Little Rock, AR
I type this in the dark as Mike, King’s roommate, watches the movie Jeepers Creepers behind me. I’ve never seen it and won’t tonight.
My birthday was a good one. I don’t have any crazy stories of excess or escapades. I spent most of the day by myself, working on some mail and bills. I received a lot of emails and phone calls and that was great. It is always nice to hear from people. I went to lunch by myself, which was fine, except I was hoping to get some Vietnamese food. I didn’t eat Vietnamese food when I was in college, so I didn’t really know here to go. I had a place in mind that is down the street form Lefever, but I pulled up and it was closed. I settle for a burrito and taco from a Mexican joint. I ran some errands and headed back to get all of the bugs off of my car. They seemed to prod at me for running into them, as they refuse to come off.
I was set to meet Gary, a friend of mine who I’d played phone tag with all week. He didn’t know where I went for lunch, so we met at El Porton for margaritas and cheese dip. They were great. Keith, another friend form here, met us there. As we left, the tourist that I am, asked a couple of girls to take our picture. They obliged and Gary and I struck up a conversation. Keith is serious with a very cool girl, so he let us do our thing. Gary will say anything to anybody and it was fun to be back hanging out with him. We chatted for a while and then headed to Outback. I got one of the girl’s numbers to call later.
I was already pretty full, but we went to Outback and chowed down. The Outback Special put me over the edge, but it was tasty. Thanks to Gary for a good birthday present. He is a guy you just can’t help but be relaxed around. Back in my hermit stage, he would always call to go out. I would pass to stay in. Hermit stage is now over.
I then met up with Brent and some guys over at Josh’s (sorry for all the names) for some poker. They play quite a bit. We used to play all sorts of match the pot games. But they seemed to have caught the ESPN fever, so we played hold ‘em. I have played cards forever. I had a casino in my crawl space when I was a kid. But, I didn’t have much experience in hold ‘em except for TV. I made a go of it. I lost with kings in the hole, queens in the hole and jacks in the hole. The aces were out to get me. I lost, but didn’t too much damage. It was fun to have the cards in my hand again. It was also cool to see a lot of fraternity brothers. Vegas will be here in two weeks. I’m pumped but scared because of my competitiveness which leads to stupidity. Also, Vegas is not the best place for a guy who just quit his job and is paying to travel the country. Unless you win…
It’s late and it’s time for bed to dream big dreams of breaking Vegas.