Hey everybody!
Just checking in to let everyone know that I'm alive. It's tough to set aside time at the computer this week with Eddie B being here, as we spend our free time partying like it's 1999.
So let's see here, what has happened since I last checked in...
Working as a dealer in an off-strip "locals" casino has it's ups and downs, one of the downs being that tax week is the slowest week of the year, and the fact that tax day fell on a Monday didn't help--it was extremely slow that night. I sat on a dead table for two hours before I couldn't take it anymore and told the bosses that I'd be willing to punch out ASAP if they needed to shut down games. It's not like I'd be losing much money in tips--all the toke boxes were dangerously low and there was a definite lack of activity in the casino.
So at 11:00 pm, my boss told me that if I didn't say anything to anyone, especially to those who'd signed up ahead of me, she'd let me go first because 1) it was my Friday and 2) She couldn't find a spot for me at that moment. So I went into "stealth" mode and snuck out, avoiding saying goodnight to anyone and hitting my locker and the time clock after everyone who was on break had cleared out of the back hallway.
It was a little too early to head home, I thought, and since Eddie had to get up at like 6:00 am, I didn't want to come home right away and wake him up when I stumbled in and had to crawl across his huge inflatable bed that was blocking access to my bed and computer. I figured that he could use a bit of extra sleep before I showed up. Also, I didn't have much of a budget to work with--there are plenty of diversions in this town, but mostly for those with a pocketful of money. I wanted to do something, I just didn't want to spend much cash.
What's the solution I came up with? I headed out to Boulder Highway and went to visit Rob at the Nevada Palace and played some dollar dice.
It was a relatively slow night there too, but he had a couple of fleas at the table when I showed up. I bought in for $25 and had a good time drinking Michelobs and playing low-stakes Craps while shooting the shiat with Rob and his roommate Chris, who was also working that night.
Due to Rob's new employment offer, Monday night was his last night at the Palace and I tried to get him to "buffoon it up" a little, like I did the day I left the Golden Gate, but that's not his style. He remained a professional to the end and didn't come close to burning any bridges. Not that I burned any bridges a couple years back when I left the Gate, but I just made it clear to the asshole floorman at the time that I wasn't going to take his shiat anymore. Word was that he got shitcanned a couple months later, anyways.
But I digress. We had a lot of laughs, I called out a few fleas at the table--one guy in particular who was trying to take shots at the crew--and I actually ended up making ten bucks in the two hours I was there.
On the way home, I realized that I was kind of hungry--it was still the middle of my "workday" and I hadn't eaten anything since some Thai food for lunch the previous afternoon. So I stopped in the Jack in the Box just off the highway and grabbed a couple of sausage biscuits--they were on sale and I couldn't show up at home empty-handed, just in case Eddie woke up.
I did the right thing, because Eddie woke up as soon as I got in and tried to spiderman my way around the inflata-bed in the dark. (Stealth is not one of my strong points, previous experience at work notwithstanding...) Anyhow, he told me that he'd woken up about a half hour before that thinking he was kind of hungry, but figured he'd just wait until morning. But luckily I showed up with a bag full of Jack in the Box breakfast sandies, and for a few minutes Eddie was happier than a stoner finding the last bag of Doritos.
He went back to sleep and I websurfed awhile, finally giving up on finding anything interesting to read after about an hour.
Eddie got up and snuck out early in the morning, while I spent my morning snoozing like a cat who found the warm spot on the carpet. Once I got up, I did a few productive things like write a grocery list and putter around on the patio, getting the firepit and bbq ready for an evening's worth of use.
We hit the grocery store for charcoal, ice, and burger fixin's and Rob showed up around 6:00 pm, free from the flea circus. We lit the bbq, built a fire, and hung out on the patio having a beer or two. Once the meat was cooked, we had a fine meal of cheeseburgers, chips, and beer. Butch the dog was happy with the table scraps and leftovers instead of eating that organic dog food shiat that Bob feeds him, so he was underfoot the entire time.
The sun went down, we cleaned up the mess, fixed some cocktails, and then just hung out by the campfire telling stories and laughing it up for a couple of hours. Once dinner was properly digested and the fire had burned down to a nice bed of coals, we broke out the marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey bars and made Smores.
Good times!
It was getting close to 10 pm by then, and Eddie had to go to bed. Rob and I are creatures of the night, so we stayed up, built the fire back up, and stayed outside smoking cigars till the wee hours. Once the cigars were gone, the wind kicked up, the temperature started to drop, and we moved the party inside to the kitchen. I fixed a pot of hazelnut coffee and we stayed up talking about our experiences thus far in trying to find our fortune in Sin City. It was an enjoyable conversation, especially since he's following the same trail I blazed a couple years ago, and hearing his perspective on things was especially interesting.
The coffee ran out around 2:00 am and we decided to call it a night. The fire was dying, the wind was howling, and we both smelled like that wonderful combination of cigar and wood smoke. We said goodnight, I washed out the coffeemaker and refilled it so that Eddie could turn it on first thing in the morning when he got up and take a cup or two to go.
Wednesday was kind of a "lost" day as I accomplished nothing but cleaning up from the day before and taking a very long nap. Once Eddie got home, we just kicked it here at the house for a couple of hours before heading out to meet Rob again.
This time, dinner plans were for pizza at our new favorite joint, New York Pizza and Pasta. We were a bit late as there was a wreck on Desert Inn and Paradise, basically restricting all traffic to the West side, but it was smooth sailing once we got through the bottleneck.
Dinner at NYP&P is a casual affair, and we started with a couple of baskets of hot wings, followed by two large pies--a sausage and pepperoni and a ham and onion, just like last time. Everything was excellent, and our meal was highlighted by having an attractive waitress cater to our almost every whim...
Rob offered to pick up the check, partly in celebration of his new job, and partly as a nice gesture to me for helping the process along.
Once we got back home, we caught a little SportsCenter before calling it a night. I actually dozed off for a bit, but right now Eddie B is snoozing away on the inflata-bed and I'm sitting here at the desk pecking away at the keyboard, bathed in the light from monitor. I'd *really* like to fetch me one of those beers out of the blue cooler, but that would require me to go Spiderman once again and everyone knows that I cannot use my super-hero powers for personal gain.
I guess I'll just go thirsty until Eddie wakes up and has to go pee.
Mikey
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