Bearing Fruit

Hello everybody.

First of all, I want to say thank you for all the encouraging calls, messages, and emails I've received over the past few days. It means a lot. And I want to especially thank those who have donated via the Amazon tip jar there on the left. I've almost gathered enough through there to pay the car insurance bill this month. Thanks very much!

I guess I didn't read that post after I sent it up, and re-reading it for the first time this afternoon, it seems awfully depressing. Life isn't *that* bad, but my job is truly sucking ass lately. Just comparing check stubs from January vs. last June, I can see that I've taken about a $600 per month pay cut. I can't figure it out--the economy is booming, oil and gas prices are down, and there is no reason for us to be so dead except for perhaps inept marketing and management.

Also, I would've posted again sooner and not gone off the radar so much, but we had another 'information' outage this week that left me without cable tv, internet, or email access for the better part of two days. But that got taken care of late last evening, so I'm wired up and connected to the rest of the world once again. And speaking of household events, the stoner-flashback guy moved out two weeks ago, and I didn't even know it. Apparently, he had another 'episode' that was so off-the-hook that my other roommate went and checked into a hotel to get away from him (I was living like a high roller in the Spa Suite at NYNY with Sticky at the time, so I missed it). I guess when he came back home, the stoner roommate had packed his backpack, gathered up all his weed and bandanas, and moved out.

So the drama continues, but in the meantime I'm looking for other sources of income.

Luckily, in the past week or so, the town has opened up a bit, and I've found three poker dealing job openings, plus three more poker-related job openings. Along with those, I found two openings for dice dealing jobs at desirable locations. So later tonight I'll be starting the application process, and tomorrow when I finish all my laundry I'll make sure I have some black pants and a crispy white oxford shirt ready to go at a moments notice in case the call for an audition comes.

Additionally, the Evil Empire will be ramping up soon for the World Series of Poker, and that will also create several opportunities around town. And we can't forget the satellites that are going on at the same time, plus the guys that own all the lions will be hosting two or three WPT events in the coming months that are always pretty lucrative.

Anyhow, lets hope I can recover that $600 per month, and maybe a little more too, in an enjoyable manner.

School has been going well, if not occasionally tedious. I'm treating it like a job and actually getting up every day and getting down there to put my time in, hoping to knock the rust off and learn a few things here and there. My Omaha and Stud games could use some work, but if you're needing a 2-4 Texas Holdem dealer with mad skillz and a charming personality, I'm your guy! Probably the best unemployed low-limit holdem dealer this side of Mandalay Bay, even.

Anyhow.

That's what's been keeping me busy lately, and of course if anything good or noteworthy happens, I'll be sure to report it here.

Mikey