Just because I Piss Sitting Down and Have to Wipe . . .

*life, football and Vegas*

I grew up in a very small town in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Population: 10,000. My brother and I were the only East Asians in our town. There was one Indian family, though. There were also a handful of African American families and a couple of Puerto Rican families. But there was no family that looked quite like ours - my parents are of German descent. Suffice it to say, my brother and I were slapped with a bit of an identity crisis from very early on.

My mother would say, "You're just like everyone else. You're an American."

But at the same time, she couldn't explain why the kids at school were calling my brother and me "chink" and "gook."

Growing up where I did and in the context in which I did forced me to forge a sense of self very early on. The toughest part is that society was giving me very mixed messages on the matter. So I decided to say, "FUCK YOU" to society and figure it out on my own.

I will never let anyone put me in a narrowly defined box, whether it be because of my race, gender, profession, poker playing skills (or lack thereof) or favorite football team. I also understand the humor in stereotypes (who else would walk around with "Asian Jew" plastered across her shirt?). So I guess, at the end of the day, I just laugh it off and move on. There are more important things in life to be concerned with.

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Fast forward from the early years into the now. I joined a fantasy football league (aptly named the "Hammer League") a couple of years ago by invite from my friend Jesse. At that time, I was the only female in the league (now, the league has another female). Yes, I'm sure someone will comment that it's because girls don't understand football and suck at sports anyway (a new challenge for Chad to come up with something original). But I have always had a very scary addiction to football.

Over the years, I have come to know more of the guys in my fantasy football league. In fact, several of the guys also play poker, so I used to see them for home games or occasional AC trips. Then, Robert picked up and started The Vegas Year, the commish had a baby, etc. etc., so our in-person gatherings became much less frequent.

Some of the guys in the league do an annual guys weekend in Vegas for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. Ahhhhh . . . the mystery of a "guys weekend in Vegas." I almost scored an invite to my former officemate's bachelor party in Vegas, but there was too much concern that it would cause issues with the respective wives and girlfriends of the rest of the crew. Guys weekend in Vegas for my particular FFL friends: football, poker, drink, eat (not sure in which particular order). Sounds like a great way to catch all of the divisional round action and have a good time.

But yes, always that lingering issue of having a chick around. Hey, I can go to strip clubs (I was offered a job at one). I can eat steak (my family used to slaughter steer). I can watch football and play poker. Still, nobody wanted to feel that they had to edit themselves.

A couple of weeks ago, though. I got the call.

I was invited to guys weekend in Vegas (albeit in a slightly different permutation given the life changes of some of the regulars).

SCORE!!!

I'm actually surprised that I hadn't gone to Vegas for any portion of the NFL season (well, until the most recent blogger extravaganza). I've been trying to make it there for the opening weekend of March Madness from time to time (also a fun time to be a sports-loving, poker-playing chick). But football. PLAYOFFS.

Then, of course, the hammer was dropped.

Guys weekend in Vegas was a no-go.

I was crestfallen.

I thought about trying to swing down to Tunica instead (thanks Kuro Kitty for the posts and emails), but I lost my traveling companion in the fog.

So I said, screw it. I don't need the weekend to have some sort of Level 3 meaning to it. I am going to Vegas anyway. And I will do exactly what I would have done if my FFL friends were there too. FOOTBALL. POKER. DRINK. EAT. (Order TBD.)

Current plan is to fly in Thursday night (the 11th) and fly back Monday night (the 14th).

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In case you missed Buddy Dank Radio last night, there is an interesting prop bet on the JAX / PIT game. Buddy has PIT. Miami Don, Instant Tragedy and Sed (a new blogger and special guest host on BDR) have JAX.

PIT wins: Miami Don and Instant Tragedy buy Buddy Dank into the Mookie for 4 weeks.

JAX wins: BDR is renamed MiamiDonInstantTragedySed Radio for 4 weeks and those guys get to run the show. There was some talk of putting a gag in Buddy for those 4 weeks, but Buddy wasn't having any of it.

Prop bets make me giggle. And yes, that's a girlie thing. Deal with it.