Happy Friday, everybody! I hope you all get lots of goofing off done at the office before kicking off your weekends (I'm looking at *you*, Kri and Sarah!).
My day is gonna be rather boring, I'm sure. Things are still dead-slow at the casino, so the chances of the poker room calling me in to pick up a shift are slim indeed. And I really need to pick up a few shifts--it's bordering on ridiculous now. Hopefully somebody will call in sick or something.
Yesterday was pretty fun--after I made that all-over-the-map post, and then made some impromptu plans for breakfast with Marcie, I was out the door. When I picked her up, our original plan was to go to Jamm's to eat, which is one of my favorite spots. The only problem is that it's way the hell over on Rainbow and Charleston, which is one helluva roadtrip for us hillbillies out in Hendertucky. But once we got on the freeway and were driving down the 'resort corridor' on I-15, Marcie mentioned that she really liked the buffet at Main Street Station.
Longtime readers know that I really don't like buffets at all, except for breakfast at Paris or lunch at the Wynn, and it's probably been at least two years since I hit either one of them. Otherwise, if I never went to another Vegas buffet again, I'd be totally cool with it. For less money, I can still get 'all I can eat', if not more than I can eat at a sit down joint, and the quality is usually better. But, it goes back to that whole 'things we do for love' concept, and instead of taking the Charleston exit, we kept heading north to downtown.
There wasn't much line there at MSS, and I thought it was strangely ironic that I'd be there at that time, when just two weeks later the buffoons would be in town, and Steve B and Jack21 would be offering to share their comps. Oh well, I think we paid about $15 for both of us, we got a table, and then got in line.
I wasn't too impressed with the weekday offerings--I just got some bacon, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and one-quarter of a waffle. The food was pretty bland to be honest with ya, and the highlight of the meal, as far as the grub was concerned, was when I went back to get a mini blueberry muffin.
But it was still fun to sit and break bread with one of my favorite gals, regardless of the quality of the meal. Once through the line was enough for both of us, and we didn't hang around very long. Marcie wanted to go wander Fremont Street for a bit, and since I've got nothing but time on my hands, I certainly didn't mind. We hit a few gift shops, just browsing at all the junk, but there was nothing that really caught my eye.
While we were down there under the canopy, I dodged into Binion's for a sec to talk to Brad, the tournament director, about our upcoming private tourney. We're all set to go, but he shot us down on picking out which dealers we'd like to use that day. Oh well, it was worth a try to get our favorites.
After that, we made our way all they way down towards Hennessy's and Jillian's, and spent a lot of time browsing in the Harley Davidson shop. No, they don't sell bikes there, but they sell everything else. Marcie fell in love with a pretty cool black leather (what else?) Harley purse, but it was $150. Any other week, I would've gladly slapped down the debit card, but damn, this economy is biting me directly in the ass right now, and between the two of us, a fifteen-dollar midweek breakfast buffy is a luxurious splurge.
Once we pulled ourselves away from the Harley store tractor beam, we hit a couple more little shops and then made our way back over to the parking lot on Stewart. Of course we had to stop by Hogs & Heifers, check out the menu at the Triple George, and make time for a little red-carpet buffoonery at the Celebrity Theater.
Since there were no paparazzi on hand, it was impossible to get a shot of us together, so we had to take turns in front of the camera. And in the best interests of my readers, I've posted the photo with the better-looking subject.
In the picture, it looks all sunny and warm, but the truth is, it was sunny and cold. In the shade, we were freezing our asses off, so we zig-zagged our way through the back alleys of downtown, trying to stay in the direct sunlight, as we made our way back to my truck. Our adventures for the day complete, we headed back towards Henderson, as Marcie had to do some grocery shopping and hit the DMV and such. I dropped her off, then came home, suddenly realizing how tired I was from having been up all night.
So I unpaused that 50-hour long CD full of lounge music, set the volume down low, and immediately fell asleep. About an hour later, my phone was ringing, and it was Marcie on the other end, all kinds of upset. I don't feel like writing all of the details, but another obstacle was thrown down in front of her path. A minor one, in comparison, but just a big pain in the ass for her. So we talked a bit and I told her I'd help out of course, just give me time to gather the stuff I needed and head over. But she calmed down as we talked and realized that it was just one more annoying thing to deal with, but all was fine an hour later when we talked again.
However, it made me realize that her life has been a series of bad luck and near-misses for a very long time, which she fully acknowledges. Welcome to my world, she so eloquently put it.
Anyhow, once the crisis had passed, I managed to get another hour's worth of rest, but then had to shower and get dressed to meet up with my gals down at the Freakin' Frog. Actually, the intended purpose of the gathering is that a bunch of local Vegas writers and bloggers get together for networking, tech help, and drinking, with the focus being usually more about the drinking than anything.
When I got there, Linda was waiting for me in the parking lot, so we made our grand entrance. Of course, the joint was mostly empty. But it was Happy Hour, and we scored two Sierra Nevada porters for four bucks! We grabbed a couple of chairs in the middle of the big long 'conference table' they had set up, waiting for the rest of our compatriots to show.
But this time was a little different--I did a whole lot more 'networking' and meeting new people, plus I spent a lot of time talking to one of the WordPress gurus, and he showed me all kinds of nifty things I can do with this site once I make the jump from Blogger to Wordpress. Just a word of warning though, kiddies... I may end up losing all of the old comment content. I mean, I know there's a way to import it all, but between cheap, easy, and complete, I only get to pick two of 'em.
Also, about all of my brilliant ideas I've been kicking around in my head all week... Well, there was not one point in the entire evening where Kri-Monster, Sarah, Linda, and I were all talking together in the same place at the same time. I was getting pulled in all different directions, Kri was working the room, Linda had one of her people from her local writers group in, and Sarah, being the most popular girl in school, had lots of people to catch up with, so my 'night out with the gals' turned into more of a business meeting with beer. Not quite as fun as previous gatherings, but I sure got a lot more stuff done.
I headed out by around 8 pm, stopped to get a can of raspberry iced tea and a burrito from Fausto's, then came back to the house. I think I was back in bed by 9:30, and got a few good hours of sleep. Once I got up, I brewed some coffee and listened to the latest Adam Corolla podcast, and now I'm trying to figure out what else I'm gonna do today.
At some point I'm gonna go downstairs and drive the dogs crazy by cooking up some sausage biscuits, but then I think I may go for a little hike or dig up those damn music books that I can't seem to find. Right now, I have no idea where to look, but I think I'm on the right track--I got a cryptic message yesterday afternoon that said Acquire headpiece, staff of Ra. Abner Ravenwood, US.
I'll find 'em eventually.
Mikey
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