Shoes and Slots

I woke up at 5:30AM this morning, which is 8:30AM East Coast time, well-rested.   I got dressed and went downstairs to see what I could find to eat, which wasn’t much in the way of options at that hour but did manage to get a croissant and latte.   Actually, that was probably the best choice since I’m eating no sugar added for a month.   All the pastries (and there are a lot of pastry options in a French-themed hotel) had sugar added inside, on the top or all around with the one exception of the croissant, which is loaded down with butter instead.  

Latte in hand I went back upstairs and got some things accomplished, including writing last night’s blog post and then messaged the group of friends to see if anyone was going to the expo early to get their race bibs.   I needed to go at opening because I wanted to get a pair of running shoes and I wanted to get there early in case they sold out of my style or size.   There is a particular running shoe that works for me and since it works, I’m not changing to another shoe.

I went downstairs to play some slots and three spins in at $0.75 won $150 unexpectedly—so I cashed out.  I headed over to Bally’s towards the monorail and won another $25 on a Mariah Carey slot machine—so I cashed out, $165 up for the trip.  

Mind you, I don’t expect to win in Las Vegas or gambling anywhere for that matter.   The odds are with the house and I treat gambling as entertainment for a price.  I can be entertained for a low dollar amount and as such, play the cheap slot machines.

I got to the Expo just before it opened, picked up my bib, t-shirt and the shoes I was missing and then talked to the CutCo booth sales people until my husband caught up with me twenty minutes later.   We came back, had lunch at the Paris buffet (our favorite) and I didn’t even care about the panoply of desserts they had to offer.   My cravings for sugar are almost completely gone.

While we ate lunch we got a call from my in-laws and decided to FaceTime the children, who were now home from school and were preparing to go to Gigi’s birthday party.   We didn’t see my daughter really because she had her face close to my mother-in-law’s iPad so she could see us on the screen.   Her proximity caused her to be out of range for the camera on her end.  

My son said hello and then they held the puppy up for us to say hello to.   Matisse I don’t think cared at all about the screen or our voices coming out of it.  We hung up, finished our lunch and then went to gamble.   On the way I showed my husband some boots I was thinking about getting.   I told him he would love them.  He, predictably, didn’t care about them.   Women’s fashion just isn’t his thing.

He and I liked to play roulette together.   I lost $100 fairly quickly, which is how roulette can go sometimes, so I moved to slot machines.   I was on my second machine and was back down to only being five dollars up when I hit some 5X multiplier and won $250 on one spin, putting me back up $270 total—so I cashed out.

I went back to the shoe store, got the boots I liked and another pair of fun sneakers and came back to the room to relax and not gamble, because I’m certain the next bits will be losing back the money I’ve won.   Tonight we have a group dinner at Rose. Rabbit. Lie.  I’m wearing my new boots.   I wonder if my husband will notice?

The Big Boy Update:  When we were FaceTiming with my children today my son was less interested in talking to us than he was at sticking his tongue out and making funny faces at the camera.   I told him about the dessert bar and took the phone with me to show him all the options they had on the four-sided dessert kiosk.   He said he wished he was with us.   I wonder how much of that wish had to do with the desserts?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My mother-in-law said my daughter wants to walk Matisse on a leash.   She got the dog a more comfortable harness instead of the typical collar.   She said, and it makes total sense, my daughter wants to walk the dog in part because if she has her on a leash, she knows where the dog is.   Most of the time she has no idea if the dog is right beside her or in another room altogether.