Being Resilient

Ron has been saying it for a while but I've been slow on the uptake.
Apparently, I'm rather resilient.
There have been many times in the last little while that I've felt like I'm at the edge. I've had enough, I'm not fighting any more, I'm simply going to sit back and wait for life to go away. But once I reach that point, I bounce back. So it might be "I can't take any more unpacking, we're only going to have to move again in a year, why bother emptying boxes, boo hoo hooo hoooo hooooo". Give me a minute. And I'm back at it "what if this went here? how about that? shall I just tidy this while I'm at it..."
It seems you can't keep a good Lily down.
Over the weekend, it seemed that I'd turned the corner a little. I was not feeling anywhere near so glum and alone in this new city. In amongst that new positivity was a new experience...
On Saturday night we went to see some friends in Leeds for a poker night. They've been hosting these for a little while with proceeds going to charity. I've never played poker before but with the combination of being a mathematician at heart and a general games lover, it seemed like it could be fun.
A couple of the players were rather serious and I managed to offend them a few times by playing out of turn or raising the bet by an incorrect amount (I didn't know there was a correct amount...).
It took me a few rounds to get into the swing of things but after about forty-five minutes, I realised that I was winning more than I was losing. Then I put the host out of the game by matching his "all in" and winning (perhaps not good etiquette...) and started to think I might not be all that bad at this.
A HUGE serving of luck and several hours later, I was the champion! Those who had played a lot before were perhaps a little miffed, particularly at my gung-ho nature at the end (I'd reached the point where I really just needed to go home so was doing wild and crazy bidding in the hopes of losing...but kept winning). I may need to refine my understanding of the game a little to avoid stepping on people's sensibilities in the future but I rather enjoyed myself.
It does leave me with the dilemma of what charity to donate my small winnings to. Perhaps I shall carry the right amount with me until I see someone shaking a charity bucket in town. Sometimes random is best.