It's 3:35 right now, and I am in a sort of no man's land.
I started playing online at 8AM almost 20 hours ago, and didn't get done until just a few minutes ago when I took 5th in SCOOP event #11, $700 PLO8 6-max. It was a $13K cash, which doesn't get me even for the series, but it was the first decent uptick this week.
After four days of SCOOP--long, losing days--I was already pretty tired to start the day (yesterday), but determined to keep playing good poker and pull out of the downswing. Then, tomorrow (today), the plan was to go meet my girlfriend in Seattle for a few days together at the great Edgewater Hotel. She has been in Siberia and Alaska working on television productions, and I haven't seen her in weeks.
I had planned to hop over the border last night, fade the border traffic, sleep in a hotel and then fly tomorrow at 1PM after a leisurely morning in San Diego. I still plan to make my flight, but it won't be possible to get a decent night of sleep, and the border traffic will be unavoidable.
***
As far as crossing the border goes, you can find sometimes find a sweet spot (Tuesdays after 9PM are my go-to), but it's very unpredictable. As of the last update on the government's website for border wait times, the San Ysidro border crossing is listed as a one-hour wait time, and the usually more tame Otay Mesa crossing is showing 40 minutes--at 3AM!
This isn't even that bad--San Ysidro wait times routinely stretch past two hour wait times and the border crossing can stay jammed for days at a time. I'm tempted to shave, brew some coffee and try to beat the thicker traffic coming up later in the morning, but even a 40-minute wait makes the idea less appealing.
What is more likely to wind up happening is I will sleep for 4-5 hours and wait at the Otay Mesa crossing tomorrow for over an hour while listening to Howard Stern and hoping to make my flight.
In any case, I am looking forward to getting out of here for a few days, and with that little final table morale boost, also looking forward to getting back here for the solid eight day stretch to finish out SCOOP.