Well, I went to work in Vegas last night, but when I got out this morning, I stepped out into Seattle. Normally I can see casinos in every direction when I'm walking to my truck, but this morning, I couldn't see much at all--it was like the Earth put a sweater on. It's gray, cloudy, overcast, and drizzly. In Nashville, they even have a word for days like this. I think they call it "Friday". Yesterday was sunny and beautiful (from what I saw of it), and today--not so much. It seems to be shaping into one of those days that makes you want to just eat soup and stay indoors building a fort out of blankets and couch cushions.
Speaking of yesterday, I was both wired and exhausted all day. At one point, before I went to sleep, I'd been up for almost 30 hours straight. I told y'all about how after work I stayed and played poker for a bit, and when I was there I was drinking coffee and Kahlua. When I finally came home, I was a bit wired, so I couldn't go right to sleep. I spent a bit of time on the computer, checking email, doing my daily reading rotation, etc. Just as I closed up the laptop and pulled the blanket over my head, I suddenly remembered that I *had* to go to the bank.
Damn.
Since my personal micro-economy is an all-cash off-the-books endeavor for 90% of the time, I don't keep a huge balance in my checkings account anymore. (That's for you, Drea!). Basically, it sits pretty empty until the middle of the month when the truck payment and insurance is due. Once those hit, it empties out again.
Anyhow, the other day I was browsing around on Amazon and I bought a few of the lounge music CDs from my wish list. Of course I forgot to write it down in my checkbook when I used my debit card. While I was shopping, I chose the free super-saver shipping, which delays delivery for a few days, and Amazon doesn't charge your card until your order ships.
Well, just as I closed the lid on the laptop, I heard my email notification go off, and it was from Amazon alerting me that my order had shipped and they charged my debit card about thirty bucks.
Damn.
That would put my checking account about twenty bucks overdrawn if I didn't go down and make a deposit before the end of the business day. I was so tired that I set my alarm for 3 pm, telling myself that I'd do it then. But lying there, it bothered me that I'd have to get up again in a few hours to run down to the bank.
Ugh.
So as much as I hated to do it, I got up again, got dressed, and went down and put a couple hundred in my account so that I was covered and it would also remove the temptation to spend it since it wouldn't be in my wallet any longer.
When I finally came home, I crashed hard for about five hours. My phone woke me up again, and yeah, it was calls from the family. I was talking to Amy about the upcoming plans and we were looking at stuff on the computer at the same time. She ended up calling about three times over the course of the evening, as did Mamasan. The excitement is building, and in the past two days I've used up over half of my monthly allotment of cell-phone minutes, something I never run out of except at Christmas time or March Madness.
But the plan is coming together better than an A-Team caper, and the hotel rooms are booked, the flights are booked, and the wedding chapel is booked. All that's left are the details.
I made it back to bed at 9:00 pm or so, confident that I wouldn't be called in early (there are two six pm dealers every Thursday night, so it's rare that I'm needed earlier than 1:00 am). I got three more good solid hours of sleep, woke up to the alarm, and hit the shower.
When I got to work, I had mixed emotions when I saw that there were still two dealers on hand, and only one poker game going. I walked in and said Well, I guess this means I get the first break, huh? But one dealer was going home at the top of the hour, and the other dealer said that he'd volunteer to go home too if I was willing to get locked down at the beginning of my shift.
I was all for that, thinking that game wouldn't go another 45 minutes, so I jumped at the opportunity while the other two dealers went home. As soon as I pushed into the game, I knew it was a doozy. I was pushing huge pots, and my first toke was five bucks. Wanting to make hay while the sun was shining, I cranked up the speed, and coupled with all the heavy action on the table, I got a workout. But I was in that buck-a-minute zone, and at exactly 2:00 am I had to have the floorman come in and relieve me because I couldn't fit another chip into my shirt pocket.
Our dealer shirts are ingeniously designed (although hideously ugly), as our toke pockets will hold exactly sixty chips. Since I was on a 4-8 game, there were no redbirds on the table, so I had 60 one-dollar chips in my pocket after one hour of dealing. Not a bad average if I could keep it up!
So the floorman got a few minutes in the box and a chance to make a few bucks himself while I racked up all my tokes and stashed them behind the desk. When I went back in the game, it seemed to slow down a bit. A few players got busted out, which caused the game to change gears, but it was still pretty loose.
It finally broke up at 4:30, and while I made a buck a minute the first hour, it took me the next two-and-a-half to make another hundred. Not bad, but not a virtual ATM, either.
I was wide awake, and didn't really want to come home and go to back to bed, either (not much to do around the house in the middle of the night when the roommate is sleeping and you don't want to make the dogs bark), So I hung out and bullshiatted with the floorman for a couple of hours while the cocktail waitress took all my loose singles one glass of Captain and Coke at a time.
It was an enjoyable way to kill time--relaxing in the empty poker room, but eventually it started getting busy again. The floorman had to do his fills and end-of-shift paperwork, so I called it a night.
Stepping out of the elevator onto the roof of the parking garage, I realized that I should've brought a hat with me, but I didn't have far to walk. There was a very light drizzle going, and if I were skinny, I might've avoided getting wet at all.
I considered heading to a local coffee shop for some breakfast and the morning paper, but I wasn't quite hungry enough to do that, so I just came straight home. Besides, the Omelet House didn't open until 7, and Marcie doesn't work on Fridays anyways. Plus, I've got about ten pounds of meat and cheese in my mini-fridge, and that shiat ain't gonna eat itself.
But that's not what I'm in the mood for right now, anyways. I want some soup. And I've got a fort to build, too.
Mikey
No comments:
Post a Comment