i'm tentatively back.

i had a dream the other day. i was in a dorm-type setting, and a game of 'assassin' was afoot. it became clear to me that i a) had no idea who i was supposed to get and b) was involved in a game where people were actually killing their marks, as opposed to placing a post-it note on them or something like that. i distinctly remember looking out a window and seeing a body falling from the roof, and it was clear to me that the person was pushed, though i don't know how that could have been clear to me, but it was a dream and this is a run-on sentence so deal with it.

i asked some girl why she was actually killing people. she looked at me, and reluctantly and understated as all hell said "well, i guess that's the tension of the game."

the.
tension.
of.
the.
game.

i told zach about this dream and he thought i transcended. "the tension of the game" might be my favorite phrase of all time, and i have a hard time taking credit for it since it came to me in a dream (UNBELIEVABLE) and taking credit for it would also lead to me saying something like "my favorite phrase of all time was said by me" which is infinitely lame.

but, there it is.

so i've been mia since pre-ken's for no real good reason. the connecticut weekend was really fun, as was this past weekend with geoff, trills, and drew. however, i find myself thinking through these weekends and seeing nothing really new to write about. my life has stabalized to the point where i can predict the general outcome of a trip to connecticut (foxwoods, bacon, beach, sailing, beer, fireworks) as well as the general outcome of a visit from 3 high school friends that share my love for games of chance (foxwoods, trivia, discuss sports, steak, bars). there's not a lot of new shit going on, is what i'm saying. at the same time, i don't think of these adventures as being particularly in a rut, and the more i consider the details the more i realize that there actually are fun little things that happened. so, let me recount a few of them.

at foxwoods with tufts folks, parker decided to spend a lot of money playing spanish 21. the dealer was giving him questionable advice (double down with a 12, for example) because the whole point of spanish 21 is that you have a little more strength after double downs (you can surrender if your doubledown sucked) and there is one less ten per 13 cards (face cards stay, but no tens in the deck). i've never closely watched spanish 21, but the end result was that i found out that following the book in spanish 21 gives a smaller edge to the house than following the book in blackjack... which is absurd.

nick and i bought some fireworks and set them off on the beach. this was surprisingly fun. i say this because i've never really dealt with the larger fireworks with crazy names like 'laser dragon' and 'chimes of freedom'.

my new camera held up really well out on the boat - i was happy with its performance. i've posted a couple pics over on the photoblog, and at some point soon i'll have a ton of pics posted in the general gallery.

finally, the first thing noteworthy that happened on the ct trip was that ken finished a triple from wendys in something like 2 minutes. IF THAT. we got the food, got on 93 north, went one full exit to 95 south, and ken was already done with the damn triple. i had a red light in there, but still.

now, a few highlights from this past weekend:

geoff threw up from drinking too much water in an effort to prevent a hangover.

after losing close to $300 at blackjack and craps, down to my last $125, i sat down at a $25 blackjack table with geoff behind me. i had enough money for 5 hands. it wasn't an issue, as within half a shoe i turned my $125 into $415 and cancelled my losses for the day.

we found a really packed $5 craps table (all the other tables were less packed but $10 min) and put together a communal $300 that andrew played with my general advice and geoff's cheerleading. we turned a $95 profit which went towards a delicious steak dinner.

we ate at capital grille, even though the air conditioner at cg was completely broken. the meal was still delicious, and through our gambling winnings and geoff's $100 gift certificate (mad props, geoff), only cost us $25 a piece. though, i should have probably thrown a little bit more geoff's way, as compensation for him using the gift certificate on us in the first place.

drew brought it with the various trivia games, which is really a hallmark of hanging out with people i went to high school with. you can't go 5 minutes without either an interesting discussion or some sort of trivia game breaking out when you're with these people. it's kind of awesome, but also kind of silly.

while connecticut showed me what a perfect vacation-like weekend could be, this past weekend showed me what regular life could be if i had a few more friends around. after connecticut i felt refreshed and happy, but strangely today i feel a little bit more down. of course, this could have a lot to do with my fun block of summer (4 straight weekends with gambling trips and visting friends or having friends stay with me) is now over. i think it equally has to do with the potential that was waved in my face for a weekend and then snapped away from me. honestly, i don't hate this city as much as i used to, but the loneliness on the male friends front is getting to me. thank god for jen, without her i'd be totally lost.

a final note- this is the best thing i've ever watched in my life. http://willdo.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/2006/07/selfindulgent_p.html

thanks for indulging me.