It's been a very long holiday weekend--I've worked every day until last night (although I still had to go in, but it was so slow that I didn't even clock in). I'm fairly certain that I'll have the entire day at my disposal, so of course I'm going to take advantage of it.
While I'd like to work, I'm cool with finally having a day off. Of course, being the first of the month, I've spent all my new-found cash and paid all the bills and such, so I'm back to where I started last week. But hey, a couple days away from the casino is just fine with me--the money will come. It always does.
As up as I was the other day, my expectations came crashing down on Friday night--I won't be able to go back to Nashville for Christmas. Apparently, the poker room just can't function without me for a week. I kinda wished they felt like that all the time... Anyhow, it was a bummer, because I had my hopes up, but I'm at peace with it now. Christmas will be just another day again this year.
But all was not work and responsibility this weekend. Doc Al came to town, and we got to hang out on Friday night. Once I picked him up from the airport, we headed on down to the Four Seasons of Fremont Street, the El Cortez. It's come a long way since the seedy old days, and it's quite impressive, especially if you remember the seedy old days.
Once we got Doc settled into his room (a penthouse on the 15th floor that reminded me very much of a Mexican restaurant I went to with my grandparents back in 1978), we headed back downstairs to the casino. The first thing we noticed was a sign offering 2-for-1 martinis at all casino bars during happy hour, just 20 minutes hence. Doc made a quick stop at the player's club to take care of some business, while I parked myself at a slot machine to do a little people watching in the 'poker room'.
I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I'm fairly certain you won't find me at the ElCo holdem tables anytime soon. Unless, of course, I have Terry, Dougie, and Doc with me, and we all happen to find ourselves drunk and broke, with no memory of how to find our way to Binion's.
Once Doc got his player's account all straightened out, we spied an empty $3 dice table and we took our spots on the rail.
Luckily for us, we both had a couple of very good rolls. I had gone back to being a come-bettor and forgetting all the place bets, and it worked out well for me. I ended up making about $75 for my efforts. Not too shabby! I think Doc probably made about $40 himself, and we colored up after about a half an hour or so of low-stakes dice.
By then, it was martini time, so we took seats at the bar outside of Roberta's. Doc went over and put a five spot in the piano player's tip jar, and I hit the bartender up for a couple of Bombay Sapphire martinis. Happy hour, indeed!
One drink minimum??? Clearly the folks in charge at the El Cortez have no idea who they're dealing with!We sat there enjoying the music long enough to eat about six olives each, when I realized that I hadn't eaten much of anything else that day. I was buzzing on an empty stomach, so I suggested that we go ahead and get some dinner.
Roberta's Steakhouse was about ten feet from where we were sitting, so we hopped the rail and asked the hostess for a table. No, we didn't have a reservation, but judging from all of the patrons dressed up as empty seats, we figured that we'd get right in. We figured right.
As it turns out, strange things are still afoot at the El Cortez. Roberta's has been renamed 'The Flame', and Careful Kitty's has been renamed 'The Cortez Cafe'. The old crack den out back has also been renamed. I believe they're calling it 'The Parking Garage' now.
Anyhow, we were hungry, and Doc had a free meal comp working in our favor, so we hit the menu with a vengeance. We both ordered shrimp cocktails--nine times more expensive but only about twice as tasty as the ones down the street at the Golden Gate. Although, to be honest, the version we had at dinner was pretty damn good and the shrimp were the big mutant ones, not the little sea-monkey kind they serve with a scoop.
Of course, I couldn't resist another bowl of French Onion soup to slurp on while we nibbled on the warm basket of bread.
Doc ordered a bottle of wine, but the waitress talked him into a different kind--some Cabernet that was actually really good--not nearly as heavy as we expected. I don't remember the winery it came from, but there was a real cork and a fancy label. Back in the seedy old days at the ElCo, most of the wine on the premises was consumed from a paper bag, so we felt like we were riding the wave of progress.
For dinner, we both went with the King Cut of prime rib, and we had an order of sauteed mushrooms to go with it. I ordered the loaded baked potato, and I think Doc had the garlic mashed variety. All of it was very good, and quite reasonably priced, too. Because we live on the edge when we get together, we also ordered extra horseradish sauce. I don't know what the ElCo feeds their horses, but damn, that shiat is the spiciest horseradish I've ever tasted.
We had a great meal and a lot of laughs over dinner, like we normally do, and we were much too full for dessert. Doc signed the tab over to the Underhill's account, and we headed out for our evening's buffoonery.
Of course, one can't wander Fremont street in our condition--buzzed on high-quality distilled juniper berries and fermented grape juice--without drunk dialing our comrades in absentia. I think Doc sent the same text message to every chick in his phone saying I'm drunk and horny down on Fremont Street. Where are you?, while I just called Angy and left some sort of rambling, incoherent message that I was only a block away from Hogs & Heifers and I could go fetch her panties if she wanted me to...
It's probably better that she didn't answer.
We wandered Fremont Street for a bit, but eventually made our way to Binion's. I'd brought a couple of Partagas Black Labels with me, and Benny's Bullpen was calling our names.
The new cigar lounge is definitely a hit, and we've decided that it'll be our fallback location for watching hoops in March. Lots of big comfy leather chairs, attractive waitresses, and plenty of flat-screen TVs hanging on the walls pretty much sealed the deal for us. And drinks were cheap, too. A snifter of Grand Marnier and another rum cocktail only cost me ten bucks.
As luck would have it, I was wearing one of my ASU t-shirts, and the ASU/UCLA game was on at the time. Apparently, there was a contingent of Sun Devil fans on hand too, so I made a few new friends. But mostly, Doc and I were all about relaxing with good booze, smoking fine cigars, and ogling the waitress. It's a great place to kill some time.
Eventually, Mike the Brit from New Hampshire showed up, and he had a buddy of his in tow. They joined for a round of smoking and drinking, and it was a fine evening all around. We eventually pried ourselves out of our seats and headed back to the El Cortez for some cheap Pai Gow.
I was just treading water, and after about 45 minutes or so, Doc decided to move over one table and play some blackjack. Mike's friend Pete sat down next to me, and on his very first hand he got a straight flush! Heh. Of course we let Doc know about it. Loudly and repeatedly.
I was starting to hit the wall by then. I *knew* I'd have to go in to work that night, so I colored up another $15 on the plus side, said goodnight to the fellas, hit the cage, and headed home.
As soon as I got in bed, my phone was ringing. Yep, I needed to head in to work an hour later. I dozed for about 20 minutes, then got dressed and headed in. Luckily we had a good no-limit game going, along with a pretty decent 4/8 table, so it was well worth the sleep I missed. I ended up working about six hours or so, making a nice little pile of cash, and having a lot of fun too. In fact, after I got done working, I just sat at the table shooting the shiat with the players. It was a fun group, so I hung around for awhile.
Once I finally scooted out of there, I came straight on home, took my medicine, and slept all day, missing pretty much all of the football games again. As much as I prefer the late shift to that early-morning crap I had to deal with all summer, it really plays hell with my system and my sleep schedule, and I feel like no matter what I do, I just don't get enough rest. My body was used to swing shift. It's gonna take awhile to get used to graveyard.
Of course, on Saturday night, I forgot to turn of my alarm, so at midnight I was up again. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep, but I figured I should call down to the poker room and see if they needed me--they told me that I could expect a call, so I got the jump on them. Yep, I was told to come in at 3:00 am, so I went back to sleep for awhile, then went back to the casino.
When I got there, there was just one 4/8 game going, and it looked pretty weak. So I told the floorman that I'd gladly go back home and go back to bed and let the other dealer have all the money that night. He agreed. But just as I was leaving, one of the dice dealers came wandering by, and she always plays poker late at night, so she said she'd come play in about ten minutes if I stuck around.
So I turned around, bought a rack of white, and sat down in the game. On my second hand, I got pocket jacks, raised, got three callers, and the flop had two overcards come. I checked, two people bet, and I laid it down. Damn. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to make my money back because the game broke up before the button got back around to me!
That really sucked. So everyone went home and I helped the dealer reset the decks and whatnot, and the cocktail waitress came by to visit, too. I had her bring me a hot chocolate with Peppermint Schnapps, and damn, was that good! When she came back, we had a very interesting discussion about the relative merits of the naughty Santa outfits versus the normal cocktail uniforms. Apparently, the girls have a choice to wear the Santa outfits or not, and they also cost $250, which the company doesn't cover. So a lot of the girls don't wear them (Kimmy and Beth do, and well, that always creates a distraction for me...)
Anyhow, after about an hour, I decided to come on back home. I talked to Mamasan on the phone for a bit, but I was fading like a lame thoroughbred, so we cut it short. Not two hours later, my phone was ringing again. While I was still completely incoherent, I got to listen to Amy and Cyndi for a bit--they were on the road with their men-folk, coming home from their weekend getaway to a cabin up in Gatlinburg.
Once that call ended, I fell right back asleep, and bundled up under the covers--it was downright cold here in Vegas on Sunday morning. I woke up again two hours later to the sound of my phone ringing. Doc Al was down at the Hilton watching football and was concerned with my whereabouts. But since I didn't get any sleep the night before, and was freezing my ass off, I opted to stay in bed. Besides, he had Ross to keep him company. So I took a pass on the buffoonery, and besides, after my adventure with Lars last weekend, I don't think I want to show myself around the Hilton for awhile, lest they try and stick me with the bill for carpet cleaning.
Again, I slept for most of the day and into the evening. I had plans to do housework and whatnot, but that got pushed aside in favor of lounging in bed watching TV like a lazy slug.
Oh, and guess what happened again late last night... Yep, after I started working on this post, thinking I had the night off, work called again, asking me to come in one more time. When I got there, I was kinda disappointed because there was only one shorthanded 4/8 game going. I didn't think it would last a half hour. But I was wrong. I dealt for almost five hours and made a couple hundred bucks. That was a nice surprise. But when I got done, I was whining to the floorman about my not being able to go home for Christmas, so he just suggested that I go win the Megabucks and take the month off anyways. Hell yeah, stick it to The Man!
So I put $40 in the Megabucks machine on my way out the door. No, I am not $14 million dollars richer. So it looks like I'll be working over Christmas after all. And I'm out forty bucks, too. Damn The Man--he's sticking it to me!
Once I escaped from the casino, I drove over to the WalMart to pick up a few things--I got a new shower head for my bathroom--the other handheld shower massager has a crack in the holding bracket, so the frickin' showerhead falls out all the time. It's almost worthless. So I bought a new shower head that stays attached--I don't need a handheld thingy. I got that and some teflon plumbers tape and a few other odds and ends for the bathroom, and later this afternoon, once I get some sleep, I'll go in there and replace the shower head and the curtain liner.
That's all there is for now. I was hoping to play in a poker tourney down at Planet Hollywood this afternoon, but I was told that I'd likely be called in again tonight around midnight. So I guess I'm going to need my rest. It's all about the work and the sleep for me right now. But I'm ok with that... Otherwise I'd just be out getting into trouble or something.
Mikey
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