Well, I was right about one thing this weekend. I was guessing that I'd get called into work late Friday night, and it happened. Once I got back from that poker tourney at Planet Ho, I came home, did my write-up, then took a shower and went to bed. Around 2:30 in the morning, the poker room was calling, needing my assistance at 4:00. I figured that there would be no way a game would still be going by then, but I was wrong about that--when I arrived there were two games still hopping, and I got locked down until 6:30.
The games were very juicy, especially the no-limit table. There were five or six guys playing, and there must've been six grand on the table getting pushed around. So I made a nice little pile of cash, which was great, especially since I hadn't been scheduled that day. I ended up working until 9:30, and I was going to go home and go to bed, but one of my favorite gals was working in the sports book that day and she talked me into sticking around and watching football in her section. She kept the Captain & Sevens coming at a regular clip and came by to visit whenever she had a lull, so it was an enjoyable morning. I finally bailed out around noon because I was just too tired to hang around.
Once I got home, I spent about a half hour scrubbing and polishing the bathroom--because of the big UFC fight on Saturday night, I figured that my roommate would have people over, and my bathroom is the 'guest' bathroom when everyone is hanging out upstairs in the gameroom playing poker or lounging out on the balcony. Once that chore was done, I took another hot-as-I-can-stand-it shower and went to bed. I'm still fighting the bug I picked up, and it had been a very long day by then.
I slept straight through, the party outside my bedroom door didn't even phase me, but again, my phone woke me up in the middle of the night. Yep, I had to go back to work again.
Sunday morning in the poker room wasn't nearly as lucrative as Saturday morning was, and I was done by 6:30. I hung out chatting with the relief dealer and the floorman for a bit, but then I came on back to the house. I was wide awake, so I spent the morning surfing the internet, then called back to Nashville to talk to some of the folks back home.
While I was talking to Mamasan, I was telling her that I *almost* purchased a new digital camera this morning, but I just didn't want to spend the money. I've been wanting a new one for over a year, but I never could justify the expense. My current digital camera kinda sucks--just click on all those Binion's poker room photos from last week to see how grainy the pics are. But it's an old hand-me-down camera from Angy--she gave it to me over a year ago when she upgraded to a newer one. I only kept it because my old Canon Powershot 3.2 mp I bought back in 2003 has been beat to hell and doesn't work half the time.
Anyhow, I've needed a new camera for some time, but other things have always taken priority. And a lot of my Vegas adventures would be a lot more interesting to read about if I had some good photos to go along with them. So I've been thinking about it more and more lately. Anyhow, my conversation with Mamasan must've gotten me off the fence, because she convinced me that it was time to treat myself and not worry about buyer's remorse. I've had an and unexpectedly good month financially, plus I cashed in that tourney on Friday. So I could certainly afford a luxury item for myself.
Before I bought anything for myself, though, I got on Amazon and sent Mamasan a couple of little things she wanted--a kitchen gadget and some slot-machine software for her computer. I figured I could spread the wealth a little bit.
As far as buying a camera goes, I couldn't decided what I wanted. Ideally, I'd like to get a nice DSLR, but the price is still a little bit out of my budget, even for the lower-end models. I was looking at another 10 mp Canon model, but it seemed a bit bulky--modeled to look like a full-on DSLR, but it really wasn't, and the lense wasn't one that could be changed out. It was only about $350, well within my budget, but the more I researched it, the less I liked it.
But then I found a really nice 8 mp Canon Powershot model, with optical zoom and image stabilization, and unbelievably, Amazon had it on sale for just $116! I couldn't believe the price, so I jumped on it and put it in my online shopping cart before they could jack it up again. I also picked up a 2 gig memory card and a padded carrying bag for it, too. Since I'd saved so much money versus what I thought I'd be paying, I did a little more browsing there on Amazon and picked up a new pair of Reeboks, too. I needed some decent tennis shoes--my other ones were getting worn out, and I wanted something besides black in my wardrobe anyways. And in the back of my mind, I figured I should do my part to help out our ailing economy, too.
My online shopping spree didn't end there. After all that, I figured it was time once and for all to kill this nasty bug that's had me under the weather all week. So I looked up one of them Canadian pharmacys and ordered a bunch of Amoxicillin. Since I don't have insurance anymore, going to the walk-in clinic and getting a prescription is almost cost-prohibitive. Ordering online was fairly simple, although I have to wait for a 'medical specialist' to review my health questionairre before they release my order. Hopefully it'll arrive within a week or so and I'll be able to kill this bronchitis or whatever the hell is ailing me.
The problem with working in a casino is that there is so much nastiness and so many skanky germs around you all the time that it actually kind of helps your immune system--it's no problem to fight off most of the milder bugs. But once you *do* finally catch something, it's usually so bad that it just wipes you out. I feel like I've done nothing but work and sleep for about the past ten days straight, and I'm getting tired of feeling like crap.
So I spent about $45 on my Amoxicillin, and as soon as I got to the checkout portion of the process, I got a pop-up window (heh) telling me that if I spent at least a hundred bucks on medications, I'd get four free Viagra pills! But I couldn't really think of any other medications I needed at the time, so I had to decline their generous offer. Apparently their marketing department isn't really big on common sense--If somebody is buying penecillin, Viagra probably isn't the best thing for 'em. I'm just sayin'. But four free Viagra pills...that's like a year's supply... I should've bought more antibiotics!
Anyhow, now that my shopping spree has concluded, I'm just kickin' it here at the house, watching a little football and enjoying the evening. It's my dad's 69th birthday today, so I got to talk to him for about a half an hour or so, which was nice. We had a lot of laughs and caught up on all the latest news and gossip. I'm trying to convert him to the wonders of Photobucket and Flickr, just because he does a bit of traveling and picture-taking now that he's a full-time retiree, but he's still old skool and doesn't like that new-fangled intarweb thingy as a way of sharing pictures, although he has a very nice Sony DSLR and uses photo editing software before he makes his prints...
As for the rest of my evening, I'm considering heading out to Grimaldi's for some dinner. I haven't been there in entirely too long, and I've got a hankerin'. I'm also thinking of going down to Binion's for their 8 pm tournament, too.
Mikey
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