Back in Bellingham

DISCLAIMER: This will probably be a long blog. I have a lot of stuff on my mind and haven't updated this thing in a while, so if you are busy with lots of time-consuming projects at work (Petar), you might want to wait til you get home.

Since I last blogged, I took a trip to Phoenix/Tempe and Vegas, returned home and had a relaxing spring break, and am now back in Bellingham where I will be starting the final quarter of my undergrad career (hopefully) on Tuesday.

I got my grades back from last quarter, and I ended with 5 A's and 1 B+ for a 3.91 GPA, very close to the holy 4.0. Oh well, still good for the best quarter of my college career. I raised my cum GPA from a 3.49 to a 3.53 which is meh. I am extremely happy with this result, and I really feel like I am conceptually understanding economics and that my degree will not just be a title on a resume but I will be able to back this up with the many skills I have learned while at college.

This quarter will not be too bad. I am taking taxation, international finance, and behavioral economics for a total of 12 credits plus a b.s. 2 credit management information systems class to meet the 180 credit graduation requirement. I am going to shoot for a 3.75 this quarter, but I am going to be honest - school is not going to dominate my life this quarter. Not that it has in the past, and not that I'm not going to try, but it is my last quarter, and my priorities will be finding a job, getting healthy, hanging out with friends, and putting in a good amount of hands.

I am going to briefly recap the time that I spent on vacation, but no one blog post could possibly describe the amount of fun that I had on these vacations. While in Phoenix, we did a lot of lounging by the pool, eating at an amazing fast food place called Whataburger, and boozing quite heavily. One of the nights, we ended up at a sports/karaoke bar where I eventually sang JoJo's "Too Little Too Late" after about 10 green bud lights (St. Patrick's Day) which was a hit if I can remember in my drunken state.

We played golf one day in Tucson, which was amazing, and we also attended a Mariners game, although we were bummed that Griffey wasn't playing. A foul ball came our way, and I almost got a finger on it but pulled back at the last second before my buddy John picked it up as it fell underneath our seat. I will never again bad mouth somebody that doesn't have the balls to barehand a foul ball. That thing is coming in hot!

It was a great time in AZ, but I was ready to get to Vegas. I got in on Thursday at about 3:00, dropped off my bags and headed down to the Venetian Poker Room for some 1/2NL. Very first hand, an older Asian raises to $15 utg and there is a caller to me. I look down at AA and make it $45 to go. Both call, and we see a 9d 8d 4x flop. Checks to me, and I lead $80 of my $155 to try and get someone to spazz out jam. Asian folded, second guy calls, and we get it in on an x turn,a nd I hold. A nice little start to the weekend.

Ironically, that was the first time I saw AA the entire weekend! That night, a group of us went out to Tao at the Venetian which was actually pretty cool. Cover was $20 for us guys and drinks cost $12. At one point, I bumped into a girl, and her drink spilled over. She requested that I buy her a drink which I politely declined.

The next day I went to play in a $60 tourney at the Mirage. The format was kind of neat early, and antes kicked in early. In the first two levels, I lost with KK, QQ, and JJ but somehow managed to get through the first hour with 3x the starting stack. When the antes kicked in, I continually raped blinds. I tried to run a bluff against this idiot who c/called turn and river with AK high on a QT97x. I guess he soul read me? Anyways, I eventually busted when the blinds went from 400/800 to 800/1600 lol. UTG limps for 1600 with T9o, and I jam the A9cc for 12k, and he felt he had to call when it mucked to him hehe.

Later that night, I headed over to Caesars to get the night started before Pete and Derek arrived. When they did arrive around 9:30, we immediately began getting serious about drinking. We got a sweet waitress named Reggie (female) who allowed us to purchase a beer and a shot each round. We shipped the white russians and the washington apples for about 5 rounds. Pete got in with 74o against Ax on the turn of A799 and rivered a 7 in a $400+ pot. He then stacked that same player the next hand with KK. Quite a large swing.

We got the HORSE game going that night, and I vaguely remember opening 73hh utg and snapping Derek's AA. I don't think I made it to the omaha round. Peter got lost in Caesars for an hour and kept trying to put his key in a room there. The hotel security guard continually told him that his room was at the Monte Carlo, not at Caesars. But Pete's body was telling him he had to find a bed ASAP. Both he and Derek made it home safely that night.

Saturday was even more ridiculous. To keep it short, Pete started drinking Bud Light at 10am and was the most social I have ever seen anyone. We had an entertaining dinner at Outback before heading to the Mirage where our plan was to chop all winnings in a $70 sng. Derek got the money in drawing dead, and Pete got coolered when he ran KK into A6o AIPF where we saw a fun flop of AA6. I ended up chopping the SNG to scoop about a $20 profit for all three of us.

We again went back to Caesars where we quickly got a 4/8 HORSE game going. This is where I enjoyed unlimited HU raising when I had 44 against QJ on a QQ432. We put in 5 bets on the river for quite a large 4/8 pots hehe. The night ended with quite a memorable walk back to the Monte Carlo that involved social Pete and a football referee flag. I really wish we had gotten more video footage of Pete during this weekend. It was the funniest thing ever.

I did pretty well sports betting while down there. On Friday, I accidentally made a $10 4-team parlay betting the spreads and was perfect through 3, so I hedged the last game and scooped $50. I bet a couple games on Saturday and was convinced by Derek to bet $75 on Japan vs. the US in the semi-finals of the WBC, which they won.

It was sad to leave Vegas for sure, but I really enjoyed my time there and look forward to our return trip in June.

The highlight of this week since I returned from Vegas was going snowboarding for the first time ever on Thursday. My buddy Steven took me up there, and he is really good at it. I opted to attend the lesson which helped me get the fundamentals down before hitting the actual slopes. My first couple runs were a little bit painful, but I finally got the hang of it, and my third run down I actually felt like I could get down without falling too badly. I did have quite a painful fall at one point where I caught my front edge and was flung straight on my face. I felt like I was in a wrestling match the next day with how sore I was, but it was a great time. I bought a 3-day pass, so I will be going back in two weekends to try it again.

On my drive back up to Bellingham, I realized that this was my last quarter in Bellingham and that I would need to find a job soon to fill the void for most likely a year before I probably will attend graduate school. For some reason though, this doesn't scare me at all. I am not going to just slack off this quarter and not seek out job opportunities for this summer and beyond, but I am going to try and enjoy my time here in Bellingham and take care of some personal things while I prepare for the future. For some reason, I am really looking forward to this quarter and feel that I am going to accomplish a lot of things as long as I set my mind to it.

Here are some random, specific goals for the quarter:

- As stated, receive a 3.75 GPA or higher

- Contact at least 3 employers per week about job/internship opportunities - this could be just e-mailing them inquiring about a position or sending in my resume.

- Lift weights 5 times a week mostly after class

- Run 3 times a week in preparation for a half marathon in June

- Eat healthier - I'm not sure how specific I want to be with this. In general, I want to get in better shape, but I'm not sure if I am going to go on a specific diet or what. I guess I need to do some more research into this.

- Finish The Power of Positive Thinking. I started reading this a few months ago but only got a few chapters in. I felt impacted by it and would like to finish it this quarter.

- I would also like to put in 20,000 hands during the month of April. I'm pretty sure that this is quite attainable. I just recently purchased Hold 'em Manager which is a data-mining program that is better than Poker Tracker. Seeing stats and trying to increase my hourly rate is something that gets my juices running. I may step up the amount of hands I want to put in for May, but I am going to try and really set aside a few hours each day to put in a nice sesh.

Overall, I am really happy with things right now. I could not have asked for a better spring break. The weather is starting to get better which means lots more golfing, and I am really looking forward to soaking up my last quarter as an undergrad. I will hopefully have frequent session reviews in the coming weeks as well as some updates on my exercise/dietary goals.

Thanks for reading. Hope this wasn't too long.

God Bless,

JG