Author: Adrianna

Adrianna https://girlabouthecountry.wordpress.com Travel, observation and the spirit.

Excess and success

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Christmas got here in a big hurry.  I feel the spirit every time I hear a loved ones voice  and I don’t feel overwhelmed.  I do feel a deep sense of relief. The changes I made this year has help my  focus. I was so caught up in the stuff and it was taking its toll. Affected sleep and feigned happiness.  I am choosing to leave my phone in the car. I am working on being engaged and listening to others.  I had several drinks at a recent party and that’s the extent of my excess..so far. I do want excessive laughter,  fun and merriment.  I am going to actively seek this out.

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Not Missing Much.

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When I returned back into the port of Los Angeles and turned my phone on I got a message to work some shifts at the Surgery center. Next day  I got up early did my hair, fresh coat of make up and drove to work. I beamed as I recalled the good doctors patients and co-workers whom I enjoy spending my work day with.  I was greeted by frowns and some new faces. I quickly retreated to my touchstone Antellmo who wears many hats in this little but busy surgery center. He said “welcome to hell” This is not how are remember things when I left back in April.  The tone and the environment has shifted to one of unhappiness and dread. I said to myself “Give it a few days maybe its a fluke” Next day same thing. I realize that one person can be so powerful to create an  atmosphere that has left me grateful for moving in a different direction.  I will make the most of the carpal tunnel releases and cystoscopy procedures.  One physician told me I was missed and not forgotten I told him I did a blog assignment mentioning him as the subject. We laughed. I’ll stick it out since the few peaceful people is enough for me. wpid-20140920_095349.jpg But only for a few more days.

Bruise Cruise

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I should not expect to win if I haven’t played. I just thought it be like riding a bike. Nope not the case but I did meet Mr. Johnny Hale, who is an 1980 WSOP champ. At 87 years old he is kicking ass and taking names. He said while at the table ” I wish I was 20 years younger” another player said ” You mean you wish you were 40 years younger” Mr. Hale said ” No 20 years is fine”. 195 poker players played on and off for seven days. I recognized some players from Las Vegas high limit Venetian Room and I was intimidated then during a tournament I made a rookie mistake and Bam! I was out. The beautiful ocean and sea spray helped me cool down but I felt bruised and defeated. I still love playing poker. Badugi and open face chinese poker are kinda popular these last few years. I often say to those who play Omaha high low “you’re either a omaholic or omahalogist”. Poker invokes a lot of math so I cracked up when a really good aggressive gal player said. ” I spend half my life playing poker half my life sleeping and half my life shopping” sounds good to me.

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Mexico

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43 missing students and the Marine who was jailed for over two hundred days are Mexico’s most recent memories. My perception is to cast favor to those who live and work in Cabo San Lucas in Baja California. This  is beachy, golfie,  relaxing place. For me it was a place of people who needed help.  In my mid 20,s I was an altruistic nurse and for  two years every month I’d fly down to work at the clinic. A full Saturday of vitals health history and minor surgeries. A military husband and wife,  both physicians manage to treat a great number of people.  I was in awe.  A lot of the people wanted  “Vermox” for amoebic dysentery.  One time a family brought an elderly man who was actively dying. With the most delicate and sensitive discussion he was given Valium and morphine and returned home. One month we gave money to the mayor of Colonia del Sol to put in a working toilet and sink. Next month new mayor no sink or toilet Dinero? ¡Que?!. Learning quickly,  things needed were done on site and paid off after work was completed.  The colony was an eyesore for the mayor and he treated it that way.  Households (shacks) had two large plastic barrels one potable and the other for anything else. Guess they got the barrels mixed up and that became a way of life. Lomas del Sol is the name of the colony now and my

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friend said that is the only thing that has changed.

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Miss-conception

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Free time means two hour lunches with my mom’s friends and acquaintances. Over dessert, one piece of pie and six forks, an attractive 71 year old shares that she will be going to Mexico City to join her younger Latin boyfriend. She says she loves him and he is fond of her. While there she’ll dine, shop and get ” frisky” . I felt reassured that our life is not a bell curve but a series of peaks and valleys. I haven’t bought in to the misconception that getting older means that having relations comes to a screeching halt. I have no one to ask ( hell no I am not asking my mom TMI) and I wouldn’t ask out of respect. So imagine how refreshing I felt to hear giddiness and delightfully delicious banter about sex. Another gal who is recently widowed expressed desire to meet a man and be in love again. All these gals are seventy plus in age and they are divine. They are polished, sophisticated, and fun. But one sour patch in the bunch said “At my age, if I meet someone I’ll either be a purse or a nurse”. I want to be Diane Von Furstenberg.

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Gym jamboree

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I’m not the only one that goes to work off what I might put on over the holidays, but being a black card holder to my gym makes me feel special. Of course its not the black platinum American Express but  this little black plastic card also has its perks. I get the shake and bake, rock and roll.  Massage chair and a crypt looking machine that encases water that sprays out  while lying down and does the same thing as the chair. Then I do the tanning machine for full 9 minutes and I’m in heaven. The music is trance and I dance inside the tube like a go go girl.  The fantasy of never having to wait to be asked to dance,  getting paid plus the imaginary outfits suits me fine. I have yet to participate in the pizza event at Planet Fitness but there they are  stacked high on a table at the entrance all alone. I don’t get it. I find the Lunk Alarm amusing too. Whenever the noise of grunts or weights being dropped reaches a certain level a fire alarm goes off, everybody kinda stops and looks for the offender. They need to call it the “hunk alarm” because that’s who setting it off.

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Cruise Countdown

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Poker is a game I enjoy playing, I also enjoy traveling so combine both and you got Card Players Poker Cruises. My trip leaves in a few days and I have yet to play any poker for months and months. I ran into a gal I know from my past poker days and her and I agreed. Poker has kinda faded away for both of us. Both she and I started a few years before the scene went crazy. Tournaments with 120 people became more like 1200. I thought it would be a field of dreams but it became a nightmare. Winning or at least making it into the money was becoming more and more elusive. I switched games and that helped but the players I’m up against having been playing Omaha hi-Lo poker longer than I’ve been alive. And the bankroll, yes you need a bankroll. One of the regulars I know that shows up on this cruise with his super hot European tan wife, and he has a lot of moohla. At the Venetian in Las Vegas, he often is seen at the Omaha 30$-60$ table which means if you wanna play a hand it’s thirty dollars and goes up after that. I’ll refrain from saying whether or not he’s a good player, but if you got enough money you can handle the swings of the game. I’m more on a teeter totter. I have a crew I’m going with. There are also other crews like the Armenians who bring some kick ass booze so strong that when I drink it my body temperature instantaneously goes up 10 degrees. And the dealers most whom are from Florida are solid aggressive players so when their shift is over and they sit down to play I am totally aware to be on my game. Then there are the owners Jan Fisher and Linda Johnson. Between these two women there are at least a dozen of poker books written. One of the them is in the worlds hall of fame for poker. My crew includes my mom our friend Marian and the driver Jlo and me. I have a feeling that we are gonna have lots of fun and make lots of money because we have The best Luck.

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Keen No

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A quick layover from Las Vegas to Los Angeles allows me to get my fix. I heard most people are addicted to either one or more the following; alcohol sugar caffeine nicotine salt. I’ll add Keno to my caffeine and sugar. It’s a random numbers game, a math probability game which has its appeal but for me I observe the people playing it. Locals come to the Orleans ( Or- lins) and according to house staff there are a series of machines lined up against the escalators also known as skid row. I see a lady who taps the side of her machine five times hits the “deal/draw” button three times sweeps her hand across the screen like a lovers caress then strokes the side from top to bottom every, single time. She does this all the while a cigarette is dangling from her lips with ashes still attached half way down the length and holding a high ball. Then you have the “tweakers” obviously they don’t sit still, they order “Piña Coladas two please with Amaretto” don’t tip the waitress and as quickly as they arrived they are gone. I remembered two prostitutes sitting next to each other playing one cent Keno chatting and drinking, along comes a security guard ( this happened at another casino) small talk ensued and one of the gals says ” look I got a bonus” delightful giddy laughter begins when the security guard says “I’ve got a bonus just standing here talking to you”. This last one touches my heart. This older gentleman had his wife sitting in front of him on the same chair being that both of them were of small stature, while he looked and press the buttons his chin resting on her shoulder and his arms around her waist. I could tell she had some kind of a stroke. There they were  together. l had never seen this and it hit me in a way that only love could have created such a simple solution.

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Chocolate Massacre

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Women love chocolate.  With one exception.  In 12 days I am going on a quickie Poker cruise the last one I was on  I partied hard late into the night, I then crawled into my bed as not to wake up my bunk mates.  In the morning I screamed looking at my bed then grabbing  my neck for some kind answer to the question “who stabbed me in the night” why? OMG the sheets had what appeared to be old blood high up on the pillow area. Duh, these luxurious cruises place a chocolate on your pillow before you retire, I fell asleep and melted that damn  Ghirardelli chocolate square. Mystery solved. 

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Don’t Be Bold

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wpid-20140510_181717.jpg I find pleasure in writing about life out here but last night was different.  The driver looking out of window before retiring said “No” I asked what was that? “Lot lizard” some one soliciting. I felt a deep heart tug. It was very cold outside and late and I asked myself “how bad must things be that a female could muster up courage to knock on a window of someone she has never met and then proceed to be intimate with that person”.  I chose not to cry but to write and tell her if I could, she doesn’t have to be so brazen  and try to get her drug of choice some other way some other day. To me she is not a lot lizard. Although I can’t save you I want you to know I care.  It’s in my prayers that I will ask that you’d not be so bold.

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