A Letter To My Grandmother 3
From: Marge
To: Justin
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 8:25 AM
Subject: Re: Hello....
Good Morning Justin,
Hope that you are well and safe. I hope that you know that you are going into tornado area storms all thru the parts that you will be traveling and they
are all moving Northeast. Please be careful. I feel that you have left Chicago.
Liked the story about the gym that you went to. Nice of you to start putting back the dumb bells and how it led to others helping you. It takes just one
person to make something good happen and I"m sure that those people felt good helping. PROUD OF YOU! Did you go back for your free
workout?
Was unhappy that the Red Wings lost-if they played the 1st and 2nd periods as they played in the 3rd, I think that we would have won. I had to leave
the room numerous times as I got so nervous and at times upset. I come to the computer and play solitare. But as I said before, they are still the
best!!!!!! I do not want Chicago to win.
Worked outside yesterday and finally got it done-I was determined. It was so hot and humid but I was not going to stop.The hard part about laying
mulch is that I do it by hand and to make it really look nice, I had to actually crawl in between the bushes to get the mulch all around the bottoms of the
bushes and roots.
Christopher went to work this morning very happy-his team won last night. I really don't care for Miami, but I don't say anything to him.
Not much going on here-Pam called last night and she wants to come over next week to visit.
I am going out today and Armoral (not sure of the spelling) my dashboard. The inside is all clean except that.
Please take care. LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART! Gram XOXOXO
Gram,
I am definitely safe, feeling well, and running well at the poker table.
I've only made a couple mistakes so far.
They both had to do with me calling a villian's "all in" raise with a top pair hand.
In poker, you always refer to yourself as "hero" and a "villian" is one of the people you are up against in a hand.
In each of the two hands, I had top pair and their was a flush draw on the board.
So, the board would look like A Clubs 10 clubs 4 spades.
Obviously, I was holding the Ace, so I bet it, in both instances.
Both times, the villain in the hand raised me.
So, I had a decision to make, call the raise of fold my hand.
To make that decision, I had to decide if villain had a two pair or better hand, which defeated my aces or was villain using deception and trying to bluff me with the chance to hit his flush draw. A flush is when villain would hold two clubs in his hand, then another club card comes on turn or river and that gets him 5 of the same suit, which completes his flush and defeats my ace.
In each instance, I thought the villain could be bluffing me, so I called his raise and I was wrong!!!
This happened because I have been playing a lot of $2/$5 No Limit Hold Em lately and at that game a lot of deception/bluffing is used. I made these calls/bad decisions at the $1/$2 No Limit Hold Em game where less deception/bluffing is used because most the players just aren't that sophisticated.
This is the beauty of poker.
No one hand, one poker table, or one poker situation is exactly the same.
Each hand is sort of it's own snowflake and it's your job to consistently make the best decision in order to maximize your winnings or minimize your losses.
So, the bad news is I've made around $300 worth of mistakes. The good news is that I'm still around $2300.00 up for the trip.
I definitely went back and got the 2nd workout in. Then I headed to the casino to get some food, watch Wings vs Hawks game 7, and play poker. Like you, I wasn't happy with the result. I believe the Red Wings squandered a glorious opportunity. But, they're young and they'll learn from it. Adversity builds character and they'll come back stronger than ever next year. I'll be cheering on the L.A. Kings with you!!!
I am happy to hear you got your garden all finished. I bet it looks nice. Too bad you don't own a cell phone or digital camera, then you could take me a picture. Speaking of pictures, I've got some for you, I decided to tour the Budweiser brewing facility here in St. Louis. I figured I had the perfect look for it. I even bought an extra special barbecue lighter to go with my outfit. If you look closely, you can see I put it in the eagles mouth.
In addition to the tour, I also took a trolley around St. Louis that showed us all of the cities parks, landmarks, and monuments.
I've included a picture of the arch, the St. Louis horse statue, and a fountain that was built for the 1904 World Fair held in the city.
The view of the fountain was breathtaking, I wish you would have been here to see it with me.
There's a lot to do in this city and the great thing is, a lot of it is free. They have free museums, planetarium, zoo, parks, and even the United State's largest outdoor theatre where 1500 people are allowed in free for every performance. I was told all of the free things to do were not only paid for by taxes, but also massive donations from wealthy people in the community. So, it's good to hear that some wealthy people are acting responsibly and making sure there is much to do in the city for people whether they are poor or rich.
Experiences are important, you can not put a price tag on them.
I'd trade hundreds of hours or days for just a few precious moments.
So many people take for granted that they have the money to go on a vacation, to the movies, a concert, a waterpark, an amusement park, the casino, etc, etc...
There's a lot of good people trapped inside their homes and all they can do is watch television or go on the internet.
They can't afford to go places that provide an experience.
They're forced to live vicariously through fake people they see on television just to escape the boredom and they work hard jobs that other people look down upon or make fun of...
Like the man who faxes business documents back and forth from a cubicle all day making $70,000.00 a year belittles the older lady working at McDonald's to support her children.
I bet you the lady at Mcdonald's works harder.
But, both jobs are probably soul sucking in the end.
America is designed to be that way.
All the schools, college institutions, and corporations want are people willing to take orders, repeat slogans, follow protocol, and slave away fifty hours a week in exchange for the lowest amount of money they can possibly give you.
They prefer those who excel at fact based learning.
Those who could tell you the exact day America and Iraq went to war when George W. Bush was President, but aren't smart enough or interested enough to explore the reasons why the war happened and it's devastating effects on innocent Iraqi people.
Knowing facts, protocol, and procedures is very important.
Critical thinking, deep thinking... not so much.
Imagine a child getting bad grades because he can't memorize dates or facts well.
Imagine a child getting an "E" on an art project because the teacher didn't like what he drew or painted.
Imagine a child getting an "E" because the essay or story he wrote had bad grammar, punctuation, spelling, or the teacher didn't like it.
We have a nation full of people who have been taught to excel at fact based learning/retaining useless information.
We lack free and creative thinkers.
This is why so many people fear talking about anything important like politics, social issues, religion, the way we treat one another, etc, etc, etc...
They don't know how to delve much deeper into any arguments once it goes past the party line word tracks and slogans they see on television.
So, they feel ignorant, they feel insecure, they get upset, and they say things like, "it's not proper to talk politics or religion."
Then they go talk about a sports figure, reality tv, a celebrity, or whatever other junk food the television has been feeding their mind.
They don't want to think. They don't want to converse about anything meaningful.
Well, at least St. Louis is providing numerous attractions for people from all walks of life to explore for free. That way, when people decide to believe that everybody's art, stories, thoughts, political views, religious views, and opinions are important they'll have many places to go meet and converse. I wish all cities around the world would do what St. Louis is doing, anything to help get people out of their homes is good for building a better and stronger community.
I think I shall eat these Haribo gummy bears and read some Howard Zinn now Gram.
Good night,
-Justin
P.S.- The hotel agreed to give me my own "Bat Signal" Gram.
Look!!!