It's In The Eyes

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004 - 4:22 a.m.

Last night, I came across a show on the Travel Channel, featuring of all things, championship poker. I'm a little worried about how fascinated I became with this show, but it was packaged with great graphics and statistics, and one of the two commentators was none other than Vince van Patten. After trying his hand at acting, and then at tennis, he participated in a poker tournament just for giggles, and came away fifty dollars richer than he was when he started. It's a really fun show, and it made me think of when I used to play poker.

My most frequent victim was my former roommate and ex-fiancee, Kevin Standlee. He loved poker, but he has the bad luck of having pale green eyes. Today here, for the first time, I'm revealing how I knew he had a good hand. Kevin was a shrewd dude. But there was one thing that always happened that he never could control.

When he got a good hand -- his pupils dialated.

Anyway, Poker. Travel Channel. I don't know where I've put the TV Guide. I guess there's a website with a schedule somewhere. :)

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P@ul Schu!tz continues to recuperate from his gallbladder surgery. He's on the kind of medication where you swallow it down and about fifteen minutes later you look around and say "Whoah! Colors!". He's got enough of these pills to last him about two weeks.

Which is very nice, considering what happened to me when *I* was in the hospital in 1983.

I was in for almost two months total, and had to get major abdominal surgery, back in the days when laproscopy was in its early experimental stages. I was unzipped from my sternum to my vulva, and for the entire summer, I couldn't feel most of my pubic area. (Whoops! Sorry! I'll take "Too Much Information" for $1000, Alex...)

Anyway, for pain management, they gave me Demerol while I was in the hospital. LOTS of it. This is the good stuff that makes you dream in color, and plot to steal more after you are discharged. And for a very short while I was on Demerol in pill form, again, while I was still hospitalized.

But for my trip home and subsequent pain needs? They switched me to Tylenol. Namby Pamby Wishy Washy Pussy Wussy TYLENOL.

Gad ZUKES was that a jolt. But the surgery had taken place on April 1, and by April 22, I was able to swing a leg over the back of my boyfriend's motorcycle and go for a very careful ride. :)

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Dave Marron sent me a package, which contained among other things, a mix CD for Valentine's Day. He also sent me a token from the arcade where he works. The token is going into my altar for good luck, and the mix CD is going into heavy rotation in the little blue CD player that went to Utah with me.

I was ordered not to open the package until Dave got home (just after midnight! Aieee!) and could see me on the cam via Yahoo Messenger, and it was downright nerve-wracking to have to wait to find out what he'd sent. He got to see me cry a lot when I saw the playlist; it contains songs that had been popular around the time we first met. I'm always so tremendously humbled when somebody takes the trouble to make a mix CD for me; the few I've attempted just don't ever seem to compare with the ones I've received.

After I opened the package and Dave got to see me do the happy version of the Ugly Cry, he said "Oh, one more thing.." and he emailed me the lyrics to all of the songs he'd put on the CD.

Old Buddy Dave, you overwhelm me.

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And finally -- vibes, please, for Jamie's mom, who is having wrist surgery today. Get well soon, Mom.

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