I’ve been getting used to having a Shamrock Shake most nights, but I got there too late tonight. So tilted.
Dreams
I dreamt that I was at the store with my dad, and while looking at cereal I decided I really wanted some new ones to try. That was about it.
Then I was at my grandma’s house with my brother, but it was like our house. I heard someone come up to the back door, and my brother said it was a girl named Kate looking for me. She left but was coming back in a few minutes. I couldn’t think of who that was, but I was excited at the prospect of a pretty girl coming to see me. I had just woken up so I hoped I at least had time to put my contacts in so she didn’t have to see me with my lady glasses. I got paranoid that I wouldn’t have time, so I just put on some deodorant and hoped for the best. When she finally came back she was followed by a dude, and it turned out he was her dude. So basically this dream was a metaphor for my girl situation the last few years.
One Year Ago Today
This was a decent day. Poker went alright, the Knicks won without Stoudemire, and I watched Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which was pretty good.
My Day
I woke up from my last dream just a minute before my alarm, and because the dream wasn’t a good one I welcomed reality. I got to church a few minutes late, but it wasn’t too bad. The sermon was about the story where Jesus healed a man with leprosy and told him not to tell anyone, but he did anyway. Because of that Jesus had to stay on the outskirts of towns for the rest of His ministry.
When I went back home I had a few hours to chill before work. I played a little more Zelda but mostly just watched some Malcolm for the first time in a couple days. I watched the first six episodes of Season 6, and then later I finished Season 4 of Seinfeld.
We went to work, and it wasn’t too busy but not completely dead. I started with the tournament, and I had three tournament downs and only four cash game downs. My first down was good since I got two redbirds, but after that it was pretty slow. I still made $65 which isn’t too bad, and since I got to work three days this week I’m doing well. And it’ll start to pick up next month so things are looking up.
One of my work friends owed me some money so he paid me back when I got to work. He gave me two crisp and folded bills, and one was a $100 and the other a $50. I didn’t have time to put them in my wallet so I just put them in my left pocket, which was stupid because that’s where I keep my phone and the key to the locker for my rack.
So after my first down I went into the back room to get my rack, and when I checked to see if I still have the money I could only feel one of the bills. I got nervous, and I saw that I still had the $100 but lost the $50. While losing that is only half as bad as the other, that’s still a lot of money to just lose. I had to go to another table so I figured I’d have to wait until later to tell people and see if any money was found, but I wasn’t very optimistic. Well that all didn’t last very long because on my way out I saw it lying on the floor. I picked it up, but knew I had to tell the boss about it because if the cameras saw me pick up money I could get in trouble. I was afraid I would have to go through some rigmarole to get it cleared, but the boss was nice and believed me and said I could just pick it up. It’s actually not that big of a deal because if my rack was under by $50 at the end of the night then there’d be a problem.
On the way back home the weather got even crappier, but I just drove a little slower and it wasn’t too terrible. We got Taco Bell, and it was totally delicious. That was really my only meal of the day, but it filled me up very well and for only $5. Then we tried to get Shamrock Shakes, but they said they turned off the machine for the night. I got one late before, but it was around midnight so I guess that’s the cutoff.
So I told them, “Okay, that’ll be it then,” which I thought was kind of funny. It’s like saying that all I want is something I can’t have, like my total will be $0 when I don’t have a total since I didn’t really order anything. That reminded me of something Jerry Seinfeld said in the documentary The Comedian, and I wished I had said that. So we tried the one in Herkimer, and we got the same story. I figured I could at least use the line, so I said, “Alright you know what, just cancel it then.” The joke is that there’s nothing to cancel because they don’t have what I want, and I got no reaction just like I figured. But it made me immensely happy so that’s all that matters. Then I went home and now I’m going to bed at 4am and I plan to sleep for a while (pronounced ‘ahwhile’). So thanks for reading, and “No one’s first, and you’re next.”
—Eric Del Medico
