i don't recommend it.
in no particular order, problems with dallas: almost all of the restaurants are steakhouses (and the ones that aren't are almost all mexican), there is absolutely nothing in downtown, which itself is sprawling and a sizable walk to get from any point a to point b (car-centric etc..), the weather sucks, the natives are eerily texan, and there are lots of unsavory characters on the streets.
essentially, i am having trouble thinking of a city which could be worse. i suppose one could always fiddle with weather parameters to make it even more unbearably hot, or add more crime, or unleash a killer virus. but i'm glad i'm back home in california, you can be sure of that.
as for the bridge, i played terribly all week. it was a learning experience: i learned that i absolutely need to get a good night's sleep before i play, every day. even if it's not an important event, i am very unhappy when i play bridge badly, and at this point in my life my autopilot is horrible (perhaps due to inexperience), so i really need to be awake. i was pondering why this didn't occur in denver, where i didn't sleep that much per night, and the answer is simply that i was very very sick going into denver, with the result that after the first two nights i spent there i had gotten 5 hours of sleep total in three nights. i felt fine that day, but the sleep deficit caught up to me. so i was sleeping 8 hours a night, which was mostly tenable in denver, but which was a disaster given that i already had a sleep deficit.
never again. i get my nine and a half a day. i am in bed by 2 am with the first session at 1 pm.
it's sort of a pity that this poor play coincided with my first professional bridge playing. i'm hoping that the client didn't notice; i suspect she didn't, but the liaison who hired us may have. if you're reading this daniel, trust me, it was an aberration. i had a lot of fun though -- the lady was really nice, and no matter how you slice it it was pretty awesome that i did exactly what i was going to do anyway (play bridge with john) and got an extra $750. hopefully this is not the last time. i still don't understand how the economy functions, but as long as my interactions with it are financially positive, i am certainly not going to complain.
and of course the late-night hanging out was fun, although one of my favorite people from last nationals regrettably didn't show up. nonetheless, good times. all in all i would probably categorize it as a 20th percentile experience for what i expect from nationals; i'm definitely looking forward to the next one, which is in a real place (chicago), and where i suspect more people will be at.
so back to life and math and whatnot. hopefully my cholesterol level is not redlining from the meat meat meat.