I Am Worthless Right Now :)

Usually, when I'm writing with someone, it's a lot of me calling and emailing and IM-ing going "Okay, so now what? How about THIS? Or how about THIS?"

I get home from Bossier City and I've got a bunch of emails from Kelly, one of which consisted of the words "Why won't you write me back?"

Now I'm THAT guy, the guy who is too busy to work!

Not really. Actually, I don't know if I told Kelly Bossier City was this week. I just find it ironic -- and REALLY encouraging -- to be on the other side of that paradigm! (The difference is that starting this weekend I WILL get my ass bacxk to work! When I was the one going "Let's get busy" the other parties never did.)

Just before I left for Bossier City Kelly sent me 45 PAGES OF NOTES on our script!!! This cat's ready to roll!!!

Got me a PS2!!!

:)

And as of yesterday, I have FINALLY played a SILENT HILL game!!! Not all the way through! I've only spent a couple of hours on SH2, but I've gotten to taste it!!! My Special Makeup Effects Friend Marvin -- who will watch ALL horror movies, good or bad -- can't play the first game for more than 20 minutes at a time. It scares him THAT MUCH! So I've been dying to own a platform for 6 years or more!

And now I've got one!!!

I gambled $500 in Bossier City and won back $369 of it!!! I mostly played the slots. I put a $20 in a machine, and play until I won back more than what I put in. Many times I lost the entire bill, but then the next game I'd be down to $7 or so, and win, say, $19, and I'd cash-out at $26! It's not much of a win, but I didn't loose that bill! Then I had a couple of big wins: I won $190+ off one twenty-dollar bill, and $150+ off another! AND THAT WAS MY FIRST DAY THERE!!!

It was fun.

And the car ride there and back was a lot more fun that I imagined it would be! Mom and Brian dig on Oldies (70s & 80s stuff), so there was some fun to be had singing along or mocking or just remembering. (We got a lot of history, the three of us...)

Mom wanted to leave super early (6a) Monday so that we would have time to gamble our first day, so I just didn't go to sleep Sunday night. So on the road there I dozed a lot.

Then we got there around 1p and pretty much hit the casino right away. Mom was meeting an old (old, OLD) friend for dinner, so Brian and I planned to be scarce. But by the time 5p rolled around we all three ended up back in the room, taking a break. (Well, Brian and I were taking a break; Mom was getting ready for her dinner.)

I was about to say that by 9:00 pm Brian and I retired from the casino for the day, but he just reminded me that we STAYED IN THE ROOM that night! Can you believe that?!! We, a couple of young, verile party animals, were gambled out our first day after a mere 5 hours... in the casino... It was some 7 hours in the car before that.

We did go eat a dinner buffet, though.

To be fair, though, part of the reason we stayed in the room is that we had a plan: Gamble half or LESS of the money we had. And although I had won big TWICE within the first couple of hours, I was going through $20s like a married guy at a topless bar by the time we left the casino! I hadn't yet figured out that you don't play for the big jackpot, you play to get your money back, with a little extra. It took all that loosing to figure that out.

So Mom had said, several times, that when she gave Brian and me the $1,000 each to gamble with, we could do whatever we wanted with it: Gamble half of it or gamble it all away, just whatever. Well... Brian has been looking for a new computer with a better processor -- so he can more thoroughly enjoy Second Life, without crashing -- and I've been itching to spend hour in some horror and action games. (I think it's the weather... I think Brian and I must have gotten our Dreamcast in the Spring, so now when it gets all Spring-y outside I start jonesin' for videogames.)

So Brian and I spent Monday night in the room. We found some FRIENDS on TBN or TNN or one of those Turner stations, and after that was back-to-back episodes of FAMILY GUY!!! (One of them had KISS guesting!!!) Mom had gotten back from her dinner in time for the sitcoms, and had crashed by the time that SNOW DAY came on.

My brother and I watched SNOW DAY Monday night!

It actually didn't suck! I mean, if it weren't free on TV, I seriously doubt we would have ever seen it. And I don't think we'll be renting to watch it again. But we did have fun pointing out writing/filmmaking tricks to each other. And there were a few good laughs in there.

Actually, I'm not being fair to the movie. There was some really good filmmaking going on in that flick! And it was A LOT better written than, say, those MUMMY movies or VAN HELSING. VAN HELSING WISHES it was as good as SNOW DAY!!!

So anyway, at some point early in the movie it occured to me that this might be more fun with beer! So I went downstairs to the bar for a 6-pack of Coors Light and 6 bottles of water. Naturally, being a bar, they didn't have the cans in the plastic rings, or a shopping bag to put them in. However, being a casino/hotel, the barkeep was more than willing to help me out. He suggested I go to the gift shop and ask if they have a bag.

They did, and I had my six and my water.

Actually, the beer just made me sleepy. (I still hadn't has a real night's sleep yet sleep.) I think I only drank 2.

Anyway, after SNOW DAY the station aired SURF NINJAS, and I figured that was my cue to retire.

OH! I haven't told you about the room yet! Okay, we stayed at the Horseshoe Casino/Hotel, and it was a room with 2 beds. So Brian and I were doubling up, or one of us was taking the couch.

I brought my sleeping bag.

But when we got there, Brian volunteered for the couch, so I got a bed.

And you can smoke ANYWHERE IN THE HOTEL/CASINO!!! So poor Mom, not a smoker, got a little smoked-out. To make matters worse for her, they sold Rum Runners cigars downstairs, so Brian and I had to get ourselves one of those. (I got 1, but Brian went back for seconds... GOOD cigars!)

This trip was about excess!

When bedtime rolled around I popped in my ZVUE headphones and fell asleep to George Carlin's A PLACE TO PUT MY STUFF. I think I got as far as track 2 before I was out.

The next day, Mom was up around 5:00 am. I figured I should probably get on her schedule since we would be leaving early the next morning.

Brian was still dead asleep when she and I decided to go back to the casino. The plan had been to eat breakfast at 9a, but by 8a Mom and I were getting bored with gambling and starved! So we went back up to the room, just as Brian was beginning to stir. But he wasn't awake enough to eat, so Mom and I went downstairs for breakfast.

It was cool. She told me about how her dinner with her friend went, and told me all this backstory about them growing up. And it wasn't like our usual conversations, it was kind of like the way I talk to my friends. I kind of got to see a side of Mom that I haven't seen ever before -- sort of like the side of Dad I only got to see after he passed away. A real bonding moment.

Very cool!

Oh, and the BACON was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! I had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash-brown-y potatoes, and biscuits & gravy, and that was a GOOD breakfast!!! Imagine the most delicious bacon your mind can muster, and that's AT LEAST as good as this bacon was!

After breakfast we went back to the casino.

Now, when I say "we went back to the casino" I don't want to give you the wrong impression. Mom gambles ALONE. It's not like we're at the mall together going from store to store together. Hu-uh! We step into that casino and Mom's all "Okay, see ya later". She's not an addict or anything, but she doesn't mess around, either!!! So it's not quite as gay as it sounds: "My Mommy and I went gambling together." No way. We step through that doorway and she's all "See Ya!"

Before breakfast I had spotted a dealer at a Black Jack table who looked bored. I had intended then to learn how REAL Black Jack was played, but it was time to meet up with Mom for breakfast. So now I found another lone, bored-looking dealer and sat down for some school. She was really nice, and very patient, and took me through what real Black Jack is. (Helpful Tip: In casino Black jack, you're goal isn't to reach 21, it's to force the dealer to keep hitting and bust. Good to know! Also, you play with 6 decks shuffled together, so you always assume that the dealer's face-down card is a face card.)

Brian showed up while I was at the Balck Jack table, but he was (as the dealer put it) "hot for the slots" so I finished up my schooling alone. I bought $40 worth of chips, and I walked away from the Black Jack table with $60+! Not bad for a beginner!!!

I caught back up with Brian and we gambled for several more hours, then around noon we met up with Mom. And we all decided that none of us would be sad if we went home today...

Remember, Brian and I had our own agendas, so we were trying not to lose everything. And Mom hadn't gambled all her money away, but she had started to get a little bored with it.

So we hit the road around 1p, Tuesday.

Like I said before, the trip back wasn't bad. There was a lot of laughter, and Brian was the one dozing this time.

When we got into town, I ran to Walmart for beer and a couple of groceries... And I came back with a Playstation 2! (And the beer and groceries, of course.)

I woke up yesterday and went to Game Stop to expand my PS2 game library further, then spent the rest of the day playing all my new games! (There was a couple of hours in there where I went over to Mom's to help her with her new computer that Brian and I had just hooked up the day before the trip.)

And that's my week! I have done NO writing, not work of any kind!

I've just been hangin' around, being WORTHLESS!!!

Not a bad week! :)