All Is Quiet

...you know the rest.

I hope everyone survived their New Year's Eve celebrations with minimal damage to liver or automotive conveyances.

I tried to sleep early in the evening, but we had a raging party going on over here at the house. All of my roommate's friends were here, and I don't know any of them, and since I knew I'd be going to work later, I tried to get some rest. Luckily I only encountered one inconsiderate drunk who decided to barge into my bedroom from the bathroom while I was trying to sleep.

But it was a losing battle, and around 9:30 I called the poker room to see how busy they were and to let the floorman know he could call me in early if he needed me. His first words were How soon can you be here?

I told him I'd be there for the next push.

When I got there, the casino was pretty much packed (recession? what recession?), and there were seven games going in the poker room. And I got kinda lucky that my first table was a good no-limit game.

So I stayed very busy all night, but I got a Happy-New-Year message from Kimmy around 11:30, so that made my night. I didn't see her in her usual area, and since it was her usual night off, and she was texting me, I figured that she was out getting silly somewhere. But about an hour later she came strolling over to the poker room to say hey and I got a quick squeeze, which was pretty much the highlight of the shift as far as I was concerned. Turns out she was working, after all.

Oh just before midnight, they started passing out champagne all over the casino, but I was actually dealing at the time. I got pushed a few minutes after the top of the hour, and the boss wanted me to help her bring glasses full of champagne back to the poker room from the service well on the far side of the main cage. There weren't nearly enough cocktail waitresses on hand to bring a drink to every single person in the joint, so I was enlisted.

Well, here's where things get interesting. In my haste to get to work in time for the 10:00 pm push, I'd ran out of the house and forgot to put a belt on. Not too much of a problem when I'm sitting on my ass all day, but walking for any distance requires me to constantly pull up my pants--especially since I've lost about two inches around the waist since last summer and all my work pants are a bit baggy anyways.

I wasn't thinking about it, so I hurried over to the service well, picked up eight glasses of champagne with my bare hands (no tray) and started walking back to the poker room, about 50 yards away.

I got about halfway before I realized I had a problem on my hands. I was about to lose my drawers just like that night in the strip club, yet my hands were full and I had no place to set the glasses down--there were no tables anywhere nearby, and somebody would've had to take them from me even if there were a table handy, just because of the staggered way I was carrying them.

So I shortened my stride to keep my knees together, and I duck-walked the rest of the way to the poker room. If anyone would've noticed me, they would've bet that I was trying not to shiat my pants, just by seeing the way I was walking and the sudden sweat on my brow. Had I been wearing some fun novelty boxers at the time, I would've just said farkit, and walked the rest of the way with my drawers at my ankles just for the laugh. But I was wearing some faded and well-worn boxer-briefs, so if gravity took over, people would be laughing at me, not with me...

I barely made it. I stopped at the doorway, had somebody grab about half the glasses, and I used my free hand to pull my pants up, because they were about one breath away from going south for good.

Whew. Disaster averted. I saved a lot of people from seeing something that would haunt their nightmares for a long time...

After that, it was pretty much all bidness for the rest of the night. I was locked down for good after 2:00 am, and the 4-8 game carried on all night, and was still going at six when my relief showed up. Luckily the money was good, and if I do half as well tonight, I'll feel pretty good about how my 2009 is starting off.

I stopped to get some juice and Gatorade on the way home (was feeling especially dehydrated after that long shift), and set the DVR to record the Rose Parade before I passed out. I got a good six or seven hours of sleep, and I've been watching football ever since. (How about that Pac-10? Five and O, baby!)

Anyhow, I'm hoping I get called in early again tonight, because I'd love to get another full shift in. I'll spend my Friday in bed if that happens, because then I go back to doing a couple of day shifts again, which just farks with my system to no end.

That's about it for now. Y'all have a good one.

Mikey