Saturday Morning in Vegas

Good morning, everyone! I know that most of my 'irregulars' don't read this site on the weekends, so this post is for all you die hards out there.

For whatever reason, I was wide awake at 4:30 this morning, and my sleep schedule is only going to get thrown into more turmoil as I embark on my new career as a poker dealer. My start times this next week are:

On Call--be available anytime
6:00 pm
11:00 pm
3:00 pm
5:00 pm

And I'm guessing that I'll probably only be working six hours each night, max. Of all the times I've worked in the poker room so far, only once did I stay the entire shift. (And I have no choice in the matter anymore, either). And I'm kinda curious as to how well I'm gonna do on that 11:00 pm shift--the room seems to die down to just two tables around 3:00 in the morning. We'll see.

Anyhow, once I posted that earlier update, the sun was up and I decided to go down to the grocery store and pick up some foodstuffs, as I'm gonna be home for the next three days--no more poker or tournaments or social life for me until I get enough money for the next round of bills in my pocket. And I still have to come up with five hundy for the deposit on my new place, so I'm being Mr. Frugal again for the next couple of weeks. And since I'm not working again until at least Monday, I won't be dining gratis in the employee cafe, either. So I needed to stock up on provisions.

I'm gonna do another batch of my world-famous chicken salad, which I could easily live on for a week or more, and I also got stuff to make good breakfasts--thick sliced bread for French toast, sausage links, eggs, coffee creamer, stuff like that.

Since I've no place to be for a few days, I decided that my coffee could use a little extra kick this morning, and I'm currently sipping on a big cup with Kahlua and cream (By the way, do you know that they now have Cool Whip in a spray can? Awesome with coffee and Kahlua, and if you're lucky enough to have a significant other who's a little more, shall we say, adventurous, it'll do double duty!).

Anyhow, an early Saturday morning trip to the grocery store is a definite eye-opener here in Vegas. There were only a few other shoppers there at the same time, but I could tell exactly what their jobs were, and they were all stopping to get a few essentials on their way home from work. There were a couple of limo drivers, still in their dark suits, a maitre d, with his tuxedo shirt untucked, a security guard, and a cocktail waitress or two--they're easy to spot with their tank tops and comfy shoes that they change into as soon as they get off the floor. Oh, and the crew of firefighters stocking up were pretty easy to pick out, too.

The best part about shopping in the middle of the night or early in the morning is that there are no screaming brats or old ladies who insist on waiting until everything is totaled up before starting to write a frickin' check. I was the only person in line, so I was in and out of there pretty fast.

When I got out of the store, I noticed what a beautiful day it's on it's way to being here in America's Playground. It's sunny and clear--so clear that you can see all the way across the valley--no smog, no haze, no rainclouds. And truly, the view of the city from Horizon Ridge is pretty cool. If they could somehow install an ocean behind the strip instead of the mountains, I think we'd pretty much achieve perfection as far as visual stimulation is concerned.

Since I'm not going to pry my wallet open for a few days, nor drive anywhere with gas now being $4.07 a gallon, my agenda for this weekend is to get started in earnest with my cleaning and discarding in preparation for my move. Yeah, I didn't do a damn thing on my to-do list this past week. Hell, who am I kidding? I didn't even write a to-do list. But the storage closet needs some attention, so that's the priority. I'm also going to fold and hang all of the laundry that's on the floor and in the baskets at the foot of my bed. And I've decided that I'm going to get rid of all the clothes I don't wear anymore--old shorts and Hawaiian shirts that have outlived their usefulness, and a few other items that have been in need of repair for the past couple of years but I've never got around to taking to the seamstress. I figure if I haven't worn something in two years or more, I probably don't need it anyways. So why bother moving it?

My wardrobe nowadays consists of shorts and t-shirts for my days off, all the black work clothes, a few white shirts for auditions and/or temporary gigs, some jeans, sweaters, and flannel for winter, and a couple of pairs of slacks for when I'm going out to nice places. Other than that, the rest of it can go. I haven't worn a tie in over four years, at least that I can recall, yet I have about three dozen of them. And even if I have to stand floor in the poker room on occasion (yes, all the dealers have to from time to time), we get to wear polo shirts or even camp shirts. No jacket required, unlike the pit.

When I was out last week buying a couple of new shirts, I saw another shirt that I want to get. I dunno, maybe I'm just getting older, but I used to think that Guaybera shirts were uglier than sin. (And the sky blue ones still are!). But I saw a really nice embroidered black one the other day that I almost bought. Clearly my tastes have changed somewhat, because I see people wearing them around town occasionally, and I like the way they look. I'm pretty sure that Big Stogie has a closet full of them, because that's usually what he's wearing whenever we get together. And now I think I'm ready to make the leap from Hawaiian shirts to Guayaberas, too.

But I think I'm going to impose a moratorium on the purchase of non-consumables until after I move. My bedroom in on the second floor of my new house, so the less junk I have to haul up the stairs, the better. Most of my kitchen stuff will be going into storage, as the house is fully stocked (except for martini glasses, I found out), and I'll probably have to hook up my old TV and surround system in my bedroom. There's a huge TV downstairs in the living room, but I think I'm gonna kind of be an upstairs hermit at this new place. I dunno, we'll see.

So that's about it from Casa de Mikey. There's not much else going on around here, but re-reading this post, I seem to have covered pretty much everything...

Mikey