Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad

Well, I finally made it home after a very long night in the casino. We were doing one-twenties last night instead of just single hours on the tables, and let me tell you--if you're at a busy game, it just wears your ass out.

The highlight of the night was when I went on my 2:40 am break, and the employee dining room had a full-on breakfast spread buffet set up. I had the best-tasting French toast I've had in months, along with scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, coffee, and a tall glass of ice-cold milk. Damn it was good. I went back to the pit twenty minutes later full, happy, and ready to face the last hour of degenerates.

I ended up on a $5 shoe game populated with fun-loving chain smokers. When I finally got tapped out of there to go home, my eyes and nose were burning, and I felt like I had about six layers of casino funk on me. I clocked out, changed clothes, and headed for the door. I was dying of thirst when I got out of there, but my water bottle I keep in the truck was mostly empty, and when I got home, my Britta filter-pitcher was dry, too. Damn.

I needed a steaming hot shower, so I had a Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas moment while I stood there in the shower--as hot as I could stand it-- pounding an ice-cold Michelob Light. Unfortunately, my shower caddy only has enough room for one bottle, or I might've brought more with me. But I scraped the funk off of me, put on some clean clothes, and emerged refreshed.

But yesterday was an interesting day--I got two pieces of good news, and one piece of very bad news.

As far as the good news goes, I finally retired one of my more onerous student loans. I'd been paying over $400 per month on that bad boy since time immemorial, and yesterday I paid the last $109. Finito! Now, I did all kinds of juggling of paperwork in the past, and my payments were based on my ability to pay, and I know I still have some more out there, but at least it's a small reprieve and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm hoping I get a few months forbearance before they hit me with higher payments for the remainder of my debt, however. Finally--the State of California can go KISS MY ASS. They get no more money from me!

The second piece of good news came when I got to work last night and we had our weekly shift meeting with the bosses. Starting on March 12th, most of the dealers on Swing Shift, your humble correspondent included, will no longer be working 8:00 pm to 4:00 am--we're changing to 7:00 pm till 3:00 am. I always thought that made more sense, and have wanted that shift for some time now, but now it looks like almost everybody gets that shift. That's cool with me.

As far as the bad news goes, a couple weeks back, I went in to work one night and the roadmap said "Mikey B to Dice" instead of my usual Rapid Roulette/Ultimate Holdem string. No problemo--somebody had called in sick that night. Turns out that the guy who called in sick was in the hospital--he'd been feeling so ill for a couple of days that he thought he should go to the doctor. Well, the doctor sent him to the emergency room, and they did a bunch of tests on him. Out of the clear blue, the guy's body was overtaken with cancer. He's in the ICU now and I was told last night that they don't expect him to live much longer. Three weeks ago he was dealing dice and carrying on like the rest of us, and tonight his life is slipping away. So sad, too--he's only 36 years old and is leaving behind a wife and two little kids. Anyhow, I got this news from some of the other dealers on his regular crew who are taking up a collection to help his family with final expenses and whatnot. I gave all I could.

After that, it was pretty mellow around the dice pit last night, even though it was business as usual. It just gives one a reason to pause and think for a moment how precious life is and how easily it can be taken from us.

The quote at the top of this page was chosen for it's tongue-in-cheekiness, but never has it seemed so appropriate. Live every day as if it were your last, for some day you are sure to be right...

Mikey