Dear Poker,

I know you miss me, I miss you too but if you knew about all the crap I went through last month I think you'd understand.

It all started with a trip to the emergency room. I was having chest pain and it wasn't going away. After 10 hours, 6 needle sticks, an echocardiogram, and a chest CT, I was sent home with no real explanation other than it didn't appear to be my heart. I did get the weekend off so it wasn't a total loss but I was in no mood to play.

Things were starting to look up when July 4th rolled around. My dad was in a lot of pain with what we thought were pneumonia related problems. I mean, his doctor said he had pneumonia and she couldn't be wrong, could she? After a lot of back and forth we finally got him to go to the hospital. Luckily the doctor wasn't buying pneumonia even though that's what it looked like on the x-ray. My dad was admitted and we found out the next day that he had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung). We still have no idea where the clot came from but, after 4 days in the hospital he was released and has been steadily improving ever since. We got lucky on that one!

In the midst of all this I was getting awarded freelance jobs that I had to delay until my dad got out of the hospital. Luckily all the clients were great and had no issue with the delay. People are willing to wait for good workers to become available, nice to know. Once I got started on the projects there really wasn't any time left for you or anything else really. I was really starting to miss you by then.

The next issue in my life was my attempt to trap some feral kittens. I got one and the next night I got careless. He bit the crap out of my finger. For an animal with such tiny teeth, he did a lot of damage. The next morning brought another trip to the emergency room where I was stuck with an IV and given antibiotics. Since the alternative was a raging infection and probable amputation, I was more than willing to let the nurse dig around to find a good spot for the IV. The bruise that followed actually looked worse than the cat bite.

Since then I've been working and playing with the new, and still nameless, member of the family. It's hard to play poker with a kitten walking across the keyboard. I'm afraid he's going to fold quads or something! I think we can both agree that would be bad!

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I haven't been ignoring you and I'm not mad at you, even when my aces keep getting cracked on the river by some moron with 8, 2 unsuited. I know that's not your fault, I should just fold my aces pre-flop and it wouldn't be an issue. I'm hoping to have some time this weekend to get re-acquainted. Maybe you can throw some winning hands my way? Either way I know we'll have fun.

Take care and I'll see you soon.

Your BFF,
April