Res Ipsa Poker

I am on super hyper mega monkey life tilt this morning, so if I say anything too terribly offensive, apologies in advance. I try to keep this blog relatively expletive-free, but sometimes the rage is too powerful.

***

One of the banes of my professional life - and this is probably true of many people who are self employed - is the lack of control I am able to exercise over my calendar. I exist largely at the whim of my clients and of our local court system, which seems to be run more or less on the principle of "you will be here when we say so, or else". Virtually every week I am supposed to be in two places at the same time, which is of course impossible unless you're a criminal defendant and the ability to bend the laws of physics is critical to your alibi.

When a calendar problem crops up I generally have three options:

1. Reschedule a hearing if I am allowed to do so;
2. Hope that something settles or gets rescheduled by the other side; or
3. Find someone to cover for me.

Thankfully, I haven't yet had a situation where I just flat missed something. It's a pain in the neck but I've managed.

That doesn't mean, however, that I'm always successful in getting things rearranged to suit my wishes. Take, for example, this little get together in Las Vegas in just over two weeks. I've been planning this trip for MONTHS. I booked my plane ticket in July. I let the clerks of my usual courts know when I would be gone.

Sure enough, late last week I got a trial notice. Monday, December 10. Be there.

DAMMIT.

I'm supposed to be in the air all day. Coming home. Recuperating.

#$%^&*$%^&*$%^&*!

I reviewed my options.

There's no way in hell I'm getting this trial rescheduled. For one, it involves a type of case where the state court rules say a hearing has to be held within 56 days. December 10 is very close to the 56 day deadline. For another, I'm informed that the local judges announced a crackdown on adjournments at a conference a couple weeks ago - I don't really want to be a test case as to whether a pre-existing vacation constitutes "good cause" for an adjournment. For a third, I wrote to the out of town person on the other side (who doesn't have an attorney) asking if they'd like to schedule the trial around their holiday travel plans and got no response. That person pretty much refuses to talk to me, so I can forget any consideration there.

I found out yesterday that there is no chance that this gets settled. So scratch that option.

And it's an ugly type of case which everyone hates and that depends heavily on knowledge of the facts, so there isn't any way I'm going to recruit anyone to cover for me. Strike three.

I'm going to have to be here on that Monday.

***

I accepted reality this morning. I'm still going to Las Vegas, but I'm going to miss out on Sunday NFL action. And I'm going to end up spending valuable vacation time worrying about a [censored] trial.

Tilt level high.

Time to make the changes. It cost more to switch my return flight (thanks to the $100 change fee and the higher fare) than it did to originally book the ticket. The new plane ticket costs more than I've spent on airfare + room + meals (other than a fancy dinner at 3950 in 2005) on any of my other visits TOTAL. The trip bankroll just took a major hit.

Tilt level higher.

Work-related digression: I swear, if I receive another whiny call in the next ten minutes, someone's going to get their throat ripped out, by me, over the telephone.

Tilt level highest.

Deep breath. Think positive thoughts.

I still get to go. It won't cost anything to cancel the last night at the hotel, since that night was comped anyway. There will be one less day's worth of crap piled on my desk when I get back.

Tilt level easing. Slightly.

I still better not get any stupid phone calls for a while.


Lost in all of this rage was an enjoyable home game yesterday. I picked up a buy-in and a half without having any hands of note. It was a very loose passive game, meaning that I could see a lot of cheap flops and make decisions later. They were mostly easy decisions of the "fold" variety.

I also was introduced to a new concept - the "verbal string bet". Player X was playing with his chips and the action came around to him. He tossed his cards in the muck and immediately said "call". Chips were pushed forward. Oops, too late. I think there were some expletives involved when he realized that he'd folded.

Good times.


Obviously I missed the MATH last night. Someone else punched their ticket to the Tournament of Champions. Money was made, money was lost.

Tonight is the Bodonkey, unless it's off because Smokkee is away on his honeymoon. If it's on, the KOtB being absent greatly increases your odds of winning.

Wednesday is the Mookie. With the holiday, I might stay up and play it. Assuming that I get those 20 lbs of potatoes peeled in time, that is.

I have no idea if the Riverchasers event goes as usual on Thursday, but if it does, I'm sure I'll be there, stuffed and unable to move beyond making simple mouse clicks.


Wow, blogging is sure good for relieving tilt. Spew the rage into the tubes and it's mostly gone.

T-16 days.

I am ever so happy about that.

If I don't post before then, have a happy Thanksgiving.

I'll be giving thanks for not having received any notices to appear for December 6 or 7. If any do come today or tomorrow, I suspect that I'll be serving the liver of whoever did it as a turkey day side dish.

Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.