notes on a weekend

My friend Chris came into town this weekend, so a bunch of us got a poker game together downtown at his friend's house to take all his money celebrate his brief visit to Los Angeles. I haven't played much live poker this year, and forgot how fun it can be to sit around an actual table with actual people and lose a coin flip for a full buy-in. Thank you, Ryan.

I played until about 3 in the morning, and though I left with a tiny dent in my bankroll, it was entirely worth it. If you get a chance to play poker in a loft downtown on a misty Saturday night while the soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop echoes off the concrete walls, I highly recommend it.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon recovering from staying up too late on Saturday, then headed up to La Crescenta to see my friend Darin and his family, and a friend of ours from high school who was also in town this weekend. It was a bit of a headtrip to stand in Darin's back yard, and watch his daughter play on a swing set in exactly the same place we used to play 40K twenty years ago. It was a total headtrip to go inside and sit in the exact same place we used to read comic books and talk about girls while his infant son rolled around on the floor and his daughter spoke to me in 3 year-old.

I needed to get out of the house, and spend time with my friends this weekend; I've been working so much without any real "me time" for the last six months that I feel overwhelmed and dangerously close to burning out. For the first time in my life, I feel like I really am getting older and time matters.

I'm saving the entire story for this week's Geek in Review, but it started last week when I went to Paramount last week to film some host wraps for the TNG documentary. I walked over to Stages 8 and 9, and everything was just . . . gone. The sadness nearly overwhelmed me as I stood there and watched a bunch of guys build sets where our Holodeck and Sickbay used to be.

Is it a midlife crisis? I doubt it; I have no desire to grow a ponytail and buy a sports car . . . but I sure would like to get a MAME cabinet and spend about two weeks just watching movies and reading books. Is that how geeks have their midlife crisis? Maybe we buy a faster computer and go on a Think Geek shopping spree.