Awhile back, I saw on our company's internal website, that there was a casino trip planned to Harrah's Prairie Band Casino.
For ten dollars, a bus would shop everyone up to the casino. Once there, the casino would give you free lunch and ten bucks to play. So they're basically playing people to gamble!
I had never been to a casino and thought this would be a nice cheap first time at it.
So I got entirely too excited and started telling everyone until I finally saw the date. It was on a Saturday. Most of us have to work on Saturdays.
So, I packed up my excitement, returned my "Gambling for Dummies" books and sulked. I also sent a suggestion email to the woman in charge of the trip.
A couple of months ago, I noticed another casino trip posted. I crossed my fingers and took a look at the date . . . A Sunday!!!
So around the bank, I ran; with a crazed look in my eyes, waving consent forms.
Several of the girls signed up and I marked the date on the calendar. Then it was back to the "How Tos."
There was only a short week left before the big day when I started trying to make plans. I got a lot of "Oh that's this weekend?"
I should have known then that I was in trouble.
Two people had already backed out, due to difficult issues, when I started getting phone calls on Saturday. Other people weren't returning phone calls.
So at 5:30 am, when my alarm went off, I was pretty sure I was going to be sitting solo on the bus.
I'm a little socially shy, so riding a bus with a bunch of people I didn't know didn't sound exciting. And who wants to hang out at a casino alone?
When Nighat called at 6:00, I nearly jumped through the phone to kiss her. I would have some gambling buddies afterall!
The casino overwhelmed me. So many lights and noises. No windows. It was really too much when I first walked in.
It doesn't take too long to start tuning stuff out. You have to. It's pretty creepy in there. With all the people with bags under their eyes like they've been playing that same slot machine for three days straight. And with the lady carting around her oxygen tank and taking a breathing treatment in front of her machine.
It probably helped that my first stop was the bar.
"You're drinking this early?" Nighat asked.
"I've been up since 5:30. It's basically like drinking at noon!"
At 10:39 am, we all had our Total Rewards Cards. At 11:15 am, we were almost out of money.
Yeah.
So we decided we'd spend some time at the buffet. Since the bus wasn't leaving until four o'clock, we needed to kill some time.
Our afternoon went a little bit better. I made twenty-six dollars on a penny slot. And Nighat and Masum managed to stretch three dollars into three hours worth of gambling.
Of course, I lost the twenty-six dollars. And more. But I did win 2500 reward credits. So I can get like twenty dollars in gas. At their gas station.
I guess that means I walked out a winner, right?
1 comment:
This was a really cool post. I have been going to casinos for years, and love it. But reading this made think back to the first time I walked in to one and what it was like. Like you described, it was pretty overwhelming... I guess I take a lot of the peculiar sights and sounds for granted now.
Nice to meet you!
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