Two Words: Drunker and Louder
Ah, the ways of swing shift are coming back to me now. It's been about 9 months since I last worked swing shift and these past five days back on that odd shift have taken a LOT of getting used to. One thing that does come back to me as I sit here is updating the blog at 5am, which I'm doing right now!
The shift itself is MUCH busier than the other two shifts. That is a good thing to a point because the normal hours for swing are 8pm to 4am, which I kind of mentally split into two parts, the first four hours and then the post-midnight hours. During every shift this past week, the first four hours have FLOWN by at lightning speed! It seems like before I blink, half my shift is over. But then, after midnight, things start slowing down to a crawl and by 3am, we have way more dealers than open tables. If I were still back at the Station casinos I used to deal at, the asshats in suits would immediately send home every part-timer as soon as they could. Although that does happen a little at my current place, I've never been sent home more than 1 or 2 hours before the end of my shift. What that produces though is a lot of 20 or 40 minute sessions on the table and then breaking. Honestly, there are times at the end of swing shift when I spend as much time in the breakroom as I do on the tables. Once again, I'm not really complaining because the alternative would be to send me home every shift. But it does turn the ends of my shifts into marathons that never seem to end.
Aside from dealing to ridiculously drunk idiots and battling the blaring live music every night, the other obvious drawback are the hours. I've now just started to get used to going to bed every night/morning at around 9am and getting up at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. When I got home from work this morning, I went grocery shopping at 3am. My last night/your yesterday morning, I went down to the bank and took care of some IRA stuff at 10am, which is way past my bedtime!! Swing shift certainly does lend itself to night owls, which I've always considered myself, but after getting used to sleeping when its dark and going out at night with Danielle or my roommates for 9 months, this shift is testing my patience.
And the timing couldn't be worse. I will call Friday night (I guess that's tonight but its my tomorrow morning because I haven't gone to bed yet) to see if I have to report for jury duty on Monday morning. If I do, then I'll have to somehow reset my body for day shift for that one day. If I actually get put on a jury, then I can pretty much expect to be awake during the day for at least the next week! Ugh.
Oh well, at least I finally have a day off. I actually worked a full 78 hour paycheck these past two weeks (there was one stupid 6 hour shift in there) and I kind of want to get out of the house when I wake up later today and spend a little of my hard-earned cash. I'm thinking I might be able to talk Danielle into some all-you-can-eat sushi again, which I think we did just last week. But once again, that'll be my breakfast! Another idea might be to grab a pizza at Grimaldi's, which I haven't eaten at since last March, and maybe make another visit to the Pinball Museum. There's also a little $3 movie theater next to the Pinball that just re-opened. Danielle and I have had that on the list for a while, but haven't had a chance to get there yet.
We'll see what happens. I'll have Sunday off as well since its illegal for my employer to make me work less than 8 hours before reporting for jury duty. If I can somehow stay awake that day, it sounds like a good day to lounge around and relax while watching the NASCAR race that's occuring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. Go 43!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Swing Shift Review
Monday, February 23, 2009
More NORM!!!
Norm recently appeared, or the last time, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien before Conan's move to California. Here's a clip.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Comfest 2009
I'd like to put in the time off request by next week. So please leave a message in the comment section (or email me) about your thoughts of the chances of attending again this year.
Thanks!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Back in the swing of things
A couple of three things from work. Unfortunately, the slow economy has finally reached me at work after almost a year of uncertainty throughout the city, and we're still far from out of the woods. No, I did not get laid off again, but I received two pieces of bad news these past couple of days.
First, my company is no longer matching anything into my 401k. It's not too big of deal....and its completely expected. Station casinos stopped matching their employee's 401k not too long after they laid me off last year (a failed step in trying to head off bankruptcy for that piss poor company). I believe MGM-Mirage followed suit at some point in the fall. Now mine has done the same, along with some pay cuts in upper management to boot!
The good news, no massive lay-offs of dealers have occurred as of yet. There have been some cutbacks of staff in other departments (mostly the unionized departments), but not dealers yet.
The other piece of bad news is that they have "re-balanced" the shifts at my casino and have sent me back to swing shift beginning next week. That means my normal shifts will be that coveted 8pm-4am "swaveyard" shift that I've worked a couple times previously. I hate the hours and the bands they bring in for entertainment are ridiculously too loud (not to mention dealing to way more drunks at those hours), but once again, the good news is that I still have a job! In fact, I'm scheduled for a full five-day work-week with three shifts on craps that first schedule. So there are silver linings everywhere you look.
All of this means my free-time is going to go back to the hours following work, which will mean I'll be puttering around the house from around 5am to 11am when I'll get to bed. Some swing shifters swear they can just go home and go to bed, but I've NEVER been able to do that, no matter what shift it is or how tired I am after work. So who knows how I'll fill my time this go-around. Perhaps I'll update this blog a little more than once a week and I always have Netflix! Unfortunately, it means Danielle and I will go back to our old ways when we first met. Basically, if I take her out for dinner, it'll be my breakfast. Yep, swing shift sets itself up nicely for vampires.
But that's next week. Here it is coming up on noon on Sunday and I need to get to work at 1pm today. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it through the day without finding out who won the Daytona 500, since I have it set on my DVR. Not that anyone cares, but go Richard Petty Motorsports....9, 19, 43, 44!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Happy Valentine's Day!!
To all of you still out there, near and far....happy Valentine's Day!! Here's a picture of a small lake near Cleveland. They've certainly gotten into the spirit!!
In case you're wondering what my plans are for today (its 3:30am Saturday morning as I write this), I have the day off. So Danielle and I are planning on going out for a Valentine's Day dinner tonight at the restaurant where we had our first date just a little over a year ago! So I guess the one-year anniversary and V-Day are being combined! Nothing really special beyond that. However, her birthday is coming up the first week of March, so there will be more festivities at that point.
The restaurant we'll be re-visiting is Carmine's in Henderson. It is formerly La Collina, in case you've ever been there, but only the name has changed. The owner just put his first name into the name. The menu didn't change much, and I don't think the prices changed at all.
Here's the place.
It's got a really good view of the Strip (the pic doesn't do it justice).
And it's got really good food. This is the dish I've ordered a couple of times. It's a seafood alfredo dish with a white sauce and capers.Unfortunately, I always have to respect the fact that I could be called into work, so I need to get some sleep. Even though tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I NEED to go into work if they ask me to. Turning down an extra shift right now would be poison! But our reservations are for 8:30pm, so dinner is on...no matter what!
Oh, and enjoy the racin' this weekend too! Daytona really creeped up on me this year!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Oh by the way, which one's pink?
Due to the slowing business on the Strip these days, I was only scheduled to work three days this week, which was expected. I worked a full five-day week last week beginning with Super Bowl Sunday and ending on Thursday. The pick-up in business due to the big game was VERY welcome as it was the best tip week I've had at my current casino since sometime last summer!
Well, yesterday I got a very big surprise when work called out-of-the-blue and asked if I could come on in. The bigger surprise though was that I was being called into a casino that I've never dealt at before!! It was one of the "big boys" on the Strip.
You probably know that most of the casinos on the Strip are owned by just a few major companies, my casino included. It's actually fairly common for one particular sister property of ours to call my casino when they are short-handed and need some extra bodies. Since starting last April, I had NEVER been one of these fortunate souls called over to the big house......until yesterday!
One problem though was that I NEVER expected to get called into work Saturday. So the night before, I was up until 5am drinking various adult beverages and playing low-stakes poker with my roommates! Chris was one of the participants and he DID have to work on Saturday, but then again, he's like 7 years younger than me and can rebound a bit better from an all-night bender. So when the phone rang at 10:30am telling me to report at 12noon, I almost didn't answer it! It would have been poison to turn down the shift though, so I dragged my ass out of bed and Chris and I carpooled into work, hangovers in tow.
My first shift at the bigger casino was pretty unnerving. I wore a different uniform for the first time since escaping Boulder Highway last March, I didn't know anyone's name (including the dealers and floor supervisors) and my string of tables included a game that I had NEVER dealt or played....or even seen before. So I had to get used to my new surroundings for a day, learn a new game on the fly, deal with much heavier action than I'm used to.....all while not exactly feeling a 100%.
The action was much heavier than what I've gotten used to the past 9 months. The table minimums were twice that of my casino, which would repulse any players at my place making the tables automatically dead. It felt weird having players repeatedly sit down and re-buy after busting out on tables that are literally TWICE the minimums that I'm used to seeing! I was also pretty surprised when players would actually bet red chips for the dealers and toss in green at the end of sessions for tips, as opposed to having to grind out a meager toke living one dollar at a time like I'm used to. I was on a couple tables that are good toke magnets for dealers (including my new game, Crazy 4 Poker), but I managed to drop around $400-$500 into the box yesterday. I'm hoping that it'll be about a $175 toke day for us, which is more than twice the average at my current place!
I'm hoping this isn't just a "cup of coffee in the majors", but it probably is. There are some dealers at my place that have been there much longer than me and have never been called over. I really can't explain why they called me into the big house on a busy Saturday unless it was just a freak thing and they needed a couple warm bodies over there at the very last minute. It was nice while it last though and I'd obviously be happy to help them out whenever I can!!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Unlikely Killer
Maybe one of my TV buddies from Columbus can explain how this could possibly happen!! Thanks again to Tony for bringing this to my attention!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Championship Programs Breed Champions
1. Play football in Florida but shun the SEC and other schools down there to play for THE Ohio State University
2. Make a spectacular catch which may be the best catch in Super Bowl history to win the game!
3. Become the Super Bowl MVP!!
Pretty simple, eh?Now maybe people will finally stop mistaking my Holmes jersey for a throwback Kordell Stewart jersey!!!
