DipJax
Thursday, November 30, 2006
It's been a busy week, which has kept me from my brogging duties as well as from the tables. After my tourney win on Monday, I was happy to take a step back and let it soak in. Instead of jumping right into more tourneys, I decided to take a look through some of the hand histories. Looking back I see there was one time where the board resulted in a counterfeit which gave me the win and knocked a guy out. I had AQs against his 88 and the board ended up being 9TTJJ, giving me the win with TTJJA. That was pretty early on, but without that hand playing out that way, I probably don't win the tournament. If I had lost I would not have been out, but I would have been near the felt. I had a ton of outs though so I don't feel too bad.
From there I worked my stack up and never was at risk of being knocked out again. I did win some all-in battles when my OESD's and Flush Draws hit, but I was a big stack at that point, so even a loss in any or all of those hands would not have changed things much. Playing a huge stack is fun poker. You can bully and piss people off to no end. I highly recommend it.
The day leading up to the tourney was extremely hectic. Let me first give a some background. Though I am very happy at my job and not actively looking for other employment, for the past year I have been heavily "recruited" by another firm. I have agreed to interview with them mainly because it is a good opportunity and plus you just never know what could happen. Better to build bridges than burn them methinks.
While the pay would be significantly higher than my current employment, with much more room for growth, the downside is I would most definitely have to move within the first few months. And in the first 5 years or so, there is a good chance I would have to move numerous times in order to end up in the right market. On average, with this position, you move 3+ times before you are really settled in. I just don't know that I want to put my family through that right now. We are very happy in Greensboro and all of our family is within 2 hours of us, with most of them within 30 minutes.
I've always said I would not chase money at the cost of our family's happiness. I just don't think it is worth it. Still, I want to see what this firm has to offer and see what I am potentially worth to them. Moving on to what made the day hectic...After 2 or 3 lunch meetings/interviews with the local managers, they decided they would like me to meet the regional managers in Charlotte which is about 90 minutes from Greensboro (more or less depending on traffic). We settled on November 27th at 1pm in their downtown Charlotte office. I made myself a note so that I would be ready.
A few weeks passed and the Thanksgiving Holiday came and went. The weekend after Thanksgiving I was checking my notes and saw that I was scheduled to be in Charlotte the upcoming Tuesday, November 27th. That Monday I was going through my typical work routine and around 10:40am I noticed something peculiar. I was reading an email and noticed the date was 11/27/06. WTF? Obviously my email system was messed up because the 27th is Tuesday right? WRONG DUMB ASS! What a DipJax I was. I had written the date down wrong as Tuesday instead of Monday. The meeting was schedule to start in 2 hours and I was 90 minutes away sitting in my office completely unprepared.
In that moment, I froze. I started to sweat something fierce, which is not something I normally do. I couldn't believe I was such a dumb ass. I started to conjure up an exit strategy. I could call them and let them know my car broke down. I could tell them ChickJax was sick and I had to keep the kids. I could tell them I am a complete moron and can't even keep my own schedule correctly, so obviously I would be a capital fit with their organization.
I decided to just try and make it work, which really was the right thing to do. I had already planned Tuesday off, so I just spoke with my fellow manager and told her I needed to change things up last minute. I bolted out the door and headed for home. Thankfully, I only live 2 minutes from where I work (another perk I would lose if I change jobs). When I got home I hurriedly advised ChickJax of my genius while I quickly changed into my "interview" suit. Only a few minutes later I was ready to head out the door.
As I opened the door and kissed ChickJax goodbye, I realized I had not shaved. Fuck! I had been pretty lazy over the Thanksgiving Holiday and just didn't feel like shaving that Monday morning (except my neck which I shave everyday). This usually isn't a big deal as I keep it groomed for work, but it is not cool for an interview with a new company. I threw all my shit down, cursed myself again for my lack of preparation, and then headed for the bathroom. In lieu of a real watered down shave, I grabbed the electric clippers I use to cut my hair and went to town on my face. The end result was a nice shave with a hint of a 5 o'clock shadow. That I could live with!
I headed out the door and was on my way to Charlotte. Everything seemed to be getting back in order until I realized I was almost out of gas. You have got to be fucking kidding me! I cursed myself yet again, and then made a quick stop to get some gas. I ended up spilling a little bit of gas on my hand and when I got back in the car it smelled terrible. Hawesome. Nothing like going to an interview smelling of gasoline. I looked everywhere for my waterless hand soap and it was nowhere to be found. I did end up finding a bottle of mouth wash and figured it had to smell better than gasoline. I put it on my hands like soap and it covered the smell rather well. Still, I felt like such a unitard.
Finally, I'm on my way to Charlotte. I made it to the Queen City in relatively good time, but ended up searching for the parking deck for 20 minutes. I finally got to the parking deck and then headed for the building. I made it to the Security desk and let them know I was their to see so-and-so at the firm and he says, "Buddy you got the wrong Tower. You need the North Tower and this is the South Tower." Double fuck. Luckily the towers were close to each other so a brisk walk later I was in the right tower.
I finally got to the correct tower, got clearance from security, then headed for the elevator. I got on the elevator only to find that this particular elevator only went to floors 40 through 60. I needed the elevator that went to the36th floor. I spent what felt like forever going to the top only to have to go back down to the bottom. I finally got on the correct elevator and made it to the correct floor. I stepped off the elevator and took out my cell phone to turn it off so it wouldn't ring during the meeting. I looked at the time before turning it off and it was 12:59pm. As I mentioned earlier, my interview was scheduled for 1:00pm. In that moment, I could not believe I had traversed the previous 2 hours and still managed to get there on time. I PWN!
This short story is already too long so let me just finish up by stating that I killed in the 2 interviews I had and I know they are very interested in me. Too bad I went through all that, killed in the interviews, and probably still won't take the job. On the drive home I was pretty happy with myself. I took a bad situation, found a way to work around it, and ultimately did not let it hinder my actions during the interviews. I'm sure I could liken it to some poker strategy, but not right now.
As for the interview, I had never been so spot-on before. I guess when you know that it really doesn't matter if you get the job offer or not, it makes it a little bit easier to handle. The ride home was smooth and I had no problems the rest of the day. I settled in at home after telling ChickJax the story and that's when I decided to play the tourney. I noticed it two minutes before registrtaion was set to close. And then I won the damn thing. It felt good to pwn that tournament after such a long day.
Well, if you've made it this far, you need a pat on the back. Thanks for spending a hectic day with me. I had planned to write more about other things, but this post is already long enough as it is.
Until next time, may the felt be with you!
posted by TripJax @ 11:25 AM,
11 Comments:
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At 11:54 AM,
said...
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Mouthwash doubling as hand cologne.
How big is that trailer for yours? :D
Nice job sticking the interviews though! -
At 1:04 PM,
TripJax said...
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Double-wide baby! I use the "hand cologne" to slick back my hair too. Saves on the grocery bill.
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At 4:21 PM,
said...
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One time I was on my way to an important event and I accidentally spilled waterlass hand soap in my mouth. A quick gasoline swish later, I was refreshed and on my way!
And yes, she still said, "I do." -
At 4:26 PM,
TripJax said...
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Now that is funny stuff Doog. Fushizzle.
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At 4:36 PM,
John G. Hartness said...
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And you know I have TOTALLY gotten to my office just north of downtown Charlotte at 9AM before and realized I had construction meetings in G-Boro that I was totally unprepared for, without even my steel toes and hard hat in the car. I know that mad drive all too well, brother. All too well.
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At 4:36 PM,
WillWonka said...
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Now that is a good story...
Also, Congrats on the win... -
At 5:08 PM,
Jordan said...
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I have to say, it really reminds me of some of my work disaster posts. Good to know I'm in good company. Nice stuff, TJ.
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At 6:30 PM,
said...
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I really enjoyed the story. Congrats on a very winning day.
Best,
Mr. Parx -
At 7:17 PM,
Littleacornman said...
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I thought you were heading for a "Falling Down" kinda day for a while.Glad it all worked out so well in the end
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At 3:02 PM,
said...
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Well played, sir Jax. I'm pretty positive I would've gone w/the BS story. Car broke down, sick kid, something like that.
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At 12:01 PM,
Iakaris aka I.A.K. said...
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This actually made me sweat reading it...I can't believe you played (and won) and MTT after a night like that.
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