Thursday, September 11, 2008

Can't Get No Satisfaction

I was prepared to make a whiny bitch post, but I'm suddenly in a better mood because I just got second place in a $30 sit-n-go. Actually, I didn't want to post at all, because I was in a foul mood. I have been running extremely bad playing poker--it's been a weird cycle. From Sunday to Tuesday, I was on fire--just couldn't lose. And then the last two days, I couldn't win at all. Hell, after work today, I even played in a live tournament again, and of course I got knocked out when a guy caught his six-outer on the river. Ugh.

Anyhow, so I was a little pissy the past 48 hours or so. I couldn't win a hand of poker, and I haven't been making any money at work this week, either. I've been scheduled every day, but have gotten sent home after just a few hours. Between working and playing, things just weren't going my way. Luckily, I got back in the saddle...

So my mood is a little brighter now. As far as work goes, I'm on call all weekend. I was scheduled to be off on Saturday and Sunday, but I told the boss to go ahead and put me on 'Alert Five' status since I haven't made hardly any money this week. She agreed, so I'll be keeping my phone handy.

I finally feel like I've gotten enough sleep, now that my work-week appears to be over. Yesterday, once I got home, it was nap-time of course. But then when I woke up I realized that I hadn't eaten anything in over 24 hours. Hell, I knew it was bad when I was getting the munchies from watching Andrew Zimmern. I noticed that Lars had dropped the garlic donut hint a couple of times in my comment section, so I took a shot and called him. Unfortunately, it went to voice-mail, so a trip out to Chicago Brewing Company didn't happen.

I kicked it around the house until hunger overtook laziness and I headed out. I was planning on going to Timbers, but when I pulled in to the parking lot, I noticed a new Nathan's Famous hot dog joint in the same plaza. I'm always up for a good dog, and having watched more than my fair share of the Travel Channel, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Unfortunately, my string of bad decision-making remained intact. I should've gone to Timbers. When I got inside the restaurant, it seemed that it was more of an ice cream joint than hot dog stand. And it had an absolutely huge dining room, which seemed odd for a hotdog stand. I didn't know if I should sit and be served or stand at the register by the ice cream display. But they finally handed me a sheet with the hot dog menu.

Seriously, all I wanted was two hot dogs with mustard and a cup of fries, but that was nowhere to be found. All of the hot dogs were 'jazzed up' with multiple toppings. I didn't want a loaded Chicago-style dog, I didn't want sauerkraut, I didn't want onions. So I finally decided on a chili-dog with Pringles (WTF? No fries?), and a 'nacho platter'.

I sat down in the dining room with my Coke and a magazine, waiting for my food to show up. It seemed to take an extremely long time to wait for a hot dog, but it finally showed up. The nachos not only looked bad, but tasted bad. They were made out of several-days-old generic tortilla chips from Costco, with canned cheese sauce, chili, jalapenos, sour cream, diced bell peppers (again, WTF?) and the completing the vortex of suck were generous dollops of almost-frozen guacamole. And no, it wasn't real guacamole, it was that crappy artificially-colored 'avocado dip' that looks like baby-poo and tastes like salted baby-poo. Worst nachos I've ever had, and that's no exaggeration.

The chili-dog was just as bad. First of all, all of the Pringles were broken--not a single one of the chips looked like it was supposed to when they come out of the can. Second of all, the hotdog was waaaaaay overcooked, like it'd been on the meat treadmill at 7-11 for three days non-stop. The chili sauce was non-descript, the same stuff they had on the nachos, and the bun had the pretzel-like chewy toughness that told me it had been put in the microwave for far too long.

At least they were consistent. It was the worst hot dog I'd ever had, coupled with the worst nachos you could imagine. Seriously, after a couple of bites, I felt as if I were eating lunch in my high-school cafeteria. You'd think that a place that specializes in hot dogs wouldn't screw one up so badly. You'd be wrong, though.

I managed to eat about half before giving up in disgust and walking out, the clueless drone at the register offering me a free refill on my way out the door. No thanks. I certainly won't be going back, and actually, I'd bet a couple of paychecks that the restaurant won't make it six months. Not only is it horrible, but it's overpriced, and it's in a poor, hard-to-find location. Maybe that's a good thing, so more people won't have to suffer like I did.

Still hungry, I stopped at the convenience store on the corner and picked up a bag of beef jerky for dinner, instead. Then I came home and proceeded to get my ass kicked at poker all night long. Not a good day for Mikey.

Anyhow, as Foreigner said, that was yesterday. Today seemed to be heading in the same direction, but my almost-win at the poker table helped, and then a phone call from Reverend Dave helped put things in perspective. At least I didn't come home from work and find the locks changed and all my shiat on the front porch.

Sounds like brothaman is single again...

Mikey

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