Well, Sure Didn’t Expect That

Slept most of the day away again, since I didn’t get to sleep until around dawn, but when I woke up I decided that I was really gonna take the day off and try to find something actually fun to do. 🙂 I can’t remember the last time I did something where I was like “This is a good time…” 😏

As I was going through all of my mail last night, I noticed that I got a thing from Hollywood that said I had $55 in free slot play today. 🤔 So I messaged Cassi to see if she’d want to meet me there when she got off work, and I’d let her play the free stuff while I’d take $100 from my surprise insurance check. Figured that would get us both out of our houses for a while, and let us play whatever new machines they installed since the last time I was there, forever ago.

I couldn’t believe it when on my second pull of this Monopoly machine, I hit this bonus wheel game… 😧

It’s kinda funny, ‘cuz the light was burned out on the wheel, so it was hard to tell what the arrow was aiming at – and for a moment I grumbled as it passed the “1000” and landed on the question mark. 😄 Not knowing what the bonus round was, I just stood there and watched as the money bags lined up. (Man, if it had only stopped on all three of them on that last reel, eh?) 😃 But yeah, before she had even gotten there – the first $20 that I played, just to kill time ’til she arrived… crazy stuff. 😊

I had them deduct the taxes from it before giving it to me, that way when I file at the end of the year I’ll get it all back as kind of a secondary surprise. 🙂 But that initial jackpot let us play a whole lot more than we would have otherwise, and me and her both ended up leaving with a good chunk of change. 🤑😎 It was crazy how we both had such good luck right there at the start, and then it pretty much continued through the rest of the time we spent there. That hardly ever happens, and is probably why I hadn’t been back in a while.

But between the two of us, we left with as much as that jackpot gave me… and then like I said, the $400-ish that they took out for all the taxes will be back in my pocket in a few months. Really good trip there this time, and hopefully we avoided touching anything with the ‘rona. 😬🤢🤮😷 (We did use the hand sanitizing stations whenever we saw them.) Speaking of that, even with that concern floating around… literally… it was still really crowded. 😳 I mean, I can’t talk, since I was there too… but yeah, it was surprising.

But it makes me feel good to be able to do something that not only distracted Cassi for the evening, but then to also have it wind up being a big financial help too. 😊 I’m big on karma… I feel like if I wouldn’t have shared, I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. I am still more nervous than your average Joe about COVID though, so I really hope that going out for the first time in a long time didn’t end up pushing my luck. 🤞🏻😟🙂

Feels Good

Being only a couple of days before Steven, Cassi, Athena, and their mom start moving, Cassi asked if I’d wanna come visit one more time in the afternoon yesterday – since she knows that once the process starts it’s unlikely that I’ll be making any appearances until it’s over with. 😕 It’s just that I’ve already told her that I can’t risk trying to help them out, possibly hurting myself in new and exciting ways. And just hanging around while they all hustle about… yeah, no need to emphasize my uselessness in that situation. 😒

But since things are about to get pretty crazy for them, I figured I should go up for one more chill visit (and my last time at that apartment) to serve as a distraction for both of us. 🙂 After hanging out for a while, I remembered that I had a little bit of free play on my casino card. And since money is obviously gonna be tight as they move, I figured I’d go over and play $100… twenty bucks at a time, cashing out any time that I’d double my money, and then whatever “winnings” I ended up with – I’d share with her. 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️🙂

Maybe it was karma paying me back for helping Jim out with a little money this month, and then offering to share my winnings with Cassi… but the very first machine I played, I hit for over $500. 😯😃 Hell, if that was all that I won during that trip I would have been happy, but then the same machine – just a few pulls later – hit again for over $300. 😁 Since I was way, way ahead, after that I decided to try a few different machines that I’d never really played before, just as a change of pace.

If I wasn’t hitting decent little wins, they at least kept me “even” so I could keep playing. I eventually left not because I was losing, but because it was getting later and I wanted to spend a little more time with Cassi before it started to get dark dark. After all was said and done, I ended up going home with $700 (including my original investment) and was able to give her $400 to help with moving expenses. 😌

It always feels good when you can win enough that you can plop down a wad of bills in front of someone, and go “Here.” 😅😎 (Especially when it’s legitimately helpful and appreciated.) And in times past when we’ve gone to the casino, I’ve noticed that she breaks down her winnings into five dollar bills before leaving… so I even went to the cashier and had him count out $400 worth of fives for me. 😏💵 (I did give the guy a tip, ‘cuz that was admittedly a slight pain in his ass for him… heh)

So that definitely made yesterday better than average. Didn’t anticipate things turning to shit overnight and waking up feeling like I do today, but I keep reminding myself that other than the lack of sleep and awesome new neck pain – nothing else has changed since that “goody” feeling of yesterday, so I’m trying to get the feeling of this day turned around. 😏🤞🏻 It helps that the weekend is essentially here, so I can recover without any obligations hovering over me.

Trip Report: Extended Edition

This trip to ‘da boat was one of the better ones that I’ve had in recent memory, at least since the times when me, Mom, and Dad all used to go together. 🙂 Great weather on the way down and back (which is more important than you’d think), awesome lightning over the Ohio River during the couple of evening thunderstorms while we were there, and Cassi and I were able to play and play and play – and I still came home with the same amount that I took to spend, and she was able to go home over $200 ahead and with some comp’d jewelry and goodies from the gift shop. 😃

Oh, and of course we poofed ourselves on the awesome brunch buffet. Mmm… 🤤 not just the regular buffet food, but also all of the important breakfast stuff at the same time. 😁 They must be doing alright, because the entire place is in the middle of renovations. From the giant entry way, to the lobby, to the hallways, to the rooms… everything is getting cosmetic updates. 😯 They’re still in the middle of ripping up all of the faux “stone” flooring in the giant common area and laying down “wood” strips… and for the rest of the hotel, the entire color scheme has changed. The only inconvenience in all of that was that the updated WiFi wasn’t working yet. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Our time on the actual boat was limited the first day, because the machines kicked our asses. 🙄🎰 That was okay though, because the trip was as much about “just getting away” as it was for gambling. We got one of the nicer rooms with probably the best view of all of them, looking right out onto the boat, the river, and the outdoor patio area for the indoor pool. 😎🚢 And, as it often goes, we took our swimsuits but couldn’t muster the “oomph” required to go down and actually swim with the larger-than-normal amount of assholes already in the pool. 😏 (For some of them, I think it doubled for their weekly bath.)

Day two on the actual boat was much better. 😀 I hit a big enough bonus that I was able to set back (to take home) the amount that I took with me to lose, and still have enough to keep playing and to share with Cassi so she could do the same. 🤑 And it wasn’t just that one win. (I missed catching all the winning “sevens” in that video… meh) But both of us kept hitting nice “little-big” amounts that kept us going for the better part of the day. It felt like a totally different experience than the day before. 💁🏻‍♀️🎉💁🏻‍♂️🎈

It sucked to wake up after that second night, knowing that we had to head back home, but the winning came at a time and in a way that it let us both come home with a decent amount money, so we sure couldn’t complain. Besides, we were both anxious to get home to our kitties… especially me, since I knew that Maven was all by herself and probably wondering if I had permanently disappeared. 😿 She was happy to see me when I got home of course, but she didn’t even act grumpy… so perhaps I wasn’t as missed as I had presumed. 😄 We absolutely had a good time on this trip… the last one we might be able to take for a while… but it was sure nice to be home again too.

Oh, Is That So?

I’ve been on and off the phone so much in the past couple of days, I’m fairly certain that my brain is at least partially melted. 😏 I joke, but Jesus I hate talking on the phone. 😑 Especially when it deals with “shit that needs to be taken care of” or the like. One of my calls should have been relatively painless (or at least as painless as phone calls can be for me) since I thought it was gonna be just a brief conversation with my casino host about reserving a room at the Rising Star casino boat.

Feeling rather miserable here at home still, I was thinking that a change of scenery could do me some good… so I decided to call and see about getting one of those little mini-suites like I’ve gotten several times before when I’ve stayed. 😎 Now, it’s been while since I’ve stayed and played there, but not that long. So I didn’t think I’d run into any problems. 😒 Wrong.

I wasn’t able to speak to my casino host, but the one that I did speak to… she informed me rather quickly that they couldn’t guarantee me one of the suites, and that they wouldn’t even be able to tell me until I was actually there and preparing to check in. 🤔 What kind of bullshit is that? I mean, just type in my player’s card number… look at my history… this shouldn’t be a complicated decision.

But nope… they’d reserve a room for me, but if I wasn’t one of their higher ranked players on the day that I was checking in, it would be a standard crappy room for me and whoever I end up taking with me. And to that news I replied, “Okay, well thanks anyway.” and hung up. In a followup e-mail with my casino host, I told her that I was literally staring at a stack of flyers, cards, comps, and calendars from Jack Cincinnati – including an offer for a suite in my choice of several downtown hotels.

And it’s not like I even played that much the last time I was at Jack. They just have better offers, and they don’t hesitate to reserve a suite for me when I’m arranging my accommodations. 🙂 They don’t make me feel like I have to be in competition with my fellow guests just to get a nicer room. I concluded the e-mail by telling her that I wasn’t saying what I was saying in an effort to fish for more comps or anything, and that, in fact, she should remove my name from their advertising list.

Better comps, better room, bigger casino, 45 minute shorter drive, less hassle… the final decision of where to go was suddenly no decision at all, because the place where I had gone for years with my family and then on my own… it just left a bad taste in my mouth now. Funny thing is, after that conversation I was kinda done thinking about casinos for the day – so I haven’t even bothered to try and set anything up with Jack yet, and I’m not even sure if I will. 🙄😏