Monday, February 19, 2007
Weekend from Hell - not really.
This last Sunday, I experience a series of unfortunate events that can only be described as weird. At first I thought this was just a weekend from hell. Now that I look back on it, it was kind of comical.To set the stage, I need to go back to Saturday night. My daughter Emma had tonsil surgery and was due to arrive home around 6p from the hospital. My wife took her to the surgery.
I stayed home with my 3 boys. To make Emma's arrival as quite and peaceful as possible, I decided to take my boys to dinner around 6p. As we deliberated our various dining options (keep in mind, I'm discussing "dining options" with a 7, 10, and 14 year old - how smart is that?), we decided we wanted to do something "fun". Finally, we landed on Mongolian Barbecue. I thought, "this'll be fun. We'll get to make our own creations!"
Dinner was a fiasco. My oldest son hemmed and hawed, brewed and stewed. He only wanted a hamburger/fries. He complained for a solid 45 minutes and refused to try anything. We were seated about 10 feet from the front door and had to wear our coats during dinner to keep the hypothermia at bay. My son Luke, tried to carry about 30 oz. of raw food in the 20 oz. container they give you. The place was crowded (who'da guessed on a Saturday night). Bumping occurred. Raw steak, chicken and shrimp were spread across the floor. Not a good scene.
Then, after I arrived home, my oldest son whined and whined and finally talked me into taking him out for his burger/fries.
Finally, I get home around 9p. I'm wiped!
Now on Sunday it starts to go downhill a little from there.
So my daughter Emma is resting comfortably downstairs. She won't take her medicine though. After some arguing, we finally decide that we must "force" the action a little. Well, Emma has the last laugh as she pukes all over my hand and the bed.
No problem. I'll just wash the bedding. I just need to "roll with it".
Next, the washing machine breaks. It doesn't really break all the way. It only breaks part way. It will wash for about 10 minutes and then stop, pause, start beeping, and wait for me to reset it. This happens every 10 minutes. As I'm trying to "look into" fixing the washing machine, I kind of slide the dryer to the right a little.
This causes the vent on the back of the dryer to break apart and become disconnected. I know this because the laundry room soon started to feel like the sauna at the gym - not the dry sauna. I'm talking steam room here.
Meanwhile, my son Luke, who was having a "puzzle marathon" in the family room, starts to get a little mad at our cat, Zorro, for walking on his puzzles. Luke's solution to this problem is to lock the cat in my master bed room. I'm so proud of this ability to asses a situation and find an optimal solution - he'll make a good analyst some day.
So around 2p, I go upstairs, open the door. The cat comes sprinting out. This time Zorro got the last laugh. He crapped on my bed -on my side - and pissed all over the bed spread.
OK. I need to just roll with it. So, I'm off to the laundry room / steam room again where I can start spending 10 minute rotations watching the washing machine and resetting it.
I'm frazzled. I'm tilting hard. As a side note, I do feel a little relaxed though from spending all day in my new steam room.
I'm starting to feel pretty sorry for myself when I get a phone call.
A poker friend of mine calls. He heard that my daughter was having surgery and he just wanted to make sure everything was OK. I thought to myself, "how cool is that?". I have to admit - this was a really nice gesture. It made me feel good.
You know, for all of the evils that some people have assigned to poker and poker players, there's a part that's pretty good too.
I've met a lot of really cool, decent, genuinely nice people playing poker. I've formed freindships with more people playing poker than golf, bodybuilding, basketball, or any other hobby I've had. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single person I've met playing poker that I'd say is a 'bad person'. The same can not be said for my work, my neighborhood, or even my family. Wow!
Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
<< Home
