... and then you go surfing

Taking a friend to the airport sucks. First, a friend is leaving, maybe for a weekend maybe forever, sad either way. Second, while driving back you are not only lonely, but your solitary state prevents you from using the carpool lane. Insult to injury. When picking someone up, all of this is reversed making for a great experience. But, on Friday I had to drop Shane off, which sucked. Additionally, my car started behaving badly, dying every time I let it idle. So, I found myself battling my way back to Pasadena for an hour and a half while trying to keep my foot on the gas at all times and restarting the engine whenever I failed. It was a long and frustrating experience.

My cousin, Terra, also left on Friday. She came down to stay with me for a couple days after her fiancé (whom she has been with for three years) broke up with her. Love sucks. Or at least it certainly hurts a lot when things go wrong. It was an emotional visit, but I really enjoyed spending time with Terra. We shared chicken noodle soup, played poker, ate lunch in Santa Monica and watched a bizarre anime film. Terra has lived in SoCal for the last five years but we rarely saw each other during happier circumstances. Regardless, I was glad for chance to hang out, tears and hugs and all.

Being rather exhausted from the week I basically disappeared into my room for the weekend. Can't say I accomplished much. Joe, Seth and Shaggy came over for poker on Sunday night. It was a hard game for me because I wasn't doing well and I couldn't quite tell why. So, I ended up talking about it with Nat till 7am and now I feel I've learned more in one night than in ages. Poker is such a wonderfully complex and interesting game.