just to pick guys who have proven track records for scoring points. Here is my team in the Keeper part of the league:

D. Brees, QB
M. Barber, RB
W. Parker, RB
Ch. Johnson, WR
Reg. Wayne, WR
A. Gates, TE
Janikowski, K
New England, DEF

On my bench i have
Mendenhall, RB
Curtis, WR
V. Jackson, WR
Rivers, QB

I could foresee an issue at RB, especially if one gets injured, but I think having mendenhall and Parker, guarantees at least 1 panning out and pitt is a good team, soI really love that I got that combo. With Barber, hopefully they dont split time with F. Jones. Rivers, I think is a chance for a mid season trade if needed. He underperformed last year, but if he starts off hot, I could definitely trade him for depth, assuming Brees is good again. My WR corps I think has 2 guys who have done it year in and year out, then 2 guys who could have breakout seasons. So, good luck me.

In the head to head league, start from scratch part of our 3 league system my team is

P. Manning, QB
Lynch, RB
Parker, RB
Holt, WR
Jennings, WR
McMichael, TE
Folk, K
Houston, DEF

Bench
J. Stewart, RB
F. Jones, RB
Cotchery, WR
V. Jackson, WR

With this league, I felt like every round the player I wanted went right before I could get him. It was kind of frustrating and I'm not as happy with my team here. I think having Peyton will be a big help though. I have 2 rookie RBs in Jones and Stewart, but hopefully 1 has a decent year to help that out in case lynch or parker dont produce. They could also become great trade bait. With Holt and Jennings, its kidn of a toss up. Holt looked done at times last year and Jennings' season will depend on Aaron Rodgers. Cotchery is a good receiver who just got a Great QB, in Brett Favre and V. Jackson, see above. Strength on this team is Obviously at QB, but if last year's results happen again I think this team is solid enough to get a playoff berth and hopefully will not hinder my attempt at the best overall score in the 3 league system we are doing.

The 3rd league is a salary cap league, but yahoo hasn't started it up yet.

Also, on Sunday my brother got in a car wreck in my dads car, which is the one I've been using. He got hit on the pasenger side by someone that he said ran a red light. The car is still driveable but you can't open the passenger side door. I had to call and make claims all morning and hopefully that mess is sorted out soon. My car which has been in the shop for 3 weeks was supposed to be ready today... and last monday... and the monday before that. Anyways, I called the guy and told him i needed it like NOW, and he said he would put a rush on it (LOL) and hopefully have it by tomorrow. It's hard to complain too much though, when you only have to pay about half of what I would have to pay somewhere else. Hopefully, my car doesn't have anything else wrong with it that I don't know about.

Michael Phelps

I'm really enjoying watching this guy do what he's doing. Unfortunately, though, because of the scene in sports recently, it's very difficult to not have a little voice in the back of my head telling me that in 6 months we're gonna find out he on was something. It just seems like every time now, when there is a great performance it is followed by a doping scandal, in which the athlete is stripped of his medals or as in the case of baseball, given another 20 million dollar contract and a slap on the wrist.

It's still quite amazing to watch because the guy just dominates. Hopefully, we wont be hearing those stories anytime soon.

A fun Saturday Night

I've noticed over the past month or so, that I've been wanting to unwind on the weekends. I guess the old adage, work hard so you can play hard isn't just a saying, but a mentality that some of us possess. Maybe all of us, idk. Anyways, so the last few weeks I haven't been able to do anything. Well, last nite I finally got out with my wife and my brother even joined us. We went to this bar called House of Rock. It wasn't anything special really and in fact, it was pretty expensive. Luckily, since I don't drink very often, I'm still a lightweight and was able to get drunk off of 3 bud light limes (my new beer of choice), 1 shot of tequila, and 1 long island iced tea. I was feeling good. But, it's always kind of weird to be the only one drunk. Well, there was a late showing at the theatre across the street, so we went and saw Step-brothers, the new Will Ferrell, John C Reilly movie. Now, it could be from the drunkenness, but the first hour of that movie may have been the funniest movie of all time. Like most comedies though, it kind of dies off or maybe the alcohol started wearing off, idk which, towards the end as they move the plot along. But, I definitely suggest it. It was really funny and my brother and wife were laughing pretty good too, so I don't think it was just me or the booze.

Busy Busy Busy

I've been pretty busy lately. hence the title. Last week I put in 4 hours of overtime at work. It's amazing to me how the people who work at Domino's don't ever want to work. Unlike most jobs, at least to my knowledge, we have a lot of issues with workers. It seems like every other day there is something that causes someone not to come in. So far there has been: a hostage situation, a driver left his car running and it slammed into a building, someone totaled their car, this girl has to leave work early because her ex-boyfriend is F-ing her best friend, at least 4 times someone has been sick, and at least 5 times someone has just said, "eh, I don't feel like working." We've had 2 people, grown men, both in their 30s and 40s come in just to say, "I quit."

So, basically, that means extra work for those that are actually there or those that are coming in later to work. Instead of getting off at 8 like your schedule says you are asked to close, which means you wont get off until 12:30. Personally, I have no problems, most of the time working extra hours. It hardly ever bugs me to work some more if I'm already working. The only part I ever hate is when I'm called on my day off. Fortunately, I haven't had to go in on my day off yet. (well, I had to go in for an hour of training on monday, but I'm not gonna count that) But, last week no one else seemed to be willing to work and that's why I had overtime. But, apparently the owners don't like people getting overtime and it becomes my boss' job to make sure it doesn't happen again. But, what is she supposed to do, right?

I begin running shifts next week. My boss has been waiting for my podiatry insoles to come in, but they still haven't. (Note: I couldn't remember when my doctor's appointment was, so I just looked it up on my blog. Blogs are great!) It has been 8 weeks, next week since my appointment and they were supposed to come in after 6 weeks. But, it's a clinic, so what do you expect. Anyways, so my boss has been waiting cuz she didn't want me to be in agonizing pain, but she really needs me to start next week, so I told her to go ahead and schedule me for it. The guy who has been doing it, messes up every week and she wants to get rid of him. The hardest part of doing the job is simply going to be remembering all the paper work I have to do at the end of the night. We have to do inventory like every day and then we have to fill out this sheet with the totals from the nite and compare it to the totals from one year ago. Which, I don't really understand why that has to happen everynite. It seems like that should be more of a monthly thing, but whatever. As I get more into it I'm sure i can figure out the goal of doing it and/or make suggestions to the higher ups. That's one thing I've always been pretty good at. No matter what line of work I get into, I've always come up with ways to make the job better and more efficient. It's basically the ability to understand rules better than most and then use those rules to my advantage or to the advantage of what I'm trying to accomplish.

One of the best examples of that that I have is my senior year in high school, when I played soccer for the first time in my life. I didn't know the rules, and had never played on an organized team, going into the season. But, very soon I understood better than most of my teammates. There was a game where the opponent kicked the ball into the box (dont know actual term) and he already had a teammate in there. Well, the ball was going out of bounds, so we would have had our goalie kick the ball anyways on a free kick. But, since he had a teammate in the box, if I would've touched the ball then it was offsides. So, my teammate who had played soccer for all 4 years of school, was yelling at me to touch the ball so it'd be offsides. But, I told him, no I'll just let it go out of bounds and we get a free kick anyway. Which was the better option. The ref is like, "ya, you're right."

Okay so that's a dumb story, but it shows my point. Here is this guy who has played soccer and it was one of my first games playing soccer and I already understood the rules better than he did. It's just an ability I have and I think it really comes in handy.

I downloaded this game on my cellphone that's like brain challenge or something. Well, it's a series of different brain games, like math, which weighs more, mirror images, and some other things. Well, after you're done they grade you on 4 things, math, logic, memory, and visual. Well, after every time I play I get roughly the same pattern of best scores. It's always, memory, math or logic, math or logic, then visual. Visual seems to be my biggest weakness of those four and memory is always my strongest. Why does that matter? I don't know. But if something keeps happening over and over, it's prolly true. I think it's good to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, especially mentally.

Okay this is the longest post ever. goodbye.

August Goals

My wife and I have come up with some goals for August together. She has basically been staying with me for a few weeks now. Though, some weekdays she has to go back to her dad's to watch her nephew. But, once school starts, that commitment will be over and she will be staying with me all the time. My dad's house is kind of mess, so her stipulation was that we clean it up. So, that will be part of the goals. Our relationship is getting stronger by the day and I think for once, a plan I made and the decision that I made, for us to take a break from each other, worked out for the best. I can't take all the credit though. My wife has put in a lot of work, time, and effort to get better and it's really showing. Hopefully, it continues and we are able to continue to grow together.

Here's the goals:

*Fix the Car- this is already into place. It's in the shop and I expect it to be done sometime this week. The only thing is the money. I still haven't gotten a check from Full tilt, that was requested more than 2 weeks ago. (go figure right?) It was requested right before they started offering money grams. However, my brother says he can get the money by moneygram and wait for the check/reimbursement himself, if it needs to happen. Also, this depends on the amount that I will owe for the car to be fixed. If it's more than I think, it will be longer than this week. But, regardless this goal should be met within a few weeks at most.

*Save at least 200$ this month. Assuming the car doesn't completely break me, this shouldn't be a problem. Even with making peanuts, I make way more than I should be spending and saving 200$ shouldn't be a problem.

*Get the House completely cleaned- self explanatory

*Flea problem. My cat's have fleas and I need to get rid of them.

*Doctor's appointments- my wife has a few appointments that need to be made

*Get back on track with diet/excercise. This is pretty much a never ending battle. But, the point is to never stop fighting. Time to get back on track, especially since I have a doctor's appointment myself in early september.

That's pretty much it. I think they are all achievable and they should be accomplished.

Important Dates in August:
*8th My brother's birthday
*17th Fantasy Football Draft

Also, I figure I will be doing a lot of training this month, so I need to get all that done.

New Plans and Goals

So, last post, or a few posts ago I talked about how I might be interested in pursuing running my own domino's store. Well, after talking with my wife and considering my options I've decided to pursue it. I informed my boss the other day and she said that I will begin training very soon. I don't really know the timeline for when this will go down. I assume it will have to do with how quickly I get trained as well as how quickly I pick everything up. My boss makes it sound like it could happen in a few months, which is very exciting and kind of scary at the same time. I love the idea of moving up so quickly. Obviously, though I want to be prepared. I've decided to put off school again. Well, decided/forced. I don't have the money. I could probably force myself to come up with enough for one class, but with this new mini career I will be starting, it will be rough to prepare for that and go to school. Also, one of the main reasons I've been wanting to go to school is so that I coul basically make more money and get a job that could lead to good pay. Well, I'm fortunate in that it seems like I've found a way to get into that job without having to go to school. I asked my boss and she said that I would basically make about 35k a year. That would fluctuate based upon incentives. But, that is around what I should expect to make. I also get benefits as well. I know it's not a ton of money or anything. But, honestly for me and my wife, that would be enough for us to live much more comfortable than we already are. Currently I support our family bringing in less than 20k a year. Again, I don't think in 5-10 years I would want to be stuck at 35k, but I think that with this experience and then taking some classes over the next few years, I will have more opportunities to make more money down the road.

Also, there's still the likelihood that my wife will be approved for disability or even be able to work again. But, the idea of being financially better off than ever, in just 6 months to even a year, if it would take that long, is pretty nice to think about. In my opinion, becoming simply an assistant manager, making 9$ an hour would become very frustrating very quickly if I didn't plan on continuing my move up or getting a new job. This just seems like the best way to go about it and I hope I'm up for the challenge. I know I can do a good job, the only thing that might hurt me is experience.

On a side note, I'm really enjoying all the new fantasy football stuff my league is doing now. Everyone seems to be on board with the changes and very excited about the upcoming season. I created a Team Logo for my team this year. Check it out.



My team name is the St. Louis Flamms.

I am working hard this year and hopefully I can get back on the winning track. I havent wont the league in over 5 years and I haven't been to the playoffs in 3.

My wife and I have made some goals for August. I will go over them in the next post.