Confused Again. Need Waffle-guidance, stat.

Never a good title. Lots going on in my mind these days. Not working and not going to school during the summer leaves me with a lot of free time, and I'm not sure if that is a good thing.

I'm trying to store up as much energy and create as many positive memories as I can during the summer to last me through Seattle's 10-month rainy season. I've been out hiking at least one day each of the past three weeks, which was a little goal of mine when summer started. It really is beautiful up in the mountains, and hiking has a way of clearing my head to prioritize what it is I really need to be working on when I get back to the city.

This Monday I returned to Leavenworth, this time with Chelsey and Mary Ann. Chelsey actually works Mondays, but from 4am to 10am as a barista, so as soon as she got off, the three of us headed up highway 2 to Leavenworth. We stopped at Sultan Bakery, and they didn't believe my ranting and raving about the place until our meal came. I split a breakfast sandwich with Chelsey, and she was a bit skeptical about not having enough to eat until her half of the sandwich arrived. We were all stuffed for the next 60 or so miles of the drive.

Turned out to be a classic car show in Leavenworth on Monday, and Chelsey is a big car and motorcycle buff, so she checked them out while Mary Ann and I acted like we knew the difference between the cars besides color (which I still had trouble with). We got gelato, then headed to the river and shotgunned beers. It wasn't pretty. Well, Mary Ann and Chelsey were pretty, but not me. I think I downed the beer in under a minute, which might be a new world's worst shotgun record.

After the river, which was a little too fast and too cold to swim in, we headed to the other side of Icicle Rd. and Chelsey and I did a bit of rock climbing. I had climbed here a little over eight years ago, as a freshman in college. I remember driving out at night, with snow on the ground in February, and camping in the snow while Becky tried to put the moves on me, to which I refuted (I was an innocent freshman).

Mary Ann soaked in some rays as Chelsey and I climbed up the side of the mountain looking for slabs of rock to climb, with beers and cameras in hand. Chelsey would find a rock to climb and I would use her camera to take pictures. Then I would find a rock and she would do the same for me:





I had a good view. I think Chelsey captioned her photo as "looking for a hand hold." I see a good hand hold... yeah. The climbing was fun, but I was going barefoot, which made it very difficult.

The three of us headed back to Seattle and stopped for a quick dip in the Wenatchee River on the way. We hung out again at Eddie's house last night, along with his friend Arez, who he met growing up in Toronto. I'll be living with Eddie at his parents' house in a month or so. Eddie's parents moved to Dominica last month, and will be staying for a year or two, so Eddie is holding down the fort and I'm helping. The house is ridiculously nice, with 3-4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, and I'll be paying $450/month plus utilities to have my own room, a spare room, my own bathroom, and a spare bathroom in case I stop up mine! Jackpot! We're out in the burbs, which isn't so bad because my likely teaching job will be out in the burbs, too.

Erin is back from Italy, and things are all sorts of confusing. She leaves for a 10-month stint in Jordan in September. If she left today, I think we'd probably split and see if we're still single when she returns to start anything serious. But with two months between now and her move, we have time to get to know each other better, to a point where we might want to stay together during her time in Jordan. 10 months and many thousand miles scares me. Erin scares me. Heck, I scare me!

I'm confused again about relationships in general. A lot of the marriages and relationships I see around me are pretty good for the most part. My parents are still together after what.. 50-60 years now, is it? (haha) All of my good friends' parents have stayed together. My three best friends are married, and they all seem to have found great mates.

My current confusion is that I think Erin would be great as well, I don't doubt this, but I also think there are plenty of other women out there that would be better. I've been hanging out with Chelsey more since summer began, and she is dream-girl material. Plays on a soccer and softball team. Just obtained teaching cert. Loves to travel. Has the same humor. Loves beer. Loves hiking. Loves motorcycles and old cars. Is a model. Pretty much out of my league, but she also seems like such a better match.

What scares me is that if I continue to think this way, I'll never be satisfied. Say I ditch Erin and then Chelsey and I get together. What happens when someone who is a better match than Chelsey comes along? The other obvious hurdle is Erin thinks I'm a great match for her, and I think Chelsey is a great match for me, and Chelsey thinks Waffles is a better match for her, and Waffles thinks The Wife is a better match for him, and The Wife thinks Betty is a better match for her... the cycle is endless! Madness!!

I feel like I should have learned this lesson in high school, but alas, I did not date in high school!

What is...

What is the best compliment a person could give you?

Lake Wenatchee

Last year, I was invited to come camping with a few people from my teaching program up at Lake Wenatchee. I had never been to the lake before, and we went in August, during our summer break. A handful of us from the cohort made the trip up last year and we had a blast.

This year, I was the only person from the cohort besides Caroline and her family (who invited us out last year). I motorcycled out again this year, and the ride was great except for the five mile stretch of grooved pavement between Monroe and Sultan. I have very little control over the bike on grooved pavement, and it was like going over a wet grated bridge for five miles.

Once in Sultan, I stopped at my favorite bakery to shake off the grooved pavement blues and eat a huge breakfast sandwich. I finished the entire thing, and staved off my food coma until I made it to Lake Wenatchee, then promptly passed out on the beach. The mosquitoes were a lot worse this year, which must be due to coming earlier in the season. I kept my sweatshirt and sweatpants on the entire time, even though it was 80 degrees--just to keep the bugs from biting.

I decided to only bring a tent and sleeping mat this year, no sleeping bag. This was a mistake. I froze my tush off at night, and tried to cocoon myself in my sweats and motorcycle gear, to no avail. As soon as the sun rose, I hopped on the motorcycle to get out of the forest and find some sun to warm up. I rode the back way to Leavenworth, which is an incredibly fun road to ride. I hadn't checked my phone for the time, but I knew it was early because of the sunrise and the fact that Leavenworth was a ghost town.





I explored the town a bit, trying to find a place for hot chocolate and breakfast. Sandy's opened up an hour after I arrived... at 7am. I felt guilty just ordering a hot chocolate, so I ate a big breakfast and had my second food coma of the trip. I elected to siesta in the Leavenworth park, in the sun, before riding back to the Lake Wenatchee campsite. I got a bit of reading in down by the lake, then rode back to Seattle.

On the way back to Seattle, I stopped at two spots. First, Deception Falls, which is just a waterfall right near highway 2. It was a nice spot to stretch my legs and snap a few pictures.



Second, I stopped at the Lake Serene trailhead, which I intended to hike this past Monday until finding out one of the other hikers hiked that trail last week.

God Taketh Away and God Giveth

Decided to play the $34k guaranteed today on Tilt, while continuing my job search. I can't remember the last $24 tourney I bought into, it must be back a few years at MatH (and I think that was only $22?). Things were going smoothly, actually better than smooth, with an average stack and the bubble approaching. I was playing tight and picking my spots to steal and re-steal effectively.

I lost most of my stack with AK on a KKT flop. We got our stacks in the middle on the flop and I was up against KQ. A cooler for him until the river, and then it turned into a cooler for me! Glad to play well in the bigger buy-in tournament, and I did notice a drastic difference in play between the $1 and $20 tournaments. There are about 1/20th as many flops seen at the higher levels, lots of aggressive players.

I fired up the $1 rebuy and so far the deck has hit me in the face. This hand made me feel a bit better about the beat I took in the $34k guaranteed:

Full Tilt Poker Game #13277538948: Daily Dollar Rebuy (98243370), Table 262 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:18:20 ET - 2009/07/08
Seat 1: scan_de_naver (6,300)
Seat 2: meanhappyguy (26,087)
Seat 3: killerace221 (5,190)
Seat 4: rbassdo (48,114)
Seat 5: YuRiVeR (5,469)
Seat 6: DR K-27 (10,835)
Seat 7: Kael07 (15,044)
Seat 8: changlong1 (1,635)
Seat 9: milomaster (10,266)
scan_de_naver antes 25
meanhappyguy antes 25
killerace221 antes 25
rbassdo antes 25
YuRiVeR antes 25
DR K-27 antes 25
Kael07 antes 25
changlong1 antes 25
milomaster antes 25
scan_de_naver posts the small blind of 120
meanhappyguy posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to meanhappyguy [Qc Ad]
killerace221 raises to 720
rbassdo folds
YuRiVeR calls 720
DR K-27 folds
Kael07 folds
changlong1 folds
milomaster calls 720
scan_de_naver raises to 6,275, and is all in
meanhappyguy raises to 26,062, and is all in
killerace221 folds
YuRiVeR calls 4,724, and is all in
milomaster folds
meanhappyguy shows [Qc Ad]
YuRiVeR shows [Kd Ks]
scan_de_naver shows [As Ah]
Uncalled bet of 19,787 returned to meanhappyguy
*** FLOP *** [8s 2c 5s]
*** TURN *** [8s 2c 5s] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [8s 2c 5s Qd] [Qh]
meanhappyguy shows three of a kind, Queens
scan_de_naver shows two pair, Aces and Queens
meanhappyguy wins the side pot (1,662) with three of a kind, Queens
YuRiVeR shows two pair, Kings and Queens
meanhappyguy wins the main pot (17,997) with three of a kind, Queens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 19,659 Main pot 17,997. Side pot 1,662. | Rake 0
Board: [8s 2c 5s Qd Qh]
Seat 1: scan_de_naver (small blind) showed [As Ah] and lost with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 2: meanhappyguy (big blind) showed [Qc Ad] and won (19,659) with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 3: killerace221 folded before the Flop
Seat 4: rbassdo folded before the Flop
Seat 5: YuRiVeR showed [Kd Ks] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 6: DR K-27 folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Kael07 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: changlong1 folded before the Flop
Seat 9: milomaster (button) folded before the Flop

Rbassdo, the big stack, said "looks like the ladies arrived fashionably late" after the hand.

Fun With Words

With a free summer ahead of me, I've decided to start up a little writing project on my old creative writing blog. The premise is using a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds "Live at Radio City" performance as inspiration to write 1,000 word maximum posts. I hammered out two posts tonight, and was able to find both the "Bartender" and "When the World Ends" live performances from the show on YouTube to compliment each post.

I downloaded the entire performance a few years ago, and I'm glad there are still some copies of the shows up for others to see. I intend to make it through all 27 tracks eventually, and hope to find videos for each track. The writing is a bit sparse so far, but it is meaningful to me at least!