Quick Trip to Indiana
I met my girlfriend in Indiana this weekend to see my parents and some friends. It was kind of an overdue trip; I hadn’t been to my hometown in 16 months prior to this visit. Each trip back to Indiana is accompanied by a bit of a heightened feeling of disconnect than the last. I feel like the person I was when I lived there and the person I am today are almost two entirely different people. My first few visits back to Indiana after moving away were like “going home”. Over time, it’s started to feel more like “going back to where I grew up.” Each time it feels like an increasingly foreign place to me. It’s kind of a hard feeling to describe but I’d imagine any person who hasn’t lived in one place their whole life knows the feeling I’m talking about.
Getting some distance away from any area you spent a significant length of time and then going back kind of helps you appreciate certain things you used to take for granted. There are definitely some qualities unique to small towns. For instance, my parents didn’t think twice about just leaving their front door unlocked Saturday afternoon in case a visitor they were expecting who needed to drop something off came by before the four of us returned from a walk.
I spent Saturday night out with a few friends in a nice suburban area just outside of Indianapolis. We went to this place called ‘Pinheads’ which did a pretty good job of fusing bowling with a nightlife experience. We all bowled pretty terribly. There were probably a few reasons for this, but I think one of them was that the lanes were poorly lit. There were all these black lights and neon lights to make you feel like you’re at a club or something rather than just standard flourecent lights. That’s fine for the purposes of recreational, non-competitive bowling, but I think the game becomes much more of a challenge when the lanes aren’t well lit.
In our first game, I gave my friend 40 pins on a $20 bet (I’m a pretty good bowler). I needed only a 125 to cover. We went double-or-nothing on our second game with him getting 60 pins and my 111 was nearly enough to cover again! I think all of us posted about the worst scores of our lives which I guess will happen when you’re throwing a houseball down a dark lane.
After that, we went to some other place that sells beer pong set-ups for a little more low-stakes gambling and competition. I used to be a really solid beer pong player (I think being tall is a bit of an advantage in that game), but after two years of not playing I feel like I kind of lost my edge. My girlfriend and I got beat pretty handily by two of my friends despite my assurances that if she could make one shot we would win the game (she made two).
———————–
When we got to our gate at the Indianapolis airport today (I’m flying back to New York with her for week), I noticed our plane had a Baltimore Ravens-themed paint job. Take a look at what I mean:
At first I thought that maybe it was a team plane owned by the Ravens and that they lease it out to airlines during the offseason. However, a Google search yielded that it was part of a marketing campaign AirTran did to drum up business in Baltimore, a city in which they are the second-largest air service provider.
———————–
There’s a couple of things I’m excited about for this trip to New York. On Saturday, we’re going to Yankee Stadium to see them play the White Sox where, apparently, my girlfriend and I will each have a small bet on New York.
“I have a good feeling about the Yankees next weekend. We should bet on them. They’re going to win.”
“But baby, we don’t even know who’s pitching yet or what the odds are!”
“I know! But I still think we should bet on them.”
So hopefully it’s hip to be square on Saturday.
Also, the Tribeca Film Festival is in town. On Tuesday, we have tickets to see Dog Pound. I don’t really know much about it yet other than that it has to do with the juvenile correctional system.
I get pretty excited to spend time in New York. It’s not a place I’d want to permanentally reside because of all you have to give up in order to live here (basically everyone in this city seems like a huge square to me), but it’s still a fun city to hang out in for a few days at a time. On that note, I’m heading out for a bagel.
———————–
Oh that bagel will have to wait a sec. Before I forget, I wanted to link to a few articles I wrote for the PokerTips strategy section the other day. Mixed games, especially 8-Game, seem to be getting decently popular, so we thought there might be some interest in related strategy content:
Intro to 8-Game
7 Card Stud Strategy
Razz Strategy
7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
2-7 Triple Draw Strategy
Gotta give thanks to my buddy Sebastian Sabic, who can be seen playing 8-Game for the highest stakes on PokerStars under his screenname ’seb86′, for helping me out with the 2-7 Triple Draw article. I understand the Stud games well enough to write beginner-level strategy content, but I’m still pretty much a complete n00b at 2-7, a game that Sebastian is one of the best in the world at.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
