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!