See Ya!

This will be my last post until I return from Vegas. I will try to take notes while I am there, but I will warn you ahead of time that I am not a good note-taker.

I am really looking forward to this trip, not just for the poker tournaments , but just to let loose. I am leaving my computer behind and am going to try to “unplug” as best I can (although I will have my blackberry with me). Working in IT can be stressful to say the least and sometimes it can be good to just get away from technology all together to avoid burn out. With my job, along with family life (4 kids – 9, 6, 1 and 4 weeks old), and going back to school for my degree, and my recent medical problems, I tend to feel a bit overwhelmed at times

I wouldn’t say I’m burned out in my job, quite the contrary – I love my job. There are times when it is no fun, but what job doesn’t have it’s ups and downs. I am definitely as happy in my current job as I have ever been in any other and I work with a good team. Enough about that; some of them wonder over to the Sponge and read occasionally so I don’t want to get too sappy.

Regardless, I try to take two “guy” trips a year to get away from my job and the stresses of the real world. I am blessed with a very understanding wife who is probably just as eager to send me off as I am to get out. I used to go on a trout fishing trip in April and Deep Sea fishing in September, but since my surgery I can not really hang out in the woods trout fishing all day so I have been looking for an alternative (same reason I no longer hunt in the fall). I still enjoy the annual Deep Sea fish, and look forward to a week in OBX at the end of every summer catching Marlin, Dolphin, Wahoo and hopefully Tuna.

Maybe an annual Vegas trip in the spring (coincidentally surrounding March Madness) is the ticket. I am going with 5 of my in-laws and we have never traveled together before, but they are good bunch. One of them lived with my wife and I for a year while he got he fought (and won) custody of his kids. I genuinely like them all so this should be a fun trip. Maybe we can blow it up next year and have everyone who wants to come out. This can be the “test” trip.

Thanks Dr. Pauly for your tips on playing casino-style poker. Hopefully I will come home with my shirt.