Is this really a zero sum game?

I am balancing my family life and poker life as well as I know how. There are a few challenges and I wonder about all the others who do it.

I heard a horrible joke yesterday at the poker table.

Question... What do you say do a professional poker player? answer..."17th & Main please..."
(It will take a while to get it... but I think it means most professional players end up driving a cab in Vegas.) What a dismal thought. My dad never supported our family and the "best" job he ever held, when he held a job, was driving a cab.....

But back to the family and poker. Annie Duke's husband is very supportive and she works hard at being a good mom. She has reported she is tired from the challenges of both. When you hear her talk about it you hear some of the regret for what she has missed in her kid's lives.

My situation is very different. Both my children are grown and on their own. They get about as much of me as they want. (grin)

My wife is very supportive and is working hard at her career and making sacrificies to support my "dream". We have been married 34 years and have a great relationship. However, she works a traditional job and I am still in bed 4-6 hours after she get's up in the morning. Also the best times to play Poker are Friday nights weekends when she would like to be with me.

Sometimes, she comes with me in the RV to the Casino, but it can be pretty boring in a Casino Parking lot, even with a bed, TV, Kitchen and reading. Sometimes she will play some machines, but doesn't enjoy it when it is real crowded. Of course that is Friday night and weekends.

I try to be more attentitive and do more around the house so her experience of coming home is more pleasant but we are experiencing a strain and a challenge. It is difficult making some of these accomodations for both of us.

Caren is excellent at communicating and is sharing some of her mixed feelings of being both happy for me, and resenting me for this choice.

I am getting ready to catch a bus that actually comes to my neighborhood and picks up people at 4:00 p.m and returns them at about 11:30 p.m. I am planning on riding the bus tonight to "save the driving & gas expense".

Well, I gotta run and catch a bus.... more about this later......