I can finally take a breather. I just handed in Exam #1 of this stats class. Only 1 more week and an exam and hopefully I wont' have to deal with another Hyposthesis Test or an ANOVA for a while.

Other than that I'm just been pretty boring. Working early trying to stay healthy and sane the usual.

Then again there's always the Feb 14 conundrum....

I've noticed that pretty much every day that I"m here it is 90% of the same group of people here everyday. Given I work in the Poker Room and it is a bit differentl than the regular casino floor. Where people just dump their money. Poker is more of a grind.

There are these guys playing the "Big Game" that were here last evening are are still here playing the same game. Given these guys have $8,000-$12,000 in front of them at the moment but still there is more to life than a big poker game.

I went over to Fallsview last night with my Dad to use up all of this remaining comp dollars for the month playing slots. I ended up just blowing $60 or the equilevant of the meal myself. I just find that place too sterile "vegas stripish" If I want to go to Mandalay Bay I'll go to Vegas and hit the real thing.

The highlight on the night was talking to M* a cocktail waitress over there that used to come into our poker room. From what she told me she is staying away until the next Ladies Only tournament in 2 weeks. I'm just blown away to hear that a cocktail waitress has taken too much of a hit from a casino that she has to totally bar herself from coming. We know better from watching degenerates "blow their brains out" on a daily basis to get sucked into it.

Then what do I know, I was just stoked to be talking to someone like her and have her actually wanting to converse back. Then reality hit as she was being pulled 3 or 4 different directions of people needing drinks.

It's strange to actually be part of this casino "scene" and have that casual commardary going on with the people across the ditch. They come to our place and we go over to theirs since we can't gamble at the place that we get our W-2's from.

I think that this sinus cold is really putting me to the test. It has been since Monday and only now it is starting to subside. Feeilng stupid due your head being congested is just a helpess sensation.

In the mean time I have to grab some lunch and head back for the second half of my Saturday class.

Then I'm off to Canada tonight for dinner @ my Uncle's place.

Other than that nothing too exciting. It's just that the women in my life right now have are not having the best luck at things lately...

SO I was just watching the SOTU and I get a text, "Are you up?" Now I had taken a nap earlier toay since I started to come down with a cold earlier today at work. Then right after FW finished his speech I get a phone call from my friend T*. She's crying and tells me that her cousin that just been shipped over to Iraq about a week ago was shot dead. Apparently he was a translater and when we left a crowd of people after asking a few questions he was shot in the back as he turned away to leave.

The irony of me getting that call right after the end of the speech just is scary.

I hate being able to know how she is feeling right now. Since he was 24 they basically grew up together. There is nothing worse that realizing that your family has been mutilated by the actions of some piece of shit.

On another note the Democratic Response by Jim Webb D-Virginia was most likely the best counter speech that I have seen in a very long time. The brilliance of bringing out a military guy that obviously isn't a socialist wacko, was a great move. He is the poster child of the whole recapture of congress.

I watched MSNBC for the post part and feel great that Keith Olberman has finally eclipsed his best work from back in the day on Sportscenter.

With the return of winter I'm a bit jealous of my parents being down in Florida while I'm stuck up here working and going to school. My parents have more of a life than I do. I work a miserable job surrounded by degenerates of all kinds fellow employees and patrons. They are in Florida Dad on business/pleasure and Mom on a mental health sebatical.

I just wish I had those years back in which I was a bum and went down there all the time. The winter of 00/01 was the best I spent about 2 months down there spread out from December to April basically every college break and long weekend I could get. I suppose it was (e:imk2) and her desire for 8 weeks vacation that triggered the nostolgia.

I guess if I had the rescourses and had a job where I could get away without needing the paid time off I would live that kind of lilfestyle once again. Now I think it woudl entail heading out west every month or so instead of Florida. I just don't have any desire to go down there anymore except to enjoy the sunshine.

What reminded me of the area where my Mom is was the show "Underage and Engaged" last night on MTV. I think the young couple was from along the gulf coast since the bride's brother was late coming in from Sarasota. It was another one of thsoe "trainwreck" MTV reality shows but again I just felt compelled to watch it. i'm going to stick with the Florida thing as being the "hook."

Basically the best line from the show was the brides brother who is in the military mind you and said to her, "When I tell people that my sister is getting married no one says congradulations; they look at me in shock and say WHY she's so young!"

But although it did make me feel a bit old at the same time when you're a married couple and you live in a shed located in your parents back yard, you have nothing on me. Shit at least I had an apartment back in my married time frame of my life, it sucked but it was still better than being married AND living at home.

That chick had to be chasing some kind of father figure since it was her brother and not her estranged Dad that walked her down the isle.