saturday alone put this past weekend into rarified territory. i was lucky, good things happened, and everything came up niv for a stretch there, the likes of which have not been seen in these parts for quite some time.

saturday at noon i had a poker game... i hadn't played poker since last month but with the vegas trip coming up and now that i'm not at monster and i have no way of contacting those guys, i decided to play in the game. it was down in chelsea and i got to drive over the infamous tobin bridge and whatnot, so that was fun. there were going to be only 4 of us in this particular game, but when i got there the 4th was not there yet. we called him and found out that he was going to be about a hour late... great. so we f'd around with a $20 3-handed tourney. it was lamely formatted and after destroying one of the guys early i got bored and made a terrible all-in call (i had middle pair and ran in to a set of aces, hehe)... so things didn't seem to be going so well, but then our 4th came and we got our regular game together.

the game format was pretty simple. everyone throws in $50. within the first hour if you are knocked out, you can rebuy in for anything up to $50. at that time, when you rebuy, anyone else who is in the game can also choose to match your rebuy with an addon to their stack. so if i'm in the game a guy gets knocked out but rebuys for $50, i can also put in $50 and get the same number of chips. follow me so far?

anyways, blinds raised every 20 minutes, so not a remarkably fast rate - they shouldn't dictate action until later, is what i'm saying. also, historically in the monster dev poker games i have won money each of the three times i've played in it, so i was feeling good about my chances and i had a decent idea on how everyone played. if i played tight and chose my moments, i knew i would be in good shape.

in the end, i played a nearly flawless game. i made two or three mistakes, but they were not costly. i bluffed at all the right times. i made hands when i needed them, i had the nuts and got people to bet into me, i read the other guys at the table... it was all very satisfying. no, strike that. it was incredible. by the time it was down to heads up i had a 2:1 chip lead over my opponent, and everyone else in the game had put in more than $50. of course, i stuck with my original buy-in and not a penny more and walked away with more money than i have ever won in 1) poker or 2) gambling in general. before i was thinking i wouldn't have much gambling money in vegas, but now i know that is not going to be the case.

yeah, i really killed them. i've never had that much money on my person (yay that phrase) at one time before in my life. it was pretty cool.

so that was a very very good first 4 hours to saturday. jen was in harvard square so i decided to risk driving over there, and at worst pick her up and at best park and hang out with her. when i look for parking in harvard square, my first loop consists of going down mt. auburn to the lampoon building (where there are head-on parking spots on the left) and then turning left and going up next to the harvard bookstore (the old one). i was going down towards the lampoon building with no luck, but as i turned left i saw a guy walking down with a car key in his hand. he pointed to his car, i put on my signal, and within 2 minutes of entering harvard square i had a parking spot... with 22 minutes left in the meter! now that's a strong point number 2, i think.

jen was over at urban outfitters, a store i normally would not go to as i feel i have outgrown it a little. also i'm a pretentious dick. anyways, i went over there because she told me to meet her there because EARLIER when she was there, she saw some pretty nice tshirts that were $10 each. she thought i should take a look. i did. they are the softest, nicest tshirts ever. really. seriously. they are so comfy and soft and they make me thankful that i can just wear tshirts every day to work. they are amazing. so i scored 2 of these tshirts right there on the spot, and i believe that gaining two of the best tshirts ever is a strong point #3 for the day.

jen and i went over to best buy because it was the tax-free weekend in massachusetts and she wanted to get a decent tv for her common room... err, living room in her apartment. after choosing out a nice 27" phillips tv, i looked around for something worth getting. i couldn't find much of anything, strangely enough. it's a weird world when you go to best buy and can't find much to get. anyways, i was fine with this, but then at the register i saw the holy grail of dvd value packs - all three die hards for $20. die hard has to be one of my favorite movies ever, and while i dismiss die hard II, die hard III is also pretty decent, if not a bit more cliched. so yes, point #4 scored in favor of saturday right there.

after lugging her tv up to her 3rd story apartment (ground floor, first, second, third), jen and i went to dinner in brighton center at green briar - a good enough place with a good enough burger, as thad/ken can attest to. while here, we decided to finally watch "clue", which had been sitting on my dreamcast right next to my tv for the last 2 weeks. my previous point, a drinking game for "clue", is my point #5 for saturday.

so saturday was in all respects a very very good day.

sunday didn't have as much going for it, but really, what day could? i saw "midnight cowboy" (decent but not great at all), and i uh... hung out some. i had a pretty good western omelet for brunch and had a good porterhouse with sweet potato fries and pasta salad for dinner. i went downtown and got rained on. the preceding events happened in a different order than reported.

but i mean, just given saturday... a damn fine weekend.