Burnt

The title says it all. If my mind hasn't turned to complete mush, I believe the past 4 weeks have been 6-day work weeks, which means I've had 4 days off in the past month!

Here's a couple signs that I know I've been burned out for a while. First, I've been very hesitant to pick up extra shifts. I don't really know why its so hard for me to turn down shifts, but I think ever since I was abused at Sunset Station for 9 months while only getting 2 or 3 shifts a week, turning down ANY shift now seems like craziness! Last week I voluntarily worked an extra day ONLY because the time of the shift was acceptable AND it was a shift at the better sister property to my casino.

The other two signs of burn-out are that I'm no longer really excited to go in on dice days AND I'm completely sick and tired of explaining how to play craps to newby players. Honestly folks, why do brand new players insist on coming to me every single day (is it because I'm the only one who looks like English is my first and only language) and asking how to play the game???? One thing about brand new players is that the overwhelming majority of them are TERRIBLE tippers, so it honestly is NOT worth my time and effort to teach them to the best of my ability if their only intention is to buy-in for a measly $20 to "try out their new activity", ignore most of what I try to teach, lose their buy-in in 5 minutes and leave without any tip at all. After about a dozen of those types of interactions per week, I just don't care if you know the game or not. Play or don't, just don't waste my time! At this point I've given myself a rule-of-thumb: try to help out new players with helping them get proper odds and make proper bets ONCE, but if they chooose to ignore me or are too stupid to use applied learning, I'll become a robot and book whatever bet they want. Gone are the days of reminding every damn player on my side of the table to make their odds bet even on the 5 and 9 to save them a whole 50 cents worth of breakage!

Past the normal rant stuff though, I've also been stressed out this past week due to a medical ailment. It seems for the past 6 months or so, wax has been building up in both of my ears and I've had issues with my ears being clogged, on and off, for a while now. Well, last week I finally decided to try to do something about it and I bought some over-the-counter wax removal medicine. After the third attempt (which was last Thursday night) to use the stuff, it COMPLETELY clogged up my left ear and did not help my right ear in the slightest. So I bit the bullet on Monday and went in to see my regular doctor, who basically looked at my ears for 2 seconds and comfirmed my left ear is completely blocked (about 1/3 of the canal is full of wax). So Thursday I have an appointment with an ear/nose/throat specialist to have both my ears cleaned, hopefully taking car of that impacted wax in my left ear for good!

I can't tell you how maddening it is to suddenly lose most of your hearing while working in a casino. On non-dice days its not so bad because most of your communication is the kind of banter between dealer and player that is not really essential to the job. But on dice days, its EXTREMELY difficult due to needing to communicate with both the players AND the other dealers/box man. Late bets by the players, "call" bets, normal bets like "34 inside" or "27 across", etc. all take on an extra bit of complexity when you can barely make out what they are saying. On Tuesday, I caught myself guessing a lot and pressing people's bets on instinct as opposed to actually hearing them tell me to press. It never really came back to bite me, but it sure will be nice to put this behind me once and for all Thursday.

So the light is finally approaching. By Thursday night, I should be hearing okay and finishing up the last shift in the casino until next Tuesday. Danielle and I are leaving Vegas Thursday night after my shift to go to Mesquite, then on to Zion National Park Friday-Sunday. I took off an extra day next Monday just for good measure. NONE of these days are paid (I asked them to be unpaid as to save up vacation for later in the year), so I guess its a good thing I've worked so much these past couple of months.

I'm thinking the next time I update the blog will be with details about how the hiking went at Zion.