Took a little trip down to LA/Irvine this weekend to visit family. Two of my sister-in-laws just moved into a nice apartment in Irvine and we went down to visit. Truth be told, I need little reason to go to SoCal. Orange County (the OC) is home to one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside Vietnam and as a result there is some of the best Vietnamese food around. One of our favorites is a restaurant called Brodour which has these rolls called "nem nuong". Theoretically these are an appetizer but I could just as easily eat these things as a meal. It must be the ready abundance of fresh produce, but the food there is just so much better and really resonable.
What does this have to do with Poker or temptation? Not much really except that I was in the Southern California, home to some of the best known Casinos outside of Las Vegas. Saturday night I took a drive up to LA proper to see my best man, DM, in a play called "This may well be true." For those of you who are familiar with the greater LA area, the route to get from Irvine to Hollywood is 405N>55N>5N>101N. I'm not sure if it was on the 5 or the 101, but right there off the freeway is the Commerce Casino. Like a siren calling me to the rocky shoals, the red neon lights beckoned to me.
It's funny how the human mind can rationalize just about anything. There I was on my way to see my very good friend and I couldn't help thinking "well, I've never been there, I should just check it out and see the place." and "I just want to pick up a copy of the latest issue of card player magazine." With truly Herculean effort I stayed on the road and didn't veer off.
And then once again, this time off to the left as I drove back down to Irvine at 2:00 AM. Forget that I was tired and had a headache and my throat hurt from all the yelling over the noise and the smoke, I seriously considered it. I even hatched a plan that I would play until 8:00 in the morning and then drive down, picking up some breakfast for the sisters as a way of appeasing them.
But self preservation kicked in and I drove right by. next time.
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