Fish

Friday, June 01, 2012

My Poker Sins Have Been Forgiven

I'm not the type to pray but every once in a while there is a point where all things good and holy converge and my shit is left smelling like a garbage bag full of roses and cheap booze (instead of french fries).  Last night was one of those nights and it took a great deal of patience to get there.

Everything started out innocently enough as I sat down at a running 1/2 NL game which had a decent amount of money on it.  The big stack was to my left which is kind of unfortunate but other than in one particular hand it really didn't make a difference.  That particular hand, however, was the first hand of my evening.

Upon sitting I was the big blind and I choose to play instead of letting the button pass.  I know that a certain someone would say that it's blasphemy to do such a thing and that I must be filthy rich because only rich people are stupid enough to do that because they obviously do not care about money.
So, being that I'm rich I posted and got dealt K6.  We saw a flop with 5 people and it was beautiful at KT6 with two diamonds.
I threw $20 out there as an over-feeler-bet to just take down a pot right away and the guy to my left called.  Folded to a guy in late position who decided to just push all in for an additional $75 and then folded back to me.
He was short and I have no idea of how he plays because this is my first hand at the table.  It's a tough position as he could have KT but I figure him most likely to have a holding like top pair and a flush draw.  So, I decide to call when the guy to my left surprises me by going all in.
I've already got half my stack in the pot and while I feel I'm kind of beat here I call.  I still have about $100 behind so would anyone fold here?  I have top and bottom and the pot is $400 and I have to call an additional $100?  Either way I wasn't good enough.
The turn is a 6 completing my boat and the river is a blank - however the guy to my left limped with TT and had a much bigger boat than I.  RELOAD! (this guy then flops two more sets within the orbit and grows his stack more).

At this point I decided to get run over by the deck.  Getting run over by the deck is awesome, however there is one caveat.  Other people need to at least be hitting enough to help you grow your stack.  When this doesn't happen you just sit there in wonder and know that you are wasting a hot streak.  Blah says the fish.

So for the next hour or so I flop all kinds of marvelous stuff and win $100 of my money back.

I flopped a set of ducks and won $30.  I flopped two pair after a raise and got a 3 way all in and split with another guy with the same two pair.  I flopped 2 straights and got nothing.  Flopped a boat with 63 in the big blind and 5 other players and nobody played even after a K on the turn. On the button I raised 23s to $11 and the flop came out 227.  There were 5 callers to my raise.  I bet $20 on the flop and everyone went away.
This kept happening for close to an hour and when my cards stopped hitting so hard I'd made back $100.

Finally the divine powers decided to smile upon me.

I'm on the button and look down and see the holy duo of 2spades and 4spades.  I decide that I am raising to $15 when it gets to me and I watch 4 people limp.  However, interference happens as the guy to my right decides to raise to $15.  Decisions decisions.
I thought about a re-pop but I know that 2 of the 4 limpers were 97% to call the raise and build a pot for me and as such I slid out my three red-birds. 1 of the 4 tagged along to see a flop.
The Flop:


At this point bells and whistles were going off in my head because it's hard for a flop to hit me harder than this one.  Sure, I didn't quite have anything right now but dammit that doesn't matter. I've got 321 draws to a winner and pretty sure pairing my 4 or 2 might be good as well.  Guy in early position grabs some chips but decides to check.  This guy was a pretty weak player.  If he limped he was almost guaranteed to call a raise. He chased more than he should have and as a result he kept putting bills on the table.  He got stacked on my 1st hand (he was the original pusher) and he got stacked (by me) later when he pushed all in and I had flopped 2 pair again (this was the hand that I split with someone else with the same flopped 2 pair).
Guy to my right cuts out $30 for his bet and the action is on me.  Calling $30 into $75 isn't ideal here but it's slightly better when I really believe that the last guy will call the $30 as well.  I figure that I can take this down on the turn with a big bet most of the time because guy to my right most likely has overs and the other guy most likely will just go away (he just rebought so had near $200 instead of like his normal $75ish.  He had a habit of calling flops and folding turns until he got into the $75 range and then he would push and donate).
So, I smooth called while chanting 5 or spade 5 or spade 5 or spade 5 or spade in my head.  The last completely disappeared in my mind at this point and like any other fish I just stopped paying attention to him. I do not know if he called or if he folded or what happened.  He just faded out of existence.

Turn:


Beautiful. Perfect in every imaginable way. The stone cold nuts. The Holy Order of the Mighty Deuce-Four heard my prayers and answered them with a resounding chorus of angels singing.
Guy thinks for about 45 seconds or so and cuts out $75.
I think for approx the same amount of time and cut out $75.

River:

Not 100% the card that I was hoping for but then again I was unsure what I was really looking for.  Guy's holdings are still pretty undefined because I have played this hand very passive.  In all reality I was hoping for a paired board so that he could either A- Catch Quads and we could hit the bad beat (hit earlier in the evening at a 3/6 Limit game of course) or B- Bluff push his remaining $250 trying to convince me that he just rivered my flush with his awesome boat.
However, none of that happened and after some deliberation he checked.
I thought, again, for approx 45 seconds before pushing out a $100 stack and watched him count out $100 and then look at the rest of his chips like he wanted to push (I should have just bet $75 again to give him a bigger push me thinks) and eventually he decided on mucking.

I, however decided to flash my hand and take a picture of it to appease the Gods even more.


I later went to the bathroom and snapped this pic just to end my post with it.
Also, you'll all be happy to know that I ended up cashing out actual profit for my session.
Yep, one fucking dollar.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

A Five Way Hole

My day yesterday started innocently enough, I went to work and realized where I left my bottle of jerk-off lotion.
Oh snap, there you are!
Work went by reasonably well and I actually got everything caught up which is actually impressive.  However, Monday is going to be the day of reckoning because I've got 4 days off in a row and fear for the worst.  I tried to make my life as easy as possible for this coming Monday by shooting out a series of emails to management in order to help the office keep pace of where it should be.  It's probably asking a lot, but I'm hoping for even a minor amount of help while I am away so that I do not come back to angry customers.  Only time will tell.

As evening approached I really needed something to do and decided to hit up a quick poker session. Not knowing exactly where I wanted to go I hit the interstate and just drove until I either ran out of real estate or my car veered towards one of the casinos.  My stop ended up being the Mirage.

Mirage was not nearly as busy as I was hoping for but when I showed up there was an open seat at two different 1/2 NL games and I choose the one with the only player that I recognized - Poker Muffin.

Some of you might recognize that nick/handle/whatever and others might not.  I don't think she reads the circle of blogs and as such I don't expect her to freely stumble up on this, however I have been playing poker with her since 2006 I do believe.

She was one of the original crew that became regulars at the Treasure Island that included prominent members of the AVP community and founding members of the (now defunct) VPN community.  It's always nice when I'm out and about and I run into friendly people and get to catch up.  Last night was a great night.

So, I chose my seat at her table and between her and I is another Pittsburgh Steelers who's wearing a hat showing off the best spots logo there is.  He was a great guy from LA who happened to run like ass most of the night but took everything in stride and generally had a good time.  A while later we were also joined by two of Poker Muffins friends - one a dealer and one a cocktail waitress.

Before the two other friends joined us we kicked off the table in great fun fashion, a round of drinks.
Fuck Yeah!
Our side of the table had 4 Jager Bomb's and the other side had a couple of random shots that were much more girly than good-old-fashioned-fuck-you-up-quick-Jager-Bombs!  Either way, the shots went down quick and the beer started coming and a fun evening was in the making.

I started off my poker session with a gamble (anyone who has played with me recently knows that this is really nothing new and some would say it's probably a big leak).  There was a small raise to $7 or similar and a caller or two so I got in there with 57d then there was a short stack push for $43 or so and another short stack push for $60.  It folded back to me and I put both on big cards and just waiting to get their money in.  There was one other player who almost pushed but ended up folding and after my call he said he folded A9s.
The flop came out Ax9 and of course both Shorties have Ax for the last ace to hit the flop.  On the turn I had straight and flush draw outs but nothing came and I mucked without showing.  Nothing exciting happened for a while on my end.

Early in the session PM was telling about her friend who has a 5 way headphone adapter so that others can listen to his music as well and we started talking about how we should have a session with one of those and just have everyone in one corner jam out.  This is when she blurted out "I really need to get a 5-way hole."
Oh yes, with alcohol, fun and lowered inhibitions the night was on!

After all the friends had taken a seat at the table more fun started to be had.  There was one pot that I won about $200 off of one of the ladies and a little while later she was talking to me about the hand and saying how she couldn't get away with it and never expected me to have what I had.  She wasn't bitter about it but said that if she had won she definitely would have tipped better.
I will admit that while I in no way stiffed the dealer she was by far the best tipper at the table.  Next time that she is at the table with me and I win a buy-in off of her I will make a point of tipping better and letting the dealer know it's from the lady in the xxx seat!!

Before getting off to my climatic ending I'll give a little detail about my session.
It started with a $60 gamble that did not pay off.
I raised early and often at this table, doing so mostly in increments of  $7 which was an accident until I realized it and then I just kept it up for most of the night. After losing my $60 I then proceeded to beat out Poker Muffin in a hand where I turned top 2 and she got away from my river bet by narrowing down my holdings to one of 3 hands - 2 of which she lost two and once she split with.

Buy-in #1 disappeared when I rivered a straight in a horribly bloated pot against two weak players but the flush also hit on the river. The bet (and call by another player) was such that I just felt I couldn't fold because of the size of the pot.  I was right in the fact that the guy who bet down I had beat - however the caller did hit the flush on the river and proceeded to slow roll me and royally piss me off because of it.
After I called the bet on the river the guy in 1st position said "Any flush will take it down, I have a set" and flipped over his cards.  Next guy just sat there looking like a tool and I tried to end the action by saying I hit the straight and flipped my cards over.
Other guy still sat there until the dealer showed my straight on the board and then looked at his hand for about 15-20 seconds before turning over his rivered flush.
I know I uttered a comment that was NSFW and that the dealer could have actually warned me about, but nothing happened and I went to my wallet to generically make my stack larger.

By the way, the dealers on this evening were awesome, especially Alaskagirl!  We got away with a lot of shit said at the table that some other dealers and some other rooms would have warned us about multiple times before asking us to leave.  So - to that end I'd like to give a big thank you because this table was bloody fun but we didn't actually get out of hand. We were just enjoying the evening.

A bit later I hit a set and stacked someone but then proceeded to give a good portion of it back when that person called my PFR, then my flop bet with top pair average kicker and was nice enough to turn two pair.  Whatevs.

Most of the evening I sat with a stack around $200 and a buy-in twice that and actually after a while learned the gentle art of folding pre-flop.  Finally I got into a hand where I called a raise (pot odds yo) because everyone else did as well with 45 offsuit.  It was $10 and there were 7 others in the pot at this point so my small blind hand decided to just come along.
Flop K45 with two diamonds and I yell out bingo (in my head - out loud would have been rude).
I check, PFR checks and chick who two paired me bets out $20.  Maybe a caller and maybe two but I raise it to $60 and when it folds to her she insta pushes.  This took me back because it was difficult to put her on a hand.  She could have easily flopped a set but I discounted that because I was holding two of her outs.  She could have hit a random two pair (suited cards, the kids like them) and she could have been top pair flush draw.  I wasn't sure but I belched out a call and turned my hand over.  She flipped her AKs over and I thought it was TPTKFD but it was only back door flush draw because I misread the board.  The turn was a blank and the river boated me and now I'm back to even.
A bit later I raise and everyone on a 3 table radius calls me.  I flop a flush draw and put in a re-raise when someone bets into me and we are down to 3 handed.  Turn puts the flush out and a guy bets into me so I smooth call and the last guy to act decides he wants all of his chips in the middle.
The guy who bet into me thought about it for-fucking-ever and finally decided to fold.  I announce that I have the current nuts and can't figure out how to fold so I put my chips in.  My A high flush is bigger than his Jack high flush so I get a pile of chips being pushed to me.
I asked the other guy what he had and he said top pair and Flush Draw to the Q.  Oh why did he pick that moment to learn to fold.  BOOO!

Either way, I now was showing a profit and when I racked up I was still showing a profit.  Good times.

Now that the poker portion of our broadcast is over it's back to some minor story telling.
5 way hole and a fun gal!

Drinking and having fun PM's friend with the 5 way hole shows up and she gets excited.  So, he whips it out to show us and next thing you know there are 5 of us all plugged in and Jamming to Michael Jackson songs.
1st song is Dirty Diana and I then put in a request for Smooth Criminal.  At the end of this long (approaching on Rob long) post I'll link up to a bunch of the songs that the 5 of us jammed to while pretending to still care about the poker game.  After the two MJ songs it became a game of pass the adapter so we could take turns picking songs for people to listen to.  It was a goddamned blast.

As the night was winding down someone played I kissed a girl and PM's one friend started talking about how she has kissed many girls but has a friend who promised if she ever kissed a girl that she would allow her to be her first.  Then it turned to how PM really wanted to make out with her and this song was a subtle hint.  After a few other song references that I threw in there stating that it would make the hint more obvious (Take Me Home Tonight) everyone was cracking up.

However, a song or two later PM decided to pipe in with "I've had enough of this and I'm doing it solo right now.  I'm not kissing a girl and I'm unsure about cock."
Laughter - the best medicine!!
The cock comment was reference to an earlier song that she didn't particlularly like that used the word "dick" a lot, however she - in her drunken stupor (joking) - just associated the word cock with the song instead of dick.  Simple mistake.

It was a f'n blast and I showed a profit.  What more can I ask? Also, as I was racking up my chips my alarm went of - which meant that I had officially been up for 24 hours.
I got home and took out Monster and took a nap.  3 hours later he woke me up to piss again and I'm assuming I'll need a nap very shortly or I'll be in bed pretty early tonight!

Songs played for our poker table 5-way (in no particular order).









It was an MJ themed night with other stuff mixed in that I don't remember quite as well!

Stay thirsty my friends.
I stole the "woman said" label from Rob for 2 or 3 quotes used above.  I thought he'd enjoy that.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dear Rob Thanks for the ...

Dear Rob (admin and all around swell guy at Robvegaspoker),

I am writing to tell you that I really appreciate your contribution to the get grrouchie rich quick scheme that I am trying to develop. While you may have paid $200 for your blog post you have done something even greater.  You contributed to my "Play video games really loud at night and not disturb the peace" fund.

Yes, that is right.  With some of your contributions to the grrouchie fund you bought the following.

This is for my Playstation 3 gaming and entertainment system

This is for my Xbox 360 gaming system


I have no idea how this came up in my search but dammit I'm sharing

MmMmmm - Special Edition

Of course, me being a big cheap ass that I am I did not pay full price for any of the above (especially the titties - never pay full price for titties is a lesson I have learned multiple times).  I got them all on sale and some with even further discounts than normal sale price.  So, Overall I am quite happy with you funding my addictions.

The good news is that it does not end there.  No way Jose.
With your contribution to the "buy shit that I was going to pass on because I didn't have a suga daddy donating lots of benji's to me at the poker table" also has me pre-ordering this for when it is released this coming August.



I have also found a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm interested in getting so I do have one question for you, When are you coming back to town so we can play some more?


(All the above was harmless teasing of dear old Rob.  No Robs were hurt in the making of this blog post but in all honesty it was HIS money that went to buying all that shit - and I still have some left over.)

Monday, May 28, 2012

Sunday, May 27, 2012

TonyBigCharles.com

I'm going to admit that I am really going to miss TonyBigCharles.com.
Sure, it had a lot of immature comments and pretty much was just a self serving website for the express purpose of making fun of one person but there were some good redeeming things about it - well at least one, for me.

The thing is, following the chronicles of TBC is kind of mind numbing.  At first you think it's a big joke and then you come around and realize that it is not actually a joke.  This is all real and it is the life of Tony.  After you come to that realization you start digging for info from some of the older websites that he has blogged on and you see the exact same patterns emerge.  Tony is a circle, his life follows the exact same pattern over and over whether you are talking about poker, VBJ or women.  There is a pattern to everything he does and try as hard as he might (and no matter how much you root for the guy) that pattern doesn't appear to have a breaking point. It's a perfect circle and there is no derailing it.

The last while I've come to love TonyBigCharles.com because it was a well written summary of whatever Tony happened to be posting on his own blog. It was creative, it was funny and most of all it summed everything up in a manner that I could really get behind.
I pretty much never looked at the comments because they really weren't worth my time.  It was the same thing as taking 30 14 year old kids and letting them create their own government where KKK and anal rape jokes were not only funny, they were law!
So, I read tbc.com for the articles and then I'd read Tony's actual blog for the comments and interactions.

In fact, it now appears as though TBC's blog might end up going to a thing of the past as well since he's experimenting with a forum of sorts.  Who knows what the future holds.

I can tell you I'm looking forward to the meet up in June/July as it's going to be a lot of fun putting faces to the handles.


Web Comics

Nothing I really feel like talking about tonight so I'm just going to give y'all a list of web comics that I really enjoy.
These are the ones I check daily to see what new postings have happened (you know, unless they only update once a week then checking daily would be kind of stupid).

Scenes From a Multiverse
Bearmageddon - updates on Wednesdays
Amazing Super Powers
twxxd
hatefarm - updates once or twice per month
legacy control
I am Arg


Cobwebs

Splitter has gone missing and a certain grrouch decided to use that opportunity to drink his beer and leave his underwear lying around.

So, more important than just making a random guest post elsewhere is the information revealed in the comments section!

Please check it out and let me know what y'all think!

Comic Books

Comic Books - most of us from the dork kingdom have had some form of experience with them over the years. However this is one medium that I pretty much missed out on and am now just starting to get into at my advanced age.
I don't know what it is about them that I never liked - they seemed to be perfect for me.  Maybe it was just the financial commitment that I wasn't able to afford or that most of my money went elsewhere.

In High-School I had gotten into them just a little bit but it was mostly Beavis and Butt-Head and Ren & Stimpy comics that I bothered collecting.  I can only remember one issue of X-Men that I ever bought and that one had something to do with Wolverine fighting The Hulk.

Things that I was more into that took my money:
Trading Cards - Garbage Pail Kids - Serial Killer Cards - Beavis and Butt-Head, etc
Video Games
Magic: The Gathering










Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.  The above were already expensive enough so even if I wanted to read comic books I wouldn't have the money for it.  M:TG was by far the most expensive hobby that I had but at the time it was well worth everything I ever put into it.  The joy of opening packs, sealed deck drafts, going to big and small tournaments, driving to Columbus Ohio for Regionals every year, Pittsburgh for States, etc.  I loved every minute of it.
I cringed a little bit when I parted with some of my favorite cards even if it was for a good cause.
It hurt when I parted with my Nicol Bolas deck (even if I did buy my first car with that money) and trading away the Beta Black Lotus and my Power 9 - I still cringe when I hear what kind of value is associated with those cards now compared to when I had them.
But, time moved on and I moved to Vegas and stopped playing the game.  I still have a binder or two of some of my favorite cards at the time that I just never parted with and I look through them from time to time for nostalgia but most of the time I have no desire to ever play again (unless there is a pre-release and then I keep telling myself I should just play in those for the fun of it).

So, now I'm older and my tastes have changed again and I'm just starting to get into comic books.
It all started, innocently enough, with The Walking Dead.  I love zombies - a lot.
I know everyone was raving about the TV show and I really wanted to watch it but I was treating it like a movie that was coming out based on a book.  Most of the time I like to have read that book first so I can compare and contrast - and generally the books is better because it has more info and detail.
So, I picked up Issue 1 of The Walking Dead one day on the way to work and really loved it.  I started looking into collections on Ebay and stuff so I could catch up and that's when a Google Search turned up comixology which just happened to be releasing the first 5 volumes of The Walking Dead with a 50% off sale.  You can't beat that with a stick (you have to shoot them in the head) so I bought all five volumes hoping that I'd be able to get into the series and it wouldn't let me down.

So then I started asking around about what other comics were out there to read and what others recommend and man is the comic book universe vast.  There is just too much good stuff to catch up on and I'm really going to have to figure out a system and a budget for what I want to read and what I can afford.
My new habit is forming and it appears to be stronger than crack.
I've been grabbing a lot of free issues to give things a try and have found some good and some pretty blah. I have not settled on what exactly I want to read consistently just yet but I have found a few.

I will catch up to current production of The Walking Dead.  I love everything I have read so far.
Detective Comics have been pretty damned good for the 1st 5 issues that I have read so I will probably continue there.
Maybe my 1st comic related Tat!!
I just started Vol 3 of Deadpool and he is right up my alley. I bought a few issues since they were on sale and I'm really liking what I'm getting into right now.  However, the one thing that gets me is when, during an issue, they make reference to something that happened elsewhere - in a different comic - and they tell you exactly where it was (Wolverine Origins issue #21-#25) and I immediately want to jump ship over there in those issues so that I can follow along fully.
I've got an addictive personality - when I really get into something it consumes me and I want more.  Where is my rich, loving, supporting future ex wife when I need her?

For now I think I am going to focus mainly on just The Walking Dead and Dead Pool so that I can get caught up.  Once both of those are caught up to current issues I will figure other things out from there.
If I allow myself a 3rd series then it's going to be Irredeemable which is essentially a "what if Superman went bad" with different characters of course.  I've read 3-5 of the issues and really like it. I know that the series just recently ended as the last issue came out this month so I'm hoping there is a sale that will allow me to buy a bunch of the issues cheaper than normal.
There are other series that I really want to read, Avengers vs X-Men for instance (but I'm not paying $3.99 per issue honestly) but I can catch up to them when they are released as a collection I guess.

Now, pass me a beer and my Kindle Fire and let me start reading.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Scumdogs

For those of you who have never played Strat-O-Matic football it is essentially a more dorky fantasy football based off of previous seasons instead of the current season.

Strat-O-Matic (the company) does lots of research and comes out with a set of cards every year to represent the NFL teams (they also do this for Baseball - their most popular game - Hockey and Basketball as well).
It is a card and dice based game with a good amount of strategy that keeps the game fun.  There are flaws, but for the most part I really love the game.

I started playing during my college years when the league was a face-to-face league and that version of the game/league was by far my favorite game ever played.  Doing F2F you are able to create rules to suit yourself/league and of course there is the addition of staring down your opponent and trying to out play/coach them.  It's very akin to poker in that regards and I feel that if you are good at poker you actually have a good advantage playing Strat Football as well - it's all about reading people and their tendencies.  Pick up on their tells and you will have an advantage (though you still have to succumb to random chance, the luck of the die and some other things as well).

After moving to Vegas the league ended up becoming a computer league because it was getting too hard for people to travel back and forth to play games (people lived in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana). So the league evolved for everyone to keep in touch and I dropped out for a few years.

I ended up getting back into the league and my second season back is coming to an end.
The first year, the team I took over for, was pretty crappy and I was in the bottom 3rd.  However through a couple trades and draft picks and the power of Tom Brady my team is currently middle of the road and has a small possibility to squeeze into the last playoff spot (2 games to go).  Next year is going to be pretty bad other than Tom Brady though - but we'll get to that after trades and the draft is over.

Since my entire world revolves around Google, I have been using Google sites to build my teams web page.
I'm hoping to have it complete by the time the next season rolls around.  It's nothing fancy but it will work for what I want to use it for.  I don't think I particularly like Google Sites as my web builder of choice but it made it easy for me to just grab a template and start editing it as I saw fit.
It's probably been a decade since I have played with building a real website and using HTML and all that jazz and I know a ton has changed so I just didn't feel like diving into that and re-learning currently.  I'll probably get to that down the road when I feel like I have more time.

So, feel free to check out my crappy little site and look at the Las Vegas Scumdogs football team.

scumdogs.grrouchie.com

I'm working on a Logo Still - probably same guy that did my grrouchie logo.
I've got the offensive stats updated but nothing defensively yet.
I also do not have anything from the previous year up yet.

I'm hoping to do a post either before or after each game and continue to evolve the scumdogs site to something a bit better.
Either way - have at it.
Tell me what you like, what you don't like and make sure to call me a pansy for using something crappy like Google Sites instead of just using code and designing the bloody thing myself!


Friday, May 25, 2012

Heart to Heart

Kind of random and out of the blue but I ended up having a really good conversation with my store manager today.  It started as she believes that I am going to be leaving the company in the near future.
I assured her that this is not my intention and not in my immediate future plans.
She asked me what my plans/goals were and I spilled them out to her ending exactly at the same spot that they did when I first interviewed with her 3 years ago.

She asked me why I didn't put in for the last job that posted and basically hinted that I probably would have gotten it and from there I explained to her that I didn't want to take on a position that I have not had before (overseeing departments that I haven't worked) with the amount of stress in my life because of my irrational fears that I would somehow mess things up and hurt my current career path because of the amount of stress I am under that does not involve my current work environment.
It was a good 20-30 minute talk (that probably ran me into overtime for the week) to let her know how I feel and where I am coming from.
I also convinced her to let me to come in on Saturday or Sunday for a couple of hours to get caught up so that come Monday I'm not horribly backlogged.

I will take all of this and lead into a conversation with her about getting promoted in my current department as I really love my schedule but hate my bonuses.
Also, they are bringing in a full time person to help out in the office which will make my life so much easier and less stress free.

Now if there were only a way to get rid of my non work related stress!