Mondays Suck

I hate Mondays...I was at the beach this weekend and coming back to work is a -EV situation. Why? I'm not going to get anything done! That's why! It's going to be a heat wave and I have to be at work. I have two weeks to go before I go on vacation for a week...back to the beach. Gotta love it when the parents inherit a beach house. I'd rather be there then in the mountains at my place. I have the place the third week in August and I'm looking forward to having friends and family there to help me party my ass off. Last time I was staying at Salisbury Beach was probably 1980. It went steadily downhill afterwards. The powers that be decided to let the area fall into ruin....all while the other coastal areas boomed with investment. The beach is now experiencing a revitalization and is catching up to the other coastal areas. They inherited the beach house at the perfect time and are now sitting on a goldmine. One Terry (Taz)O'Reilly (former Boston Bruins great and current all around good guy) began to build a few condos a few years back and viola! Revitalization! All of the sudden people are buying the old dilapidated cottages...knocking them down....and putting new ones in place. We went to the beach for a few hours and I wrestled my daughter out of the waves (She's almost 15 mos. old but runs into the waves at high tide!...Fearless!)We started drinking at the beach house. Beers...after they were gone...Margaritas...after they were gone...wine...after that was gone and the daughter went to sleep...Tequila shots! I needed to go out and buy more beer. I took a walk around the beach and went towards the old center. I had a flashback to when I was about 5 years old. I saw an old storefront that used to have a "Shlitz" sign and a "Pabst Blue Ribbon" sign above the entrance circa 1975. They weren't even neon...they were the old plastic signs that were cheesy....yet comforting. I remember walking down to the old beach center and playing skee-ball for hours on end. I would try to get 10,000 tickets by the end of the summer to buy the radio or some other mid-seventies item. As I walked closer to the center I remembered the old rides that used to be there...long since replaced by condos and such. The "Himalaya" was my favorite ride....they would blast heavy metal and you would spin around in circles until you wanted to throw up....but in a good way. There were Go-Karts there that you could force your buddy or sibling to crash if you hit them just right...and the carnival games that you could win prizes at. I used to get the three-quarter sleeve 'Moosehead beer' T-Shirts or the AC/DC T-shirts that used to drive the parent wild. Come to think of it....those were the days parents could go out and have a good time. My older brother and sister would babysit....but we would all end up going to the center and playing carnival games and having fun at the arcade anyway. You didn't have to worry about being kidnapped or anything like that. I do remember seeing some seedy stuff (there are tons of bars in the center beach area mixed in with the cotton candy stands and fried dough stands)...as I remember just about everything from when I very young (It kind of freaks my parents out when I tell them I remember all their wild parties in the seventies) they always thought I was asleep...not me the night owl. I'm looking forward to raising my daughter and maybe future son? to have the same anticipation for the beach. Well enough reminiscing...I had a lot of fun before responsibility came into life...but all the memories of the beach are good and that's the way it should be. It's not far from the house so we may be up there a lot.

rumor had it somebody wanted to put a casino in the beach area a few years ago...that rumor is untrue. However, there is a place for my little poker/gambling jones. Seabrook Dog track is right around the corner and over the state line in NH. POKERPOKERPOKER...Racing Dogs!!

That should tide me over...I can also make the Thursday night poker tournament at "Slickeys" (to protect the innocent) and not lose any standings points. Last Thursday I was playing like a pussy and I got slapped out of the tourney faster than you can say "push with an A-Ko? are you crazy?" Yes...people....they push with A-Ko and get other people to fold better hands. I got some good points for the standing...I think I'm at 18 out of 50 at the moment but I still played like a pussy. The last hand I was in was pathetic. I've seen some poor play so I tried a steal. I had A-10o in early position with T725 left (Start with T2500...and I couldn't buy a hand) so I was kind of up and down. I push all-in....some kid (kind of a punk that tries to act Negreanu-ish or Hellmuth-like) calls with A-Jo and we both flip our hands....but there was still one player to act! Doh! He calls with K-jo in last position and wins when a K falls on the flop. That makes 4 of 9 tourney cashes and 5 of 9 final tables.