Churn and turn in the Meister family

Things have been reasonably quiet for me in the poker world.  I've been running like poop in the live setting - continual suckouts, normal bullshit.  In the online arena, I've been crushing; it's always a pendulum...

In the coming 3 weeks, I will hopefully have plenty of time to ply my live poker trade in Tampa, FL though, in the hopes that a change in scenery will allow me to shake off the run bads of the live poker scene in Maryland.  It's always nice to go to Florida, enjoy good meals and nice hotels at the expense of my company.  We'll see if the Florida poker scene goes better than the last time I was there - where I was card dead for most of my time.

This post, alas, is not a poker post.  It's more of a life post.  Overall, things have been bleak at work for quite some time - we don't have new work coming in, and the work that we do have is clearly destined to not cover the employees currently on staff.  Therefore, I predict there will be staff reductions.  Now, I consider myself adaptive - willing to change with a fluid situation, and therefore don't allow my career to stagnate.  Rather than wait for the inevitable layoffs to occur, I have taken it upon myself to look for programs and projects elsewhere.  Since I am fortunate enough to have both a pension and generous 401(k) through my work, I have given priority my current employer, conducting a job search first within my company.  I forecast that the work "cliff" that the employees face will happen in mid-March, allowing a month and a half to find other employment.

Seeing this "cliff," I started applying for jobs back in November, allowing myself plenty of time to pick and choose.  However, there isn't a ton of work available within the company.  The reality is that in my line of work, there is a shrinking customer base because our customer's priority is to reduce expenditures.  I have been completely upfront with the management team that I report to, and they are well aware (and encouraging me) that I am looking for other work.  In fact, they recommended an open requisition that I applied for when I first started looking.  Prior to Christmas, I had a phone screen interview where I apparently impressed them.

Last Tuesday, I was invited for an in-person interview - they put me in for an additional job as well (without my knowledge).  Given the information, I felt they stacked the deck in my favor, giving me a selection of jobs; one job has overarching responsibility for 30+ engineers, and the other would report the the overarching job and be responsible for ~5-10 engineers.  Needless to say, I was offered the bigger job yesterday.  It couldn't have been more perfect: I am getting a nice salary increase, keeping my current benefits, and most importantly taking a new role with the company that very possibly could propel me to an upper management role within a few years.  Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm very excited to take my new position.  The job will be a challenge - I've never managed ~30 people before - but I think I'm up to the test!

The new job does not come without downside, however.  A stipulation of the job is that I will be traveling for the next 4 months to Denver, CO.  While I'm not one to shy away from travel, I will be away from my wife and children for weeks at a time.  Hopefully, I can work out something whereby I travel home on weekends and milestones / scheduled vacation.  Regardless, I think there's plenty to do out in Denver - Black Hawk poker rooms, Breckenridge skiing, hiking, perhaps catching a Rockies baseball game (I'll be there 4 months starting mid-February so I'll be done by mid-May, early baseball season), etc.  Do any of my readers have experience with the Denver area?

I've been trying to find information about te Black Hawk poker rooms, but can't find anything.  What are the deals / comps / good action rooms?  From my understanding, there's the Ameristar, the Golden Gates, Lodge Casino and Isle Casino.  How do they compare from one another?  What is the best skiing in relation to Denver?  I only mentioned Breckenridge because I've heard of it before.  Is it good there?  What other activities are typical of the area?  I'm figuring it'll be a granola-type place, with a lot of earthy people.

FWIW, probably not gonna try the newly-legal weed!  Don't know how well that would go over with the job...