I woke up to a disturbing email today. My uncle Lee, the last member of my dad’s family (five boys and three girls) is in the hospital in Amarillo Texas. He’s 76 years old and has had numerous physical problems, related to aging, over the last few years. He needs chemo but he’s so weak right now, they won’t prescribe treatment.

I spent some time on the phone, visiting with my sis, Vickie, and we both wondered what he would opt for if he were physically stronger. The question of quality of life surfaces here. It’s easy for me to say where I’d be with it…I’m not there so of course it’s easy. My demand would be, “Give me great drugs and get me out into the desert for one last look at the land.”

My spirit is sad for him. I’m sad for me. I barely remember an image of him when I was little and we visited my dad’s parents. I did get to meet him, visit, and play poker with him at the family reunion in 2002. What a grand time we had. He couldn’t make it to the last few reunions and he was missed. After the reunion in 2002, he sent each of us girls little bottles of homemade wine, grape, apple, peach, and other flavors. It was like a fine sipping liquor…with a kick.

Almost time to close another chapter of my life – one that I never had the opportunity to read and explore all of the fine print.

The good news in the email was that Carl and Ellen live in Biloxi MS and their home suffered some damage – repairable – and all is well with them. Thank you, God.

I can’t think or say or read anything about the devastation in the South. It’s mind numbing. I leave that alone because I can’t handle it.

*****

*Subject change*

Of course I’m jumping right into poker. I did sign the E/O tonight. The room was quiet, I was tired, and…I’m a lazy dudette – what else can I say about it? Apparently every place in town is slow right now. The Borgata Poker Open has all the high limit player action and ours is pretty damn quiet. Even though we may have 20 or more tables running, it looks empty.

I dealt three whole tables before I hit the Time Clock tonight…and I dealt to some of my most UNFAVORITE players. Dr. Pete. He jumped into a $30-60, posted between the Button and the SB, and won the first hand. He played the second hand and lost. He was in the 1s and he kept glaring at the side of my head. Funny how he didn’t glare when he won the first pot. I swear…one of these days I’m going to lean over, wait until he’s looking at me, and then say, “Boo!”

I know it’s childish on my part. But sometimes I want to be childish. I get the same reaction from the same people for 15 years or so and I want to behave like a five year old and throw things at them like, “Nah-nah-nah-nah!” when they lose a pot. If they think I did it to them, why not rub it in a little?

My last game was $20-40 Omaha 8 or Better with a half kill – the game of the future. Yup! That’s what I’ve heard for 20 years now, “Omaha is the game of the future”.

J.C.P. was in the 9s, looking grim and mad at life…that’s his MO though. He glared at the side of my head too. He always acts like he wants to throw the cards or have a fit when he loses but all he does is roll into his black hole and get one step closer to another heart attack. (He had a severe one about four years ago.)

The only semi funny thing that happened during my down was when Rafael moved his chips stacks from the 7s to the 8s. The stacks were way too tall to be stable and he moved one of them over and it crashed right into the side of J.C.P.’s short chip stacks. Woops! There was a tense moment when it would be hard to tell who’s belonged where.

J.C.P. ended up telling Rafael to take what he thought belonged to him and then went on to tell a story about playing in CA when a player got so upset, he threw his chips up into the air and most of them lit in J.C.P.’s stacks. J.C.P. told the table that he ended up giving about half of his own chips back to the player…so…he lost money. And he did it out of the goodness of his heart? GTF outta here. He only hates dealers? For every one else he’s a pushover, a real sweet kind of guy? Excuse me! I have to puke now!

Such a pleasure to deal this game. *sarcasm*

Adam jumped into the game of the future, started talking $40-80 Mixed games, and had an interest list started. I got pushed, took a break, and when I came back to the room, the game of the future had broke. They were all over at $40-80 Mixed. Go figure!

*****

One bright spot and point of interest, when I came in to work, I saw Karina Jett in the audience of a TV event that was being aired on the monitors around the room. When I dealt the $30-60 H game, she was in the 7s. We have history…she played poker at the Mirage before she was old enough to play. Shhhhh…don’t tell anyone. We played together and I dealt to her. She was cute then and she’s cute now.