If you are reading my blog, then you probably already know me and know that cooking is the farthest thing from my mind....ALWAYS! But for the uninitiated, let me just say that I don't cook, I don't care anything about cooking, I have never watched the Food Network and wouldn't even know of its existence if it weren't for my daughter (Sara) who is a major foodie. I think the trouble began specifically because this was something for her and not for always lucky, things always work out for me. But let's begin at the beginning....
As a VIP with Caesars Casino/Hotel Group, I am always receiving offers, tickets to events, etc. Recently I received an offer to attend the AC Food and Wine Festival as a VIP guest and when I read the names of the celebrity chefs to Sara she was totally psyched for a mother/daughter food & wine induced week end of partying! I booked my room for three nights and was provided tickets to the Grand Market and Italian Village on Friday night and a private dinner and cooking demonstration on Saturday night. Sara heard about a Food Network kick-off party on Thursday night starting at 10pm so I called my casino host (sending love out as always to Cathy Cudoni) and she got me tickets for that as well.
We spend the evening (morning really because it is, after all, after midnight) gambling at Caesars and then decide to grab a bite to eat at the only place open at 4am which is the Cafe Roma. Our waiter, John, is possibly one of the worst waiters I have encountered anywhere: surly, forgetful, brusk, inattentive. Sara's coffee is a cup of light brown liquid, the color of tea maybe but she doesn't get a chance to say anything because John's only other visit was to deliver our food which was also incorrect (especially strange due to the fact that he made such a big deal of saying that there would be an extra charge for chili on the fries -- okay, when isn't there? -- and then delivered her a plate of plain fries). Anyway, as soon as she mentioned the lack of chili he took off to bring a bowl of chili on the side that she could dip them in. Never even apologizing for the gaffe, he was gone like a flash and the coffee issue was still on the table (pun intended). We could have brought it up at the point in the meal when the waiter usually stops by to see how everything is going and if anyone needs drink refills -- but apparently John is unfamiliar with the workings of a restaurant meal. To be fair, John did have ONE other table he was tending to at this time so maybe it was too much for him? Hmmph! At least the food was good and he was the first inept/unsociable Caesars employee I had ever encountered so I put it down to a one-off. When I finally was able to track him down at the end of our meal to request a check, he brought it over and then was put out when I told him I was charging it to our room. Is this some new thing? You have to tell the waiter in advance how you're paying? It's not like I was using some kind of buy one-get one free coupon! It's a HOTEL FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
Our next scheduled event was Friday night from 6pm - 10pm at the Grand Market at Bally's. We spent the day gambling and at the beach (Caesars does provide beach chairs, towels and an umbrella for Diamond VIPS which is a really nice touch even though the beach itself is a poor, pitiful comparison to my lovely MB and Surfside) before getting ready to attend the Grand Market/Italian Village and finally get to meet some of those TV chefs! Signage at Bally's was sparse, but I was able to ask some employees for information and we found ourselves aboard a very crowded elevator heading to the 6th floor to pick up our tickets by 6:30. Thank God we were late and the lines were shorter....I can only imagine what they were like an hour before that! We were given all access wrist bands and a very nice tote bag containing a souvenir wine glass for the tastings and a roll of Reynolds non-stick aluminum foil. There might be other stuff in the bag -- I haven't looked -- but I was happy to see the Reynolds because just recently I've seen a lot of commercials showing some guy taking salmon or some other fish off the cooking sheet and it doesn't stick at all. Of course I don't cook and even if I did, you can be sure I'd never be cooking fish! But the commercial guy looks so pleased that every time I see the commercial I think to myself "I would buy that" Back to the Grand Market....
the woman who gave us our tote bags said we should start at the Italian Village but using the Disneyland Tips (always go to the left when you enter, most people go right) I said we should head to the Market and save the Village for last. The crowd of people waiting to get in gave us pause (hell, no!) but having the wristband gave us VIP access so we strolled right in and were surprised...alarmed...dismayed at the sight before us. Wall to wall people! At a convention! I'm not sure what Sara thought it was going to be, but I had kind of expected like a "Marketplace" with all little food and wine stalls. This thing was the East Coast trade show without bowling balls. There were tons and tons of booths serving wine (lots and lots of wine booths) that you couldn't buy and then some booths offering kitchen knives, plates, aprons, cookbooks, etc. all of which you could buy. Where was the food??? There were a few booths that had small sample tastings but they were offering things like slivers of chocolate, slivers of cheese, a blob of crab meat, a Ritz mini cracker you could dip in some salsa..... certainly not enough to soak up the alcohol that was about to be consumed! And the people....masses of them....like sheep all walking in a row....are you kidding me? It would take until later than 10pm to get everyone in at that pace! Has nobody else ever been to a trade show/convention? Anyway, I spent the next hour and a half trying to find a place that wasn't overrun with people. Unsuccessful at that. But we did get to try some amazing wines (too bad we can't buy them without driving 3 hours) and then found our favorite booth of all -- SKYY Vodka who had an assortment of cocktails they were serving. Yummy! Unable to take the crowds any longer, we stepped out and into the smoking lounge (nice touch!) where we proceeded to gripe with all the other smokers who were as disenfranchised as we were. But, then we remembered we still hadn't been to the Italian Village so maybe some pasta and meatballs were going to be available to go along with some nice Italian wines? Alas, it was not to be! There was a food distributor with a rather large booth with some food samples but the lines for that were wrapped around the room so in the words of Cee Lo Green F[orget] You! 10 minutes later we realized that this was the same shtick as the Grand Market and instead headed to the Diamond Lounge where we could get some real food and drinks (not that we needed any more alcohol at that point). As an aside, surprisingly, Bally's Diamond Lounge is much more elaborate and sophisticated than is Caesar's. Our waitress, however, was only fair and I was starting to wonder if maybe something was going on on a corporate level because the cocktail waitresses on the floor the last two days also hadn't been too friendly. It just seemed like everyone we encountered wasn't too happy in their jobs.
Okay, so we had struck out at 2 of the 3 Food & Wine Festival events but Saturday's exclusive VIP Invitation Only Dinner & Demo had to be good, right? After all, it wasn't advertised, you couldn't buy tickets, so it must be something special!
Headed back to Cafe Roma for Breakfast Saturday morning, assuming that John wouldn't be working that shift and was happy that my Diamond status would allow me to avoid the long line of people waiting to be seated. Unfortunately, after 10 minutes, the hostess still had not come back to the podium from wherever he/she was so we decided to forgo any further wait and went to sit at the counter. There was only one other gentleman there and he was done with his meal so we were pretty confident that the service would be exemplary. We were wrong. And I was planning to speak with the restaurant manager before I left that day to talk about both visits. But here's where it gets interesting: as we were sitting at the counter a gentleman came to the counter and asked our server "how much is a cup of coffee" I don't think Mostafo understood him. The gentleman was clearly exasperated and was explaining that he was sitting at a table over there (which he pointed to) and was apparently having a hard time getting service so all he wanted to do was buy a cup of coffee while they waited on a waiter. During this exchange, a woman in a suit came out from the kitchen and observed what was going on. Sara and I both assumed she would either pour the poor guy a cup of coffee or direct Mostafo to do so. Neither of which happened! The customer threw up his arms in disgust and went back to his table, unhappy. The suit-lady asked Mostafo what that was all about and when he told her, she just went back into the kitchen. I asked Mostafo if she was the manager and he said she is the shift manager. Now I'm not claiming to know the first thing about Restaurant management; but I do know a little something about customer service and really all she had to do was hand the guy a cup of coffee or at least ask him what the problem was or if there was something he needed!
Spent the afternoon gambling at Caesars (I finally hit a Royal Flush but it was on the nickel Super Times Pay so only $200 and not the $1400-$1600 I had planned on!) before checking out to head to Harrah's for our VIP Dinner. Sara was reservedly anticipating the event, even hoping that all the celebs would be there but would be happy if it was Guy Fieri or Robert Irvine. The only ones she didn't care about were Pat & Gina Neely because she doesn't watch their show.
As I expected, getting there at 6:30 rather than the 6pm starting time was the smart move because everyone else was already inside and seated. (If we had seen another crowd I'm sure we would have skipped the dinner entirely). We got our requisite wristbands and seating assignments and then entered.....a wedding hall. That's basically what it was. 5 or 6 thousand people seated at tables of 10. There was a stage set up at the front center of one of the walls but from our viewpoint anyone standing on it would have looked like an ant. They did have large flat screen tvs set up all around the room so you could see what was going on -- but for that, you could just be in your own living room watching tv! Salads were already on every table, as were rolls and butter. We were told a waitress came by to take drink orders but she never came back so I just went to the bar myself. When I returned, dinners were being served. Everyone got the same thing: filet mignon with mushrooms, some kind of fish (halibut?), asparagus wrapped in a carrot and a little puff of something that someone thought was potato but I am pretty sure it was risotto. I ditched the fish but the filet was rather good and I was especially impressed that they were able to make 6000 dinners come out tasting like they had just cooked one so Kudos to the chefs at Harrah's because the celeb chefs weren't there yet. 25 minutes had passed. That's right -- it wasn't even 7pm and we were already done with the meal except for dessert which was on its way. Someone put a bullet in my head, please! I commandeered the waitress as she was removing our plates and asked if she happened to know which celebrity was coming to the dinner. After thinking for a minute, she said "yes the name is Neely". OF COURSE it is! Sara you are like a big black cloud! There was no reason to suffer through this any longer unless a magnificent dessert was coming.....but when the waitress said it was some kind of blueberry tart we said in unison to our table mates "we're outta here" to which 4 of the other 6 responded "we're right behind ya!"
Downstairs at Harrah's a circuitous journey brought us to the smoking area where we played slots for an hour or so before heading back up the Parkway to home.
All in all it was a great weekend because Sara and I got to spend it together but the Food and Wine Festival is a super dud and I feel sorry for anyone who spent a penny to attend any of the events we did. Maybe some of the other events were better....who knows? I did see the line for Guy Fieri's Cheese Steak battle and if all the events had admission lines like that I give credit to the people who have the time to stand around waiting. Maybe when I was in my 20's.......
Also, I'm still pretty sure that something is going on at Caesar's with the management because of all the disorganized and disgruntled employees but I didn't have any interactions with any employees at Bally's or Harrah's so I don't know if it's a "property" issue or a "chain-wide" issue. Maybe I'm more critical because I just spent a week in Vegas at a non-Caesar's property and a few days upstate at Turning Stone....both places at which the employees at least pretended to love their jobs and their customers even if they didn't really. But I think I can tell when a company's employees like coming to work and this attitude, albeit new since my last visit, is pervasive throughout the casino and hotel.
Harrahs (now Caesars) Entertainment is where I spend most of my gambling dollars because they have so many properties and my play is combined at all of the properties to determine my player status.
There are four player levels (not counting, I'm sure, the high rollers "whales" and such): Gold Players are pretty much everyone who sets foot in one of their casinos -- as soon as you sign up you are a Gold Player and maintain that level until you have a higher yearly coin in. Spend $40,000 (video poker) in a year and you become Platinum; spend $110,000 in a year and you are accorded Diamond status. Seven Stars is the highest but they don't advertise how much you have to spend to get that level.
The "spending" levels listed are for video poker players which is what I play primarily; slot machine players need to only have half that amount spent in a year.
Keep in mind that the machines are tracking COIN IN which is naturally much higher than what a person is physically taking out of their wallet. For example, if I put a $20 bill in a 25 cent video poker machine, I have paid for 16 hands (at $1.25 per hand). However, during those 16 hands I will have won or broken even on about 95% of them so for $20 I might be able to play 30, 40 or even more hands (especially if I hit a 4 of a kind or some other high paying win). Assuming I keep playing until I lose the original $20 I could realistically run through $100-$200 which all counts toward your player score but is still just the $20 I initially put into the machine.
Okay, so back to my status. For a long time I was platinum which was good enough for me because it was better than my pals had (LOL!) and it pretty much guaranteed me a comp room any time I wanted to visit AC.
But then somehow I got an offer to be flown out for a 4 day weekend at Harrahs Reno. We thought it would be pretty cool to do that since we hadn't been there together since 1984ish so I RSVPd Yes. In the meantime, between the RSVP and the actual arrival in Reno, I hit Diamond status! So my first time as a Diamond player would be in Reno and I didn't really know what to expect from that but I thought it would be pretty cool and I was right!
At check in the guy told me the hours of the Diamond Lounge and I wasn't overly impressed because once before a long time ago I got a Free Pass to go to the Diamond Lounge (or whatever they called it) at the Tropicana and when I went in it was just a private gambling salon with machines I couldn't afford to play anyway. But I figured I would show Mike the lounge when we got a chance.
Of course our first order of business, (after taking care of other business ;) was to find a cocktail waitress and a loose machine. After playing for a little while a floor worker came over, "Linda? Here is a voucher for the two of you to have dinner at the buffet" Okay, cool, free food for the diamond player, I'm not complaining! So I found Mike and when we went to the buffet I discovered that even better than the free food was the Diamond Player line pass! That meant that no matter how many people were on line for the buffet, as soon as I came to the Diamond Line, they would immediately come over to me, grab a set up from a different area (linen napkins for the diamonds!) and escort us to a private dining area inside the buffet itself. Diamonds also have their choice of cocktails inside their private area! Very, very cool and the food was very, very good!
That first night, coming out of the buffet, I noticed a partially hidden door on the side wall with a small placard stating "Diamond Club". I said to Mike, let me show you what I mean about the high limit slot room. Boo-ya I was totally off the mark. The Diamond Lounge here is a small, intimate space with soft couches, low lighting, club and pub tables, a roaring fireplace, cozy bar, tuxedo'd host and a small snack buffet. Basically a place to get away from it all. Very very nice! We ended up spending part of every day/night here just chilling with drinks, watching tv or reading the newspapers, etc.
For breakfast/lunch we decided to try the generic cafe and here, too, there was a separate entrance for Diamonds with a dedicated host to guarantee no wait, and a separate room for dining.
Meanwhile, every day a casino floor clerk would come to find me, "Linda? Here is a voucher for the two of you to visit the buffet for dinner" It was really nice to be treated so royally! So on the last night, when the casino floor clerk came over "Linda....." I basically waved him off nicely, hardly taking my eyes off my machine, "oh, thanks anyway but we're leaving in the morning so we won't be here to eat tomorrow" The gentleman replied, "I'm the Casino Host" That is when I realized he wasn't a generic casino worker. Basically what had happened was that since I was Platinum when I booked, and then turned Diamond before I got there, nobody had alerted him that I was there so he was falling all over himself apologizing for not having done anything for me!! I'm telling him not to worry about it, everything was perfect, but he's trying to figure out how he can make it up to me now that it's midnight and we're leaving in like 6 hours :P So he's offering to have some midnight snack delivered to my room?!?! No, thanks anyway but I won't be in my room LOL. So then he says, well at the very least I'm going to have a limo pick you up and bring you to the airport in the morning. Very very cool!!!
Mike's not into the frills but I totally loved being a Diamond in Reno!
Now, I get back home and my first visit to AC as a Diamond occurs in December when I went down with Jean. The whole car ride down I'm telling her about all the Diamond perks and how great it is being a diamond and how much fun we're going to have getting the "treatment"...... wow, was I sadly mistaken!
Apparently there isn't much $$$ in Reno where being a Diamond means you are big fish in a small bowl....in AC everyone and their mother is a diamond!! There are no line passes because the lines for Diamond Players are longer than any other. In fact, when I went to check in at the hotel, there was NOBODY on the "regular patron" line, but 8 people in front of me on the Diamond Line!! Where's the benefit there??
So I said to Jean, well we'll at least get to visit the Diamond Lounge - wait til you see how cool this place is. NOT! The Diamond Lounge here is the size of a school cafeteria and yes there is more food choices than just the snacky-snacks in Reno, it is a huge cavernous space with regular dining tables like a restaurant, loud, lots of wait staff, hustle/bustle, bright, takes a while to get a drink, that sort of thing. Hmmmmm....well at least the food was free and the tables by the front windows had a very nice view overlooking the boardwalk and ocean. But not quite the elite status I experienced in Reno.
Oh, well, apparently in Atlantic City you're nobody until you carry Seven Stars status....I'll be glad to visit Reno again in a couple of weeks!
It is probably most fitting that I begin my "random thoughts" blog with a story about gambling. This really happened to me recently.....really.....I'm so not making this up! Here's my story:
I arrived at Sam's Town on Thursday morning (Feb. 4), threw my overnight bag in the room, grabbed $200 and headed down to the casino. The first couple of hours things weren't going too well financially ~ I couldn't really get into the groove, and found myself going back up to the room a few times to replenish my gambling stake. I was really starting to get a little nervous because I hadn't brought that much money with me but I was pretty sure that I would be okay since Sam's Town generally has some pretty loose machines. (Background info: my fave game is Double Double Bonus video poker which has some nice payouts on 4 of a kinds, but can kind of suck your money into a vortex if you don't hit some of those 4 of a kinds early on)
Fortunately, by late afternoon, I hit a Royal Flush for $1000 so my original stake was back intact and I had some extra money to play with. The odds of hitting a Royal Flush in Double Double Bonus with perfect play are approximately 1 in 40,000 hands, so I felt pretty damned happy to have hit one. I continued to play for the rest of the day, and though I didn't hit anything else really big, I did have a lot of small wins so went to bed that night still way ahead of the game.
Friday morning I was back at the Video Poker machines and Sam's Town has a TON of them so there were plenty from which to choose. Things were going along pretty much as they had Thursday night ~ lots of little wins keeping me in the money. Though I didn't hit a Royal, I did have lots and lots of four of a kind hands paying $200 - $400 so I was smart and kept only $200 on me for gambling money. Any time I got $100 or more over that, I stopped playing and took the $100 bill(s) back up to the room to add them to my pile. My strategy is to only keep my $200 gambling stake on me at any given time. This way, if things start to sour, I am forced to leave the gambling area and go back to the room. This gives me a needed break from the machines, plus I have time to think about whether I want to continue gambling or wait a little while. Anyway, so I spent most of Friday (day through early evening) winning a little bit at a time and accumulating 100 dollar bills in my stack. That night I met my son for dinner at TGIFs (my treat!) and then went back up to the room thinking I would catch up on some sleep. Sam's Town may have some loose machines but the beds are not the most comfortable, the pillows are flat slabs of foam and they have a water fall/music show every two hours that can be heard reverberating throughout the room. In any event, after the 10pm show I was wide awake and thirsty, so I decided to run down to Mickey D's for an iced tea (my other addiction besides gambling!).
Leaving McD's I took a wrong turn (not surprisingly to those who know me, but I have absolutely no sense of direction) and found myself not at the elevator bank, but in front of Dunkin' Donuts. As you can see by the plethora of fast food outlets, Sam's Town is definitely not one of the more upscale properties to be found in Vegas! It does, however, sport an infintely interesting assortment of both patrons and workers but I suppose that that topic should be covered in an entirely different post! Anyway, back to my story. As I turned to figure out where I had gone wrong direction-wise, I noticed a small bank of progressive Video Poker machines whose jackpot meter was registering $1623!!! Good Lord, I wondered, what could be wrong with these machines that the jackpot had gotten so high without being hit?? I walked over and saw that they were 9/5 double double bonus which is REALLY unusual because frequently progressive double doubles will pay at 8/5 or even 7/5. Now my curiosity got the better of me.....were they that tight?? There were 5 machines in the row and usually I play the center one when there is a row of 5 because 3 is my lucky number and the center machine is #3 from the right OR the left. Does that make any sense?? NO!! But gamblers are overtly superstitious by nature. The problem, however, was that sitting at machine #4 was a player who I didn't really want to sit next to (slovenly, smelly, you get the picture) so I sat down at machine #2. I pulled a $70 ticket out of my bag that I hadn't cashed in earlier and told myself I would only play until I either lost the $70 or someone hit the jackpot ~ whichever came first. Things weren't going too well on machine #2 and within a short time I was down $20. Luckily, machine #4 player vacated his spot so I was able to move to my favorite position at machine #3. The machine was pretty favorable and soon the play meter was around the $100. The balance kept going up and down, between $75 and $130, but I had told myself I would play until I lost the original stake. Plus, I knew that if I cashed out and went back to the room, I wouldn't get any sleep. Instead, I would lie in bed thinking about how I should have kept playing if I saw the jackpot had been hit when I came down the next morning. Meanwhile the jackpot amount kept climbing higher, players kept coming and going, and I kept plugging away on my machine never winning much, but never losing much either. Finally, a little after midnight, I was dealt the 10-J-Q-K of clubs and I said a little prayer to the gambling gods before hitting the draw button. The Ace of Clubs came up and I had won a jackpot of $1638!!!!!
Sleep came easily that night because it was so late by the time I got to bed, and I was so tired, but I was up early on Saturday and ready to face another day of gambling. Now that I was so far ahead financially, I was able to play with abandon. All the games I usually avoid because the odds aren't as favorable I was able to play just for the fun of it. Spin poker, Super times Pay, etc. are games I don't recommend but since I had a few extra hundred I said to myself "what the hell". Unfortunately I didn't hit anything on any of those machines so back I went to my old standards and before noon on Saturday the gambling Gods favored me with yet another Royal!!! Unbelievable, right?? Two in one day and my 3rd since my arrival on Thursday! Back up to the room to add more hundreds to my stack and then it was back down to gamble some more. You would think I would have quit by now but you have to understand that for me the fun is in the playing. Winning is good (great actually!) but only insofar as it gives me more money to play with. Unlike hubby, who only has fun if he wins, for me the fun is in the playing itself. My goal every time I go on a casino trip is to come home with the money I started with. If I have some extra, that's nice. But as long as I can have fun and not spend any of "my" money I'm a happy camper. I don't gamble to make money or because I need money for something. You get into that rut and you're sure to lose it all!
Anyway, so back to Saturday. I'm wandering around the casino, trying to decide what to play. And I know I want to play as many machines as possible because it is my last day ~ and then I find myself back in the Dunkin Donuts machine section. Remember, I have no sense of direction so it is highly unlikely that I will ever find a machine or area that I am specifically looking for. I see that the jackpot is at $1608 and there is a friendly looking woman playing at machine #3 (my machine) and a friendly looking gentleman playing at machine #1. I sit down between them and strike up a conversation while I am playing machine #2. I mention that machine #3 is a good machine and that I was playing it earlier that morning, yada yada yada and that I had hit the Royal. She gives me a venomous look......is that some kind of gambling no no??.......plays a few more spins and then cashes out without even saying goodbye! Gentleman and I look at each other, I shrug and say to him, "well, I'm going to play that machine again. Wouldn't it be funny to hit another?" You probably know what's coming, next but I'm going to spell it out anyway: Y-E-S... YES!!! After only 20 minutes or so, I hold the 10-Q-A of clubs and am dealt the J-K of clubs on the draw. Same machine, same suit, this time the jackpot was for $1610!!!!
FOUR ROYAL FLUSHES, TWO OF THEM JACKPOTS, IN A 3 DAY TRIP!
Back up to the room to add more bills to my stack of hundreds which by now is pretty damned thick! Feeling a little cocky, I decide to do something that I never do which is enter the high limit area and play $1 video poker for $5 a hand. I know, you thought I was going to say $5 or $25 VP or something, right? Hell no! I am a small time gambler! So I stick a hundred dollar bill in the $1 VP machine (double double of course, my favorite) and set a limit of 20 hands. Whatever happens, I am only playing 20 hands. I'm a little nervous betting a whole $5 on one hand and I am shaky, and feeling lightheaded at the thought of FIVE DOLLARS on ONE HAND! (I probably wouldn't be a good poker player) but fortunately I hit a low card four of a kind for $400 on hand number 3 so I quickly cashed out and didn't play the other 17 hands. The $400 is immediately brought up to the room and added to my ever growing stack.
Back downstairs in the casino I go back to my regular quarter video poker alternating between that and triple play and then I decide to play 50 cent video poker. This is only a $2.50 per hand investment and I rationalize that since I alternate between $1.25 a hand and $3.75 a hand (when I'm playing triple play video poker) it's not much different than I am already spending.
I stick a hundred dollar bill in a machine without even paying much attention and then realize that it is a progressive at a 7/5 pay schedule. Hideous! But I hit back to back full houses so I decide to give it a shot and play down to my original $100 investment since the Royal is around $2600. What I didn't realize, however, is that ALL of the high paying hands are progressive and before I know it, I hit four aces and a deuce for $1089!!!! Holy Crap!!! This is almost like hitting a fifth royal!!!
When I bring THOSE hundreds up to the room, I notice that it is close to midnight and since I am leaving in the morning I should start thinking about calling it a night. BUT, I can always sleep on the plane! So I add the $89 to my $200 stake and head back down into the casino.
I spent the next couple of hours playing some stupid, mindless slot machines ~ games where no thought is required; just hit REBET and hope for the best. I got a few bonus rounds but by the time I went to bed, most of my $289 stake was gone.
Had my luck run out?? It was a sobering thought before bed and one which I didn't want to spend too much time dwelling on. Not that I'm greedy, mind you, but as you already know from reading this far, I love to gamble and I like to win enough to keep playing so I'd hate to think that I used up all of my luck in one three day visit!
The next morning I had a half hour to kill before the taxi was coming to take me to the airport. I found myself at a video poker machine, suitcase at my feet, right by the front door, debating whether to test my luck. If I didn't win, would I be totally bummed? Would I start to psyche myself into thinking my luck was gone? I've always considered myself to be lucky (not just gambling, but in all ways) and I do believe that you make your own luck so if I started to have doubts about my luck would it carry over into my "real" life?? I stuck a $20 in a machine.........it was gone in about 20 spins. Uh oh, things were not looking good; I should have just gone straight outside to wait for the cab! Moved to the next machine over, stuck in a $20, and hit four threes with a four for $200!! Cashed out, added those two hundreds to my stack and headed to the airport.
Lucky Linda has still got it!!!!
