Here it is, the middle of the night, and I can't sleep. I guess all this time on the graveyard shift has reversed the polarity of my system, and I'm just used to being a creature of the night--albeit with much lest angst than Edward Cullen and his ilk.
My goal for the weekend was to spend 72 hours away from the casino, but plans, like a leaky roof, sometimes fall through.
Awhile back, I submitted the paperwork to change up my direct deposit, and send a good chunk of money to my E*Trade account every payday. Well, when I logged on to my bank account on Friday morning, no money had been deposited. Now, it had been a really slow couple of weeks for me, so I figured that maybe I had such a low take-home amount that all of it went to the investment account. So I logged on to E*Trade to take a look. Nope, no new money there...
Hmmm... No paycheck? Suddenly I began to feel like Milton from Office Space, except that I never had a cube or a stapler to begin with. So I called down to the payroll department, and found out that this was the pay period that they 'tested' my new-to-them account, so I would be getting no direct deposit. I had to hike my chubby ass down to the casino and pick up a real-live paycheck, something I haven't done in over four years. Oh, and I was instructed to also ask for a direct deposit stub, too. WTF? I didn't quite understand, but agreed to ask for both.
When I got down there on Friday afternoon, yep, I had both--a paycheck and a direct deposit stub. The paycheck was pathetically small, the worst one I've ever gotten (but then, it's been kinda slow and I hadn't been called in for an extra shift in three weeks), but the direct deposit stub was interesting in that it had both accounts listed on it and it simply said that the account was validated.
So I wandered up to the payroll department and they assured me that all was well and everything would be back to normal next time around, no problem at all.
While I was there, I *briefly* considered wandering over to the poker room, but then I remembered what a grind the last few sessions had been for me, so I just bailed out. I went grocery shopping, instead, and then spent the rest of the evening at home, clearing out the archives on my DVR.
Saturday was a sleep-in and be-a-slug day, and I was rewarded for my slothfulness with three incredibly fun games to watch--UConn/Notre Dame, LSU/Ole Miss, and Cal/Stanford. Of course I started the day watching Ohio State put the beatdown on Meat-chicken, and I'm sure that Buckeye Nation is damn happy that they're going to Pasadena and won't have to face another SEC team in their bowl game. They might have a chance to win one this year.
Anyhow, after all the games, I stayed up for most of the night watching all the JFK assassination shows on the History Channel and Discovery, finally calling it a night around five in the morning. At 9:00 am on Sunday, my phone was ringing--it was the poker room. One of the full-time dealers was sick, and they wanted to know if I could come in.
Hell yeah I could, just not right away, if at all possible. At first they wanted me at ten, then at one, but then I got a call back a few minutes later and they settled on having me come in at noon. I was cool with that--it gave me enough time to set my alarm and get another hour and a half of sleep.
I wasn't completely happy about waking up again, much too soon for my tastes, to Sonny and Cher singing I Got You Babe from the alarm clock, but what's a brotha to do? I got to make a living. So I got up, shuffled out to the kitchen, poured myself a bowl of Special K, and sat down in front of the Colts game for about fifteen minutes. I couldn't sit around long, as I had to shower, shave, and get my tired ass down to the poker room.
There was just one game going when I got there, and for a minute I thought it would be a real short day. But within just a few minutes we had three full games going, and a waiting list for a fourth. That's always nice. So my day went by pretty quickly, and unlike graveyard shift, I got a few breaks here and there. Instead of walking the beige mile back to the dining room, I just put on a jacket and went to the sportsbook to watch football for a half an hour. Oh, and hot dogs were only a buck from the hottie manning the cart, so bought one of them and sweet-talked the cocktail waitress into bringing me a bottle of water.
So my day at work was actually fairly enjoyable, and I got cut loose after about six hours when the swing-shifters started showing up. I'd made a decent day's wages, so I was cool with hitting the exit. No, I wasn't tempted in the least to stick around and play, either. Usually, I expect to win every time I play, but lately I've just been breaking even or walking out twenty bucks in the red. And one time, a few months back, I remember working all night, then playing for a couple of hours and losing a hundred bucks in the morning game. One of the other dealers chirped in and said Man, that sucks, you just worked all night for free.
Well, not quite, but the words stuck. So I decided right then and there that I'm not gonna stick around and play after my shift with money that I just earned. And I almost always empty my wallet before I go to work--so it's easy to keep track of exactly how much money I've made at the end of each shift--so any cash on hand when I leave work is brand-new to me. And that stays in the wallet.
So I came straight home, pretty tired, actually. And hungry, too. That lone hot dog didn't do much to curb the appetite, so I made a bowl of soup and ate the rest of my cornbread from the other day, then watched the Eagles/Bears game. However, it was nice to use my dining room table for something that it was actually designed for.
I thought I was pretty tired, so I went to bed early, but only got an hour's worth of a catnap before realizing that I was wide awake again. So here I am, pounding away at the keys in the middle of the night, trying to make the mundane sound interesting.
The rest of this week is gonna be pretty mellow, so I'm guessing that posting will be light. On the other hand, I'm having dinner on Wednesday with Linda Lou, so that might give me some interesting material to work with. And I've got a dinner invite for Thanksgiving, but it's way over on the west side, and I'm on call that day (and I'm guessing that at least one of my co-workers will probably call out that day, so I may stick around close and try to score an extra holiday shift). Besides, since I've got no family around these parts, Thanksgiving has lost some of it's luster for me, so dining with mostly strangers doesn't really appeal to me that much. I dunno. Maybe I'm just feeling a little grinchy right now, but at this moment, I don't really want to go.
But that's the news from here. I wish I had some good stories to tell, but the muse ain't singing and I haven't done anything wild, crazy, interesting, or foolish for several days... But give me some time--the smart money is on 'foolish'.
Mikey
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