I got to deliver two things last week: a best-man toast … and a baby. To my surprise, the culmination of spending 2 weeks on L&D to the actual hands-on delivery of a baby was pretty anti-climactic in retrospect. I experienced no big epiphany on the wonder of life – just slimy baby sliding out with lots of smelly bodily fluids splattering about. In contrast, toasting at my friend’s wedding this past Saturday was a lot more nerve-wracking than I had imagined. Despite all my experiences teaching classes and giving seminars over the past few years, I still get the butterflies whenever I speak publicly. It didn’t help, of course, that the videographer’s got his bright-ass spotlight on me the whole time. Fortunately, it was over in a cinch. Now that the groom is happily married and honeymooning in the Greek islands, I’m gonna have to embark on another pain-in-my-brain study week for the Ob-Gyn shelf exam this Friday.

I’ve watched the World Series of Poker on TV, and even played some poker with friends in the past. But sitting down at an actual Texas Hold’em table in the Poker Room at Foxwoods Casino was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. This past Saturday, a few guys and I took a good friend down there for his bachelor party. Rather than splurging on alcohol or strippers, we instead put our money into something with an actual chance of positive return. Mind you, this was no 25¢ slots or even the $5 blackjack table. There were no old ladies with buckets of quarters, but guys with hats and sunglasses dropping $100 chips. Though we only played at the $1-$2 table, each pot easily ran in the $100-$200 range and made for some very stressful playing. The games also went so quickly, that I lost a good chunk of money early on when I actually miscounted a straight hand. Fortunately, blind luck helped offset my lack of skill, and I cashed out at the end with enough to cover both food and the hotel room. Though the bachelor boy didn’t get to be the big winner after almost 10 hours of total playing time, the two-day trip gave us a chance to roll like the big boys.