My 4-Day Weekend

Friday couldn't have ended soon enough. I finally got through the orientation process,which culminated in a final "test" that rated my newly learned customer service skills. To give you a brief summary of what is expected during this "test" (I put it in quotations because nobody failed the test, even those with questionable English and people-skills), it consists of five categories when dealing with a guest:
1. Beat the Greet - you must initiate the conversation
2. Eye Contact and Smile - both must happen throughout the conversation
3. Upbeat and Positive Attitude - also must happen throughout
4. Checking for Satisfaction - "can I help you with anything else?"
5. Fond Farewell - must say "thank you" AND leave them with a positive send-off like "good luck" or "come back soon"

Basically, in a fantasy world where every single employee dealt with every single guest this way.......it would severely creep me out!!! Of course the facilitators were way over the top in their upbeat and energetic attitudes (especially at 7:45am) and all involved were expected to be the same.

But now its all over. I've always been pretty friendly with players anyway, so I don't think I need to worry about it too much. It'll be nice to get back behind the felt Wednesday night after suffering through an entire week of team icebreakers and Super Happy Fun time at 7:45am!

Today marks the 3rd day of my 4-day weekend. Later tonight I'll be heading over to Chris' for our usual Monday evening poker night, which I haven't been able to attend since before starting work on Boulder Highway. Yesterday, Danielle and I made it over to Amore's Taste of Chicago to indulge in some deep dish perfection! It's been a while and as hard as this might seem, I was actually getting tired of Grimaldi's and thin crust. The deep dish was a nice change-up! It was nice to be able to take your time on the pizza without worrying about it getting cold after 5 minutes. Also, for the price I would pay for 1 pizza for myself at Grimaldi's, we were able to buy one for both of us, gorge on it and still have 2 slices to take home!!

Saturday was equally exciting. I headed over to Danielle's place to fix her dinner. I tried a brand new recipe that I found called braised balsamic chicken. It turned out excellent, and I completed it with a side of rice pilaf that she helped make and a vegetable medley. Oh, and after dinner, I confirmed my place on top of the Steeler Edition Monopoly pedestal. Don't even think about landing on Jack Lambert with a stadium built on property!!! Game over! :-)

Today will probably entail some boring stuff. I need to do some shopping sometime today or tomorrow, and I need to get some major cleaning done as well. The kitchen floor hasn't been touched since I swept and mopped it way back before my parents visited in February, and I don't think the living room has been dusted since I did it last either. Also, my bathroom is getting close to needing yellow police tape around it and I have about 4 loads of laundry building up. So for those of you who tune in hoping for wild Vegas adventures, sorry to disappoint.

Oh, one more piece of somewhat big news, at least on my end. Two of Chris' roommates (the two brothers) have gone and purchased themselves a house. When they move out at the end of their lease in June, it will leave an empty space in their inappropriately huge house (valued around $600,000) that they are renting in Mountain's Edge. This is an awesome community in the southwest part of town. As nice as it is here in Henderson, it just doesn't make much sense to be here anymore since Station Casinos decided to ram a big one up where the sun doesn't shine! I used to have a 10 minute commute to work. Now it's over 20 (during average traffic). Other pluses include having WAY more space to work with over there (large kitchen, garage, storage, etc.) and since those guys are usually hermits who just keep to their bedrooms, I've been promised my run of both the living room and/or family room. Add in the fact that my rent will go down by over $50/month, I'll probably be able to carpool to work with Chris, AND I've been tentatively promised FREE CABLE, it looks like a mighty attractive living situation for the upcoming year! Oh wow, I just remembered the gas grill in the backyard.....woot!! The only downside is that I'll be farther away from Danielle, but she's already mentioned how my new place will be on here way home from work, so I'm optimistic it won't have much of an impact.

The timing couldn't be better. With their lease ending the exact same time as mine, it'll give me some major flexibility to move my stuff over there. It also gives Mikey more than 2 months to find another roommate for this place, which given its location and perks such as the jacuzzi, shouldn't be too much of a problem. With his current place of employment making way more $ than when I was there, it wouldn't surprise me if he also upgraded his living situation for the upcoming year! I guess you'll have to keep an eye on his blog for that info.