Breakfast Was On Me

So, yesterday morning my friend S called and asked if I wanted to go to the casino. It's really hard for me to say no to this. Yep, I love to gamble. We always say we are going to do something else but we always end up at one of the local casinos. I told her that I had to work in the afternoon but if she wanted to go early I was up and ready to go.

She picked me up and we drove on over to the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino. It is not my favorite casino because they don't have blackjack and it is usually very smoky but they have slots and thats all I need to have a good time.

The Coconut Creek Casino at night

On the way S had the radio on and as we were talking I heard the first few notes of Sargent Pepper that gave me a good vibe. Paul McCartney's voice always makes me feel happy and optimistic. I was singing along and I said to S "this is a good sign". She laughed and we continued on to the parking lot and trolled for a space. Even though it was 8:30 in the morning the lot was crowded and spots were at a premium. We finally found one and went in to start our gambling experience.

We sat down at the machines and S immediately won $60. I, as usual, lost $50 in a little over 10 minutes. I was totally annoyed and started whining saying that I was tired of losing and hungry because I hadn't had breakfast yet. We decided to hit the breakfast buffet and we have a rule that whoever is winning buys the food. S was buying. I never buy.

On the way to the Fresh Harvest buffet we noticed some new 2 cent progressive machines that we hadn't played yet so we decided to stop off and give them a try before breakfast. S immediately hit on her machine and won about $100 bucks. I was so mad. I was bitching and moaning about how my machine was a dog and how badly this machine sucked and how I never win and how she always does all the while sitting and pushing the buttons watching the last of my money going down the drain.

All of a sudden my machine changed it's video screen and a train appeared. I had no idea what was happening. There were 5 flashing buttons and I didn't know what to do so I asked S what to do. She came over and told me to push the buttons one by one. Well, I pushed the flashing buttons and the train on the screen started tooting it's horn. S started screaming that I had won the progressive jackpot but I still didn't know what was going on. Well the casino attendant came over and informed me that I had just won $1800!!!!! I couldn't believe it. I've never won anything before. I sat at the machine as she peeled of 18 $100 dollar bills. Of course, she also handed me a W-2 and told me that I was going to have to pay taxes on the money. She also told me that at the end of the year I could get a printout of my account and any losses that I may have incurred could be written off against this jackpot win. I called Pat and Kerry right away and we celebrated over the phone. It was all very exciting. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any pictures of all this.

I was totally blown away. I'm still blown away. I can't believe that I won $1800 on a 2 cent machine. I decided to put some of the money in the bank so that I'll have money to pay for a trip to LA someday in the future. I am going to keep some of it so that I can go back to the casino from time to time and have a great time on their money. I'm also going to do some holiday shopping with some of it. Life is good.

Needless to say, I bought breakfast.

What should I do today?

Work, work, work. It seems that's all I have been doing lately. I have been working doubles now for two weeks and I'm ready to collapse. I haven't been able to get to the track in the mornings because I have been working. I haven't been able to get to yoga because I have been working. I haven't even been able to see much of Pat because I have been working. Oy Vey!

I finally have a day off today. Yay! OK, now, do I go to the casino or do I go to Juliana's 3 hour workshop? Well, after thinking about it I have decided on the workshop. It's been over 2 weeks since I last practiced yoga and I definitely need it. I also committed to this class a long time ago and it wouldn't seem right to blow it off to do something as shallow as spending my hard earned salary in a money sucking casino. Oh, alright, yeah, I'm shallow. If I hadn't already paid for the workshop I would hit the Isle casino in Pompano Beach.


Looking at the above picture makes me think screw the workshop, go to the casino. LOL! I am going to be strong today and keep my word to Juliana and the cosmic world. I'm sure I'll be happy that I stuck to my yoga guns today.

I also have tomorrow off but if Kerry has her way we will spend the day digging through the sale racks at the Town Center Mall again. This kid never gets tired of shopping. It's too bad there isn't a shopping section on the MCAT or she can't chose shopping as her specialty in med school. We'd all be rich. :)

Actually, thinking about all of this, I got a promotional mailing offering me $10 free slot machine play on Tuesday and I may actually have the morning shift off. Hummm...wait...is the offer at the Isle or is it for the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek?



I get entirely too many gambling mailings. I guess the word is out about me.

Viva Las Vegas Part 1

About 10 months ago Pat said "why don't you take Kerry to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday? I'll stay home and take care of the dog". I'll stay home and take care of the dog?? Well, he didn't have to say that twice. I made the airline reservations that day even though her birthday wasn't for nine months.

We decided to stay at The Mirage hotel. It is centrally located and seeing that I wasn't going to rent a car it was a perfect choice. We had a very nice room overlooking the Las Vegas Strip and we were close to everything.

I was ready to gamble and Kerry was ready to shop. Shop?? You gotta be kidding me. With all those blackjack and craps tables? We decided that would I wake up early each day and get my gambling fix in and then we would do what Kerry wanted for the rest of the day. It sounded like a good plan to me.

I woke up each morning and was at the tables with a large coffee in my hand by 5:30am. When I didn't hear anything from Sleeping Beauty by 10:00 or 11:00 I called her and woke her up. By that time I had 5 or 6 hours of gambling under my belt and I was ready for whatever the kid wanted to do.

One of the days was the designated shopping day. Kerry wanted to break our previous shopping record of 4 malls in one day. We started out in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace which was a fantastic 3 story indoor mall with every designer store imaginable.

Then it was off to the Shoppes at the Venetian Hotel. Another fantastic mall with gobs of shops and restaurants. The ceiling was painted like the sky so you felt as if you were walking the streets of Venice. Very cool.

Then it was off the Bellagio Hotel to look around in the designer shops there. This is another very upscale, gorgeous hotel with paintings on the ceilings and wonderful shopping.Then it was time to go to the new Wynn hotel and see what kind of shopping was there. It was more of the same. Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Fendi...you get the idea.

We finished up that night at the Fashion Show mall. I'm sorry to say I don't have any picture of this place. It was the one of the biggest malls I have ever seen and I have been to some big malls like Sawgrass Mills. It was 3 stories filled with every store you could name. Kerry was in hog heaven.

Considering the amount of time that we spent shopping that day we really didn't buy much. We got a few presents to bring back and of course 3 dresses for the kid. I thought that wasn't bad seeing that we were in some of the most expensive stores in the world.

We started shopping at 11:00am and fell into the hotel room that night at 10:00. We were whipped. We were shopped out. So shopped out, in fact, that we ended up ordering room service and going to bed early. It was Belgian Waffles for me and Haevos Rancherous for Kerry. It was her first experience with room service. It was a yummy experience.




Going to bed early turned out to be a good thing. I was up at 5:00am refreshed and ready for another try at a 6 hour blackjack marathon. The house won.

More at a later date.