My trip back home to Columbia has been a real pain in the ass. Me and my buddy Tepen got into a fight on my first night back... well, it wasn't so much a fight as a beatdown. Some dude at this bar called Sky High decided it'd be a good idea to snag my doorag from my head... while I was sitting in the passengers seat with the window down driving away. I got out and he started dancing around like a butterfly boxer. I kinda gave him this weird WTF look. Then Tepen got out of the car and the guy started throwing punches at Tepen (who hadn't even said a word to the guy).
I snagged my doorag from the parking lot where he threw it and then looked back to see Tepen taking way the worst of the fight. He didn't even get a punch in, which surprised me because he's been in a lot of fights. To his credit, he was pretty drunk at the time. The dude swinging punches had a bunch of friends with him, so I decided it would be a better idea to just get into the car and scoop Tepen and drive away. So I jumped into the driver's seat and yelled at Tepen to hop in. But he was pretty stunned and his face was all bloody, and he just kinda stood there in a daze. So then this dude tries to come in from the passenger's side to shake my hand I guess... I wasn't having it. So I popped that bitch in reverse and clipped him with the open door. Problem was one of his buddies' SUV was parked right behind me and I creamed it pretty good. The dude and all of his friends except the guy with the SUV took off in a hurry when they heard the crunch.
My first instinct was to take off too, so I yelled at Tepen to get into the car. But then I looked behind me and saw the damage to the SUV and saw the dude's friend on the phone... figured he was calling the police and that I'd end up in deep trouble if I left the scene. So Tepen and I waited a couple minutes and two cops came out to sort the mess out. They told me that we could file charges against the dude, but that it would fall under misdemeanor assault and the only thing that would happen to him is he'd get a little ticket. (Which is complete bs, btw... there is a big distinction between assault and battery. Assault is if you scare someone... battery is when you actually hit them... so it should fall under some sort of battery law. Figure the cops just didn't want to deal with it...) So anyway, we told the story and swapped insurance info with the dude's friend. The really bad beat was that Tepen, since he's had so many DUIs and accidents, only has liability only. The repairs to his Cadillac would have to come out of my pocket. We took it into a shop the next day and got an appraisal... $3800 to fix the thing. I looked up the bluebook value of the car and it was only $3150. So I told Tepen he was out of luck and that I wasn't about to spend 4k to fix a 3k car. He got all bent out of shape. Then I asked him how much he bought the car for... 3k. From a used car dealer in Bowling Green. Anyway, I offered to give him my Sebring which bluebooked at over 4k and 5 hundo. Thought that would be a good result, since it'd give him a good car and put some money in his pocket (which he really needs right now). He turned it down, and instead made me give him the bluebook value in cash and then he spent it to fix the car. I guess the $3800 estimate he had was to also fix the dent in the door from where I clipped the dude. And the true cost to get it running again was more like 3k.
Anyway, what a pain... the trip back home got even worse.
----db----So a couple days go by... I had packed in a hurry leaving from Vegas and had accidentally left my BiPo meds back in my room. So I was off the pills for a couple of days. Started acting a little loopy and gave off some of the early warning signs of a manic episode :
- Sighing a lot;
- Excessive spending; and
- Magical thinking.
So I told my brother that I saw a weird pattern in a domain name spreadsheet for domains being sold in the upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Orlando this week and that I thought someone was trying to use the zone files and the registries to send anonymous messages. He told my mom. She came over and told me that I had to go to the monkey house. I told her no way. I knew I wasn't far enough along for anybody to force me to go... you pretty much have to be a danger to yourself or others for them to forcefully hold you. And I wasn't anywhere near psycho-manic... just a little past hypo-manic. But she was so worried... so I told her that we could go the next day and I'd voluntarily admit myself for a few days while they got me back on the meds.
The Mid-Mo nut barn is a really lame place. They don't let you smoke. The food really sucks. They won't let you bring in most of your stuff (like my acoustic guitar). They wouldn't even let me outside for FAB (fresh air break). Everyone is crazy in there and a lot of them are on AP (assault precaution). I've been getting good at doing my time in places like that... I've learned the tricks to avoid getting beat-up in the bathroom and the tricks to avoid getting put into seclusion or put into restraints (the worst feeling in the world, imho). So the time went by quick. They gave me some new prescriptions and I'm now trying this med called Risperdal Consta, which is a really good drug that you can take as a shot so you don't have to worry about taking pills every day. I was in for less than 48 hours... which really really sucked and it felt like a week. But I got out and am back to my normal < hypo-manic self.
But the whole episode made me miss the New Orleans circuit events, which sucked. I was really planning on making some marks out there. I've got some POY prop bets and really need to get my shit in order so I don't lose too much. Every tournament matters and the difference of a few dozen points could potentially mean a lot of money one way or the other.
Another rub was that they fed me really fattening food for those two days. I made a prop bet about a month ago with Cantu and I need to get down to 182 lbs by the first day of the main event of the WSOP. I can't afford to lose. I've been doing pretty good and still have plenty of time to shave off the pounds. I'm confident that I'll do it. I was at 235 in December and 217 when we made the bet in April. So that's a 53 pound swing. If I can pull it off I'll probably write a little weight-loss book called "The Degenerate Gamblers Guide to Losing Weight Fast". Look for it at a retailer near you soon! ;)
----db----So here's another bad thing that happened. My next-door neighbor found this really cool turtle. He had the coolest markings on him. She didn't know what she was going to do with him and when she showed him off to us she asked if I wanted him (or her?)... "Hell YEAH I want a turtle!" So she gave him to me. I named him Herbie. I put him in this cardboard box and went to go get an aquarium for him at Wal*Mart. I decided I'd get him a friend too... a Betta fish that I named Vonnegut. I also got some silverdust plants to spruce up his home. When I got back, Herbie had escaped from the cardboard box. I spent an hour looking for him... figured the search radius had to be small. It's a turtle after all.. they move slooooow. But that little guy is crafty and he pulled a Houdini. Now it's just me and Vonnegut. I miss Herbie. At least I didn't have him long enough to get too attached.
