I enjoy going to the casino. There, I've said it. While I have had some pretty nice wins over the years, for the most part, just like everyone else, mostly I lose. But I still get a day out that is special to me, and for all intents and purposes, that's all that matters.
I had mentally made plans for a couple of weeks of going to the local casino. And it really is local, like 35 miles away...or maybe it's 35 minutes, no matter. It's fairly close and it gives me what I want. Now typically someone else drives me. I want to be clear on this, I do have a license and once I get behind the wheel, I generally enjoy driving. It's the psyching me up to GET behind the wheel that's a bit of a challenge. (If I'm to be totally honest, the same holds true for going out at all. I have a great time once I'm out there, it's just getting myself psyched up for it that's a challenge.)
It wasn't always like this. In the not too distant past there was a time I would jump in the car and drive for hours without giving it a second thought. My first step towards being leery of getting behind the wheel was the local freeway and the direction we generally drive in. Let me make this even more clear, with the exception of one freeway we had to use to get from Corona to Santa Clarita which was truly nice, the rest suck big weenie. The fact that the casino is in the opposite direction of the bad part of the local freeway was a huge bonus.
Anyway, like I'd said, I had made mental plans to go to the casino the week before last. My plan was to make my credit card payment, put a couple of hundred aside for incidentals until my next payday and use the rest for an afternoon of casino happiness for myself. As things turned out, I couldn't make it out the week before, so last weekend was my time.
Now as much as I enjoy the casino is just about as much Ray hates it. Nix that, he probably hates it even more. For one, the man doesn't play anything. If he puts $10 in a slot machine, it's a big deal. He doesn't see it as entertainment at all, he sees it as money flying out of his wallet and into cash-drops at the tables or into slot machines. The point is, he just is not a fan. If we're not going to a show there, he typically brings a book and finds a quiet corner somewhere to sit and read while I spent my gambling allowance.
Since those days, Jessica has gotten her license and actually had a car to get us around in. I should explain that...we have three cars for the three of us in the family who currently drive, however, I can't even remember a time when all three cars were functional at the same time. With Ray and Jessica needing cars without a doubt, that's left me carless for more than a few years now. I personally don't mind, I work from home and even if I wasn't working, I'd have nowhere to go anyway, so what the hell, yanno? What does concern me, however, is poor Jason. Poor guy has had his permit for-like-ever, but between not having a car for him to practice with, and having no funds to insure him once he did get a license, we've been really lax in getting him squared-away with his license.
Going back to my plan to go to the casino. Things have changed a little for me since getting my job. I know that the time may come when I'm going to HAVE to get into the office for something or another. So I'm continuing to push myself and am talking myself into trying to drive a little more often now. But I wasn't quite sure that trying to drive myself to the casino was really the best way to start. With that in mind I invited Ray to come with me because now the casino has this really cool bingo hall. I mean, c'mon, bingo takes some time to play and then we'd be able to have a nice meal together at one of the restaurants. But the look on his face when I mentioned bingo told me all I needed to know. While he was mildly interested to know it was there, he was not particularly interested in trying it out.
Of course he offered to drive me, but the poor guy had been home sick all week and I just couldn't take his last day, Sunday, away from him. I just couldn't. He was going to drive me in, come home and wait for me to call to be picked up. It was just wasteful. Wasteful of gas and wasteful of time. No, I would not let him drive me. It was time for me to put my big girl panties on and just do it.
So after I inputted the round-trip information in my phone's driving directions app and checked out that it will actually speak to me and not expect me to follow a damned line, I was good to go. I kinda wish there was a part of these vocal maps where you can say "I got it from here", and "start directions", because I honestly didn't need to be told how to get to the freeway, but that didn't stop her from talking for the 15 minutes or so it takes to get there. (Don't judge me, others may take less time, but I was still getting used to sitting behind the wheel again.)
Now I'm on the freeway (going in the direction that is nice, no huge multi-lane merges and all that happy horsesh...manure). Granted, I couldn't have my radio on because I wouldn't hear the directions, but I would have liked to. I find music while I drive relaxing and when you're wound up tighter than an old Timex, something relaxing goes a long way. I'm gliding along and thinking to myself "This is easy. You really have to drive more often. This isn't so scary." and a whole bunch of other affirmations.
Then I hit traffic. Okay, maybe traffic is a bit harsh. I hit congestion. And when going from my house to the casino, there is a place where the freeway splits right down the middle, we're reaching around where I would actually be able to read the sign and a truck slips in front of me blocking my view of the overhead sign. Ok, maybe truck is a bit harsh. It coulda been an SUV. No matter, point is that it boiled down to my not being able to see the sign.
I know the thing on my phone will speak to me soon, but I take a quick peek down anyway and found that it had tipped forward so the speaker would be facing the passenger side of the car and I reach down to flip it back in my direction and as it's being adjusted-she speaks. But because it was being moved and the cord plugging it into the cigarette lighter made a scraping sound all I heard was Charlie Brown's teacher. What. The. Fuck!?
I take a peek over my left shoulder and see that there are like five lanes to my left. The freeway is going to split. It would be a good idea to move over at least one lane left. I get through the rest of the little tricky turns after getting off the freeway and I'm now in the driveway for the valet parking. (That's just how I roll. The car looks like someone who did it and ran; with scrapes, dents and loose molding in some places, but I don't care and have no shame. Valet is convenient dammit!)
So as I pull into the driveway for valet parking, everything looks normal. Just a little back road and then I see these tall white plastic columns which honestly look as though they are meant to close the road at that point. Not knowing for sure what to do and truly hating the idea of using self-parking, even if they do have a new indoor parking garage. I'm stopped dead, trying to decide what to do when I see a car coming up behind me. He smoothly moves over to the left and drives between the columns. My point of view made the "lanes" looked like randomly placed columns meant to block your path. I've been saying it for months now, I really need new glasses.
I won't bore you with the details of what I played or how much I lost, but I took that money knowing full well that it wasn't going to be a hardship if I did lose it all...which I didn't...but still, it was budgeted for. My plan included a meal at one of the nicer restaurants there -- but my initial loss, which I attributed to hunger (that's my story and I'm stickin to it) -- had me brunching at the buffet instead. For the record, I kinda forgot it was a Sunday, therefore a "brunch" day. I stayed away from all breakfast food. I wanted stuff I rarely get...a modified surf & turf meal. It was modified because I never saw a restaurant style surf & turf with pot stickers, an eggroll, and a couple of muscles on the side. I made full note of the crab legs and promised myself I would go back for one. (Again, don't judge! If you've ever had one of those crab legs you know full-well that once you get that meat out, it can't add up to much more than two decent fork-fulls. What you do get are plenty of shells. A big ass pile shells that make it look like you haven't seen food since who knows when. And that's just ONE leg!
After brunch I spent most of my time walking around waiting for a machine or table to speak to me. I heard crickets. There was one machine that had a bonus game that I just had to try, so I sat there for a little while, played the bonus game twice and felt I'd had my fill. I cashed out and came home.
The drive home was completely unimpressive; which, of course, is a good thing. And I'd even go back more regularly, but they don't have $5 tables anymore. It doesn't seem to matter when you go, even mid-week it's impossible to find a $5 table. You can make $100 last a little while if you know how to play and are only making $5 initial bets. At $10 you get half the play time...if you're lucky and the dealer isn't hot. Oh well, bottom line is that I think I've scratched my casino itch for the foreseeable future. And I drove myself to do it!
I had mentally made plans for a couple of weeks of going to the local casino. And it really is local, like 35 miles away...or maybe it's 35 minutes, no matter. It's fairly close and it gives me what I want. Now typically someone else drives me. I want to be clear on this, I do have a license and once I get behind the wheel, I generally enjoy driving. It's the psyching me up to GET behind the wheel that's a bit of a challenge. (If I'm to be totally honest, the same holds true for going out at all. I have a great time once I'm out there, it's just getting myself psyched up for it that's a challenge.)
It wasn't always like this. In the not too distant past there was a time I would jump in the car and drive for hours without giving it a second thought. My first step towards being leery of getting behind the wheel was the local freeway and the direction we generally drive in. Let me make this even more clear, with the exception of one freeway we had to use to get from Corona to Santa Clarita which was truly nice, the rest suck big weenie. The fact that the casino is in the opposite direction of the bad part of the local freeway was a huge bonus.
Anyway, like I'd said, I had made mental plans to go to the casino the week before last. My plan was to make my credit card payment, put a couple of hundred aside for incidentals until my next payday and use the rest for an afternoon of casino happiness for myself. As things turned out, I couldn't make it out the week before, so last weekend was my time.
Now as much as I enjoy the casino is just about as much Ray hates it. Nix that, he probably hates it even more. For one, the man doesn't play anything. If he puts $10 in a slot machine, it's a big deal. He doesn't see it as entertainment at all, he sees it as money flying out of his wallet and into cash-drops at the tables or into slot machines. The point is, he just is not a fan. If we're not going to a show there, he typically brings a book and finds a quiet corner somewhere to sit and read while I spent my gambling allowance.
Since those days, Jessica has gotten her license and actually had a car to get us around in. I should explain that...we have three cars for the three of us in the family who currently drive, however, I can't even remember a time when all three cars were functional at the same time. With Ray and Jessica needing cars without a doubt, that's left me carless for more than a few years now. I personally don't mind, I work from home and even if I wasn't working, I'd have nowhere to go anyway, so what the hell, yanno? What does concern me, however, is poor Jason. Poor guy has had his permit for-like-ever, but between not having a car for him to practice with, and having no funds to insure him once he did get a license, we've been really lax in getting him squared-away with his license.
Going back to my plan to go to the casino. Things have changed a little for me since getting my job. I know that the time may come when I'm going to HAVE to get into the office for something or another. So I'm continuing to push myself and am talking myself into trying to drive a little more often now. But I wasn't quite sure that trying to drive myself to the casino was really the best way to start. With that in mind I invited Ray to come with me because now the casino has this really cool bingo hall. I mean, c'mon, bingo takes some time to play and then we'd be able to have a nice meal together at one of the restaurants. But the look on his face when I mentioned bingo told me all I needed to know. While he was mildly interested to know it was there, he was not particularly interested in trying it out.
Of course he offered to drive me, but the poor guy had been home sick all week and I just couldn't take his last day, Sunday, away from him. I just couldn't. He was going to drive me in, come home and wait for me to call to be picked up. It was just wasteful. Wasteful of gas and wasteful of time. No, I would not let him drive me. It was time for me to put my big girl panties on and just do it.
So after I inputted the round-trip information in my phone's driving directions app and checked out that it will actually speak to me and not expect me to follow a damned line, I was good to go. I kinda wish there was a part of these vocal maps where you can say "I got it from here", and "start directions", because I honestly didn't need to be told how to get to the freeway, but that didn't stop her from talking for the 15 minutes or so it takes to get there. (Don't judge me, others may take less time, but I was still getting used to sitting behind the wheel again.)
Now I'm on the freeway (going in the direction that is nice, no huge multi-lane merges and all that happy horsesh...manure). Granted, I couldn't have my radio on because I wouldn't hear the directions, but I would have liked to. I find music while I drive relaxing and when you're wound up tighter than an old Timex, something relaxing goes a long way. I'm gliding along and thinking to myself "This is easy. You really have to drive more often. This isn't so scary." and a whole bunch of other affirmations.
Then I hit traffic. Okay, maybe traffic is a bit harsh. I hit congestion. And when going from my house to the casino, there is a place where the freeway splits right down the middle, we're reaching around where I would actually be able to read the sign and a truck slips in front of me blocking my view of the overhead sign. Ok, maybe truck is a bit harsh. It coulda been an SUV. No matter, point is that it boiled down to my not being able to see the sign.
I know the thing on my phone will speak to me soon, but I take a quick peek down anyway and found that it had tipped forward so the speaker would be facing the passenger side of the car and I reach down to flip it back in my direction and as it's being adjusted-she speaks. But because it was being moved and the cord plugging it into the cigarette lighter made a scraping sound all I heard was Charlie Brown's teacher. What. The. Fuck!?
I take a peek over my left shoulder and see that there are like five lanes to my left. The freeway is going to split. It would be a good idea to move over at least one lane left. I get through the rest of the little tricky turns after getting off the freeway and I'm now in the driveway for the valet parking. (That's just how I roll. The car looks like someone who did it and ran; with scrapes, dents and loose molding in some places, but I don't care and have no shame. Valet is convenient dammit!)
So as I pull into the driveway for valet parking, everything looks normal. Just a little back road and then I see these tall white plastic columns which honestly look as though they are meant to close the road at that point. Not knowing for sure what to do and truly hating the idea of using self-parking, even if they do have a new indoor parking garage. I'm stopped dead, trying to decide what to do when I see a car coming up behind me. He smoothly moves over to the left and drives between the columns. My point of view made the "lanes" looked like randomly placed columns meant to block your path. I've been saying it for months now, I really need new glasses.
I won't bore you with the details of what I played or how much I lost, but I took that money knowing full well that it wasn't going to be a hardship if I did lose it all...which I didn't...but still, it was budgeted for. My plan included a meal at one of the nicer restaurants there -- but my initial loss, which I attributed to hunger (that's my story and I'm stickin to it) -- had me brunching at the buffet instead. For the record, I kinda forgot it was a Sunday, therefore a "brunch" day. I stayed away from all breakfast food. I wanted stuff I rarely get...a modified surf & turf meal. It was modified because I never saw a restaurant style surf & turf with pot stickers, an eggroll, and a couple of muscles on the side. I made full note of the crab legs and promised myself I would go back for one. (Again, don't judge! If you've ever had one of those crab legs you know full-well that once you get that meat out, it can't add up to much more than two decent fork-fulls. What you do get are plenty of shells. A big ass pile shells that make it look like you haven't seen food since who knows when. And that's just ONE leg!
After brunch I spent most of my time walking around waiting for a machine or table to speak to me. I heard crickets. There was one machine that had a bonus game that I just had to try, so I sat there for a little while, played the bonus game twice and felt I'd had my fill. I cashed out and came home.
The drive home was completely unimpressive; which, of course, is a good thing. And I'd even go back more regularly, but they don't have $5 tables anymore. It doesn't seem to matter when you go, even mid-week it's impossible to find a $5 table. You can make $100 last a little while if you know how to play and are only making $5 initial bets. At $10 you get half the play time...if you're lucky and the dealer isn't hot. Oh well, bottom line is that I think I've scratched my casino itch for the foreseeable future. And I drove myself to do it!