Monday, August 21, 2006

Grubby's Last Weekend in Vegas

In the last five days, I've been on a serious gambling binge that's spilled all over several Las Vegas casinos... betting on baseball, live poker, online poker, Pai Gow poker, video poker, craps, prop betting, slot machines, and even Keno. I call this the Grubby Effect.

Grubby left Las Vegas about a month ago and moved to Chicago for a new job. He came back this weekend in order to clean out the apartment in Henderson. He arrived late Friday night and we spent most of Saturday boxing up books. He rented a storage space that includes a truck rental with the storage unit inside the back of the truck. All you had to do was fill the space and drive it back to the storage facility. Grubby filled fifty banker's boxes with books, scripts, files, and magazines. We walked them down one flight of stairs and then another 50 yards to where the truck was parked illegally in a handicapped zone. That was a strenuous workout for someone like me who's done nothing but sit on my ass for seven weeks straight.

The truck was due back at 8am and Grubby left the apartment around 7:30. When I woke up around noon, he was nowhere to be found. When I got in touch with him at 1pm he was playing slots at Silverton. He had been at various casinos since 9am. He assured me that he was going home ASAP to get some sleep before we were supposed to play in a poker tournament at the Sahara at 7pm. I headed up to Summerlin to play poker at Red Rock and stopped by Friedman's apartment where we watched What the "Bleep" Do We Know?! Down the Rabbit Hole, which is a mind bending documentary on links between Quantum physics and spirituality in our everyday lives.

Around 5:30pm, I called Grubby to find out what his plans were.

"I'm so addicted. I can't stop," he said on the phone when I woke him up after only an hour of sleep.

He played from 9am to 4pm admitting that he lost all the money at the slot machines in his wallet plus the cash he earned from selling his couch. Mr. Cashman slots was his demise.

In honor of Grubby's last night in Las Vegas, a bunch of us played in the 7pm Sahara poker tournament. Friedman, Grubby's friend Carla, Miami Don and Carmen all played. First place paid out an astounding $3,000. The sleep deprived Grubby outlasted all of us as he went deep taking 13th out of 151 but he still missed the money by three spots.

Although I was busted out early, I got to watch the end of the Yankees-Red Sox game capped by a late rally by the Yanks who trailed by two runs in the 8th inning. The game went into extra innings tied at 5-5 when Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada drilled home runs to break the game open at 8-5. Mo Rivera pitched two scoreless innings en route to a the four Yankees victory over the Sox in three days. On Monday afternoon (a couple of hours from now for me on the Left Coast), the Yanks go for a rare five game sweep. Lucky for me I watched three of the four games with most of the viewing inside a casino.

Around Midnight, Grubby and I decided to grab a bite to eat at Green Valley Ranch. Since we both drove to Sahara, we bet $1 on who would get to GVR first from the Strip. He won by six minutes. In my defense, I took two smoke breaks along the way.

I ate a chicken quesadilla and a slice of chocolate creame pie. On our way out, I donked off $10 at a Mr. Cashman machine while Grubby ran through $20 faster than a crack whore minutes after she gets her welfare check. I left to go back to the apartment to write. Grubby appeared about an hour later. I didn't have to ask because I knew he played some more slots before he made his way home.

We have to throw out a ton of shit before he heads back to Chicago on Monday afternoon. He also could not find a buyer for his couch and TV.

At 3am, I consolidated two future flights into one. I originally booked a return flight from Denver to Las Vegas next Monday and booked a flight from Las Vegas to LA on Tuesday. Why have two flights spread out over two days when I can have one? With the new glitches in airport security and McCarran airport being one of the worst in the world for security wait time, I bought a flight from Denver direct to LA on Monday. That gives me an extra day in Hollyweird but I fly into dreaded LAX instead of my new favorite airport Long Beach.

I called up Frontier to change my flight to LA instead of Las Vegas. They said it would cost me $100 for a change fee plus the extra cost of the flight ... for a total of $351. I told the lady on the phone that they must be freebasing over at Frontier HQ. I said, "No thanks."

I hopped on Expedia and found a $119 direct flight to LAX and bought that one. I canceled my Vegas to LA flight and got a $45 credit on Jet Blue for a future flight. I also have a $40 credit coming on a Frontier flight so my new flight from Denver to LA only cost me $25. I get an extra day of sunshine. Sweet.

It's now 4:20am. Grubby is still filling up boxes and I'm stuck $50 playing Pot Limit Omaha online against a bunch of Europeans.

Recent Writing Music...
1. Crack Sabbath
2. Brian Jonestown Massacre
3. Velvet Underground
4. Shuggie Otis
5. Galactic

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