Off Day

Hey Gang!

Just wanted to post an update, as my traffic meter keeps showing everyone re-clicking the site waiting for new stuff to read. I'm still working on that trip report, although I was delayed a bit by all the stuff going on around here, plus not getting to bed until around 7:00 am this morning, so I'm just now getting up.

First of all, the trip report is coming along nicely, but again, I'm trying to self-edit to protect several of the attendees from their own buffoonery, and also I've spent some time going through the pictures, trying to figure out which ones to include, and which ones should remain in the vault.

Also, just about the time I was getting to bed, my phone started ringing. Unless it's my gal Stephanie, who only calls at 5:00 am wanting to go out, it's usually bad news. This time it was bad news... The family was all trying to reach me at the same time--Mamasan was on the way to the emergency room, via ambulance.

It kept ringing on and off all morning, but as of now, she's doing ok, we even spoke on the phone about an hour ago, but the cardiologist is running a bunch of tests and if all goes well, she can go home tomorrow. In the meantime, three of my sisters and Reverend Dave are all there at the hospital with her and are keeping me updated.

It sounds like it's not as bad as it sounded initially, if that makes any sense.

On top of all that, I was especially tired last night anyways. It's been a helluva busy week at work, and I was still worn out from the Madness festivities anyways. I signed up for early out, and early in the evening last night we were just dead. I'd dropped a grand total of eight bucks in tokes up until midnight, and I was the first one on the Early Out list. I even told the bosses to get me out as soon as they started closing tables, they didn't have to wait until 2 am, like I'd indicated.

But at midnight I got taken off of my Pai Gow table and sent to blackjack, which always sucks, and what made it even worse was that I was sent to a single-deck game with a complete drunken asshole who was playing black and purple action ($100 and $500 chips, anywhere from $300 to $1000 per hand).

I will admit, he was a real prick, but I did that whole "keep your mouth shut, your head down, and deal as fast as you can" thing and it seemed to work. I've dealt to the guy before, and for whatever reason, the guy hates all the other dealers but likes me, and I ended up dropping about $600 in tokes from the guy, after he'd been stiffing everyone else all night long. He wore my ass out, though.

It was nice to finally get off that table.

I thought I was going home at 2:00, but then I got put back on Pai Gow. No biggie--after dropping all that money I decided it was cool to stick around and get a bigger share of the toke pool. At 3:00 am I got tapped out of the table and the dealer told me that the shift boss said I could go home. So I went to sign out, and as I was heading out of the pit and towards my locker, the shift boss stopped me and told me he needed me to stay.

I was the first one on the early-out list, yet still there pitching the cards at 3:00 am, and half the tables were closed!

I was kind of pissed at first, but the boss said he had a special assignment for me.

It seems that my drunken belligerent friend from earlier in the evening had gone even further downhill and was being abusive to the women dealers, and they told me that they didn't want any women to deal to him anymore. Apparently the guy was up about 10 grand, but just being a complete dick to everyone.

My boss even told me that if he gets out of hand that I had his permission to "go across the table and kick his ass". When I got back to the blackjack pit, there was another shift boss watching the game, along with a floorperson, one uniformed security guard lurking about nearby, a plainclothes security officer standing behind the guy, and god knows how many cameras from surveillance.

"Great", I thought, as I walked up. "This ought to be a real treat".

He mellowed out once I got there, knowing he couldn't intimidate me, and I actually busted him out of several thousand dollars, too. I talked him into calling it a night and just going to the cage, coloring up, and getting a cab.

Everyone was expecting a bang, but it ended with a whimper.

I was one tuckered out little trooper by the end of the night, and I only managed to get out a half hour early. Of course I got home later than usual because I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home, plus I had to catch last night's episode of "24" before going to bed.

And then the phone started to ring...

In the meantime, I'll be working on that trip report thing, but I've got a few other projects I'm working on, too. Some for public consumption, some not. But like Elvis said in Viva Las Vegas, even if there were 40 hours in the day, I don't think it'd be enough this week.

More later.

Mikey