Home Again, Home Again...

...which means it's time to head back to the airport.

Before leaving Manila I had discussions with a few acquaintances at the tournament who'd actually been to other parts of the Philippines. As a result I'm modifying my description of the country. The Philippines are not necessarily the Mexico of Asia; but Manila is definitely the Tijuana of the Philippines. We got up to plenty of fun without getting jumped, mugged, kidnapped or raped though, and came home without any (new) diseases, so it wasn't all that bad -- even if we never did find the donkey show that C4 was sure must be lurking just around a corner somewhere.

Today is laundry day; tomorrow CK and I fly to New York for a quick trip to pack up our apartments and send all of our possessions on a journey across the country to catch up with us at our new rental house (six months after first arriving in Vegas). Please don't hate on me if you live in NYC and I don't make time to see you while in town. We have four days to pack up two apartments. That's now seeming like a fairly ambitious schedule.

The six-month retrospective: there have been some bumps along the way, but I'm still happier doing what I do now -- writing articles, traveling and covering poker tournaments, and making more and more contacts in the poker industry to branch out into more and more projects -- than I ever was as a lawyer. The rub is that my new occupation pays about 25% of the average salary for a NYC hedge fund lawyer. We've trimmed lots of our expenses by moving here, and there's no state or local income tax. It's not a wash, but it definitely helps. What would be more helpful if the work flow were steadier. October was barren in terms of work; in November I had to turn down three different projects due to scheduling conflicts. That's freelance work for ya.

One of the high points of the last six months was cashing in Event 26 - $1,500 Razz at the World Series of Poker. When I got home from Manila last night, CK told me, "You got a box." Sure enough, there was a medium-sized box addressed to me sitting near the front door. Inside of it was a keepsake and reminder of that summer high point:


A huge thank you to Jamie and the rest of the Wall Street Poker crew for their generosity and thoughtfulness. It's nice to have something tangible to look at and be reminded of that tournament. As soon as CK and I get into the new house and I get my new office set up, this baby will be joining the Golden Hammer on my desk.