ok, i don't have ALL bad luck...

so while i may have unmatchable bad luck in the injury department, turns out i make up for that with being lucky in vegas. not an entirely bad trade-off, all things considered....

chris and i started our trip to vegas verrrry early on friday morning, where we breezed through security at DCA and arrived at our gate for flight #1, connecting through charlotte. taunting us at the very next gate was the DIRECT flight to vegas, which we were not on because it cost approximately $1923786 more per person than going through charlotte. we gazed longingly at the earlier departure time and wistfully discussed how nice a direct flight would have been.

then they start calling, repeatedly, for volunteers to bump from the CLT flight, which was oversold. chris joked that we should offer to get bumped.. onto the direct flight. chris is brilliant. i went up to the podium and proposed chris's plan to the gate agent, who at first laughed condescendingly, then paused, then went to the other gate and conferred with the agents there.

the next thing we know, we're at the gate for the direct vegas flight and the new gate agent is revising our itineraries for us.

agent: "so when are you guys returning?"
us: "oh god, the freaking SIX AM flight on sunday morning! it's the only bad thing about this weekend!"
agent: [tap tap tap tap tap tap tap]
us: "would you prefer to fly back on the direct flight at noon on sunday, as a thank you for giving up your seats?"
us: [blink. blink. blink.]
us: "um. yes. YES! PLEASE! THANK YOU!"

so we ended up on direct flights *both ways,* coming back at noon instead of 6am, FOR FREEEE!

after arriving in vegas (3 hours earlier than anticipated!) chris checked out the poker room at our hotel while i checked in. there was a low key poker tournament starting in 20 minutes - just a $40 buy in, nothing huge. he asked if i wanted to come join the tournament with him.

chris is a really good poker player, and has been steadily teaching me how to play over the past months. so i mean, i know HOW to play, technically, except i've NEVER PLAYED a tournament before and i'm painfully aware of how important betting is to actually winning poker, and i'm... uh. well. not good with the betting, to put it mildly. i decline the tournament. chris pleads and offers to pay my buy in. i finally agree very, very reluctantly to join him, thinking miserably about how lame it's going to be when i go out on my first hand.

the tournament ends up pretty small - just 10 people, total. i'm the only girl. and i'm DEFINITELY the only one who's never played a tournament before. one of the guys there is hunkered down at the table with sunglasses on and an ipod in, for pete's sake.

i sit through the first few hands, patiently waiting for good cards like chris has taught me. i finally get dealt a beautiful Ace / King hand, and make my move. i get called by another player at the table, who then freaking goes all in on me. ARGH. I KNEW IT. I REALLY AM GOING OUT ON MY FIRST HAND I EFFING HATE POKER AND--- oh. hey. i flopped an ace and a king. neato!

you guys, i fucking won the tournament. WON! IT! well, ok, technically, i tied for first place - one of our other buddies we were meeting in vegas ended up joining the tourny, and when it came down to just the 2 of us we opted to split the pot rather than take one another out. BUT STILL! i beat out all of the Super Serious Dude Poker Players who were very annoyed to have to lose graciously to the one lame novice chick! I WON A POKER TOURNAMENT! within like 3 hours of landing in vegas!

clearly, i'm never playing poker again for the rest of my life since it will never go that well ever again. i plan to rest on these laurels for freaking DECADES.