Life Update Yay!

So I guess it has been a while since my initial blog on this thing, and I can't say I didn't expect this hahaha. It was just pointed out to me by a couple friends, the lame-sauce of this blog and it's updates or lack thereof.

Since my last blog, November 18, I've been to a few more places, only to return to where I am now, at home on my bed. Firstly, we flew out to San Francisco via a Virgin America night flight. Sweet airline with live TV feed in each seat. We went out there to hang out with his old friend from Roanoke and whom I also know a bit. We basically crashed at his apartment on Jackson St, riiight up the hill from Chinatown (Powell and Jackson intersection), did some sightseeing stuff while he ditched us to go to a poker tournament in Vancouver. We rented a couple bikes and rode all around the city for 2 days but actually didn't ride across the Golden Gate grr. We did however ride up (and of course down) Lombard St which was awesome. Played some online pokers, but nothing too serious.

After our stay in San Fran for a bit, me and Paresh took a train to Sacramento! We were there to meet up with a couple friends from highschool/UVA. We spent a night in that hip-hoppin' city, met some of my friends' friends, then got up early to drive to... San Jose for a Washington Capitals hockey game!, but not before stopping back off in SF to eat some Chinese dim sum. Wasn't all that great. We stopped off in Stanford, California to visit the gorgeous university as well as visit yet another friend out there. Unfortunately he wasn't there, but we still had a fun time monkeying around on the campus. Finally made it to SJ at night, saw the caps get destroyed by the sharks which was lame. Night drive back to San Fran.

I didn't actually buy my ticket to leave SF back home until 2 days beforehand, just cause I didn't know if I'd stay a bit longer with my friend in SF. Decided to leave the same day as Paresh, but I couldn't get on his flight, so took my own back. United Airlines.......haha.

After chilling at home for a couple weeks, it was off to Sydney, Australia (again!) in late November. I went to visit my family again, as well as a couple friends I had met from my trip before. Also, the APPT (Asia-Pacific Poker Tournament) Sydney was going on, so I thought I'd hit that up. I was also meeting my friend Brandon, fellow poker player and international traveler, who I had that amazing trip in New Zealand a few months before. We both busted from the tournament in short order, with my KK running into AA once again (preceded by my TT into JJ, and proceded by my QQ into KK). Sort of unlucky!!!!!111

We explored the city of Sydney together, and then decided to take a trip up to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef. It was a short 3-day trip, and we got to go ~1 hour out into the ocean to snorkel. The water temp was amazing, and the reefs were equally as spectacular. The colors were ultra vibrant and any evidence of the reefs getting eroded/destroyed was nowhere to be noticed. We also rented a car and drove a couple hours up and down the northern coastline of Australia, eventually getting a place called Port Douglas, where apparently there were "stingers" in the water, so swimming was confined to a cordoned off area.

After Brandon left Syd, I hung around Sydney for an extra week before getting back home. No less than 2 weeks, I was off to the Bahamas for the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure tournament. Everything about the Atlantis Resort just rings riches. Just unbridled, pure, opulence. I met up with 6 other friends from UVA, including Paresh... so the entire experience was unreal awesome! 7 nights in paradise. I ended up playing and running pretty well in the tournament, getting to Day 3 with a nice stack, but once again, running into AA. I had run my QQ into AA on day 1 (story of my life, I thought to myself, before I spiked a Q on the flop). No miracles on Day 3 though. No matter, I finished in 56th place out of 1,250ish, and put myself in a position to get really really deep. Awesome trip.

After getting back from the Bahamas, I started grinding online pretty much for all of Jan, and now February. I had the sickest heater of my career in January, and extending in to February, so that's really really nice. And I'm putting in the heaviest volume that I've ever done, looking forward to every session and accruing all the various points that come along the way. By playing/grinding this hard, I feel like I'm not wasting my time at all, and the $ is good as well. 5 hour days/6 days a week, just perfect.