The Gong Show

Last Saturday I had my first real Casino experience. I mean I have been inside casinos before but never had I partaken of the endless entertainment options contained within such an establishment. Like I said a few weeks ago, the Casino Windsor is easily the largest, nicest building in this city. They also have an all day all-you-can-eat buffet. This isn't any hospital cafeteria, either. We didn't know this beforehand but we landed there on prime rib night. Score. For $28.95 I had three plates and two desserts. By the time we were done eating it hurt to laugh. Andreas was easily the buffet champ: four plates. It's more impressive when you realize Andreas is about 5'6" and maybe 150 pounds soaking wet. Andreas' quip, "This is what eating in heaven must be like", pretty much sums up the experience. We vowed to go back again before our days in Windsor are done.

Post-gorging we explored the gaming area itself. Meghan seemed partial to the nickel slots. These machines were so not as easy to understand as it seems in the movies. You can bet up to ten credits (nickels) on each of five possible lines to win on. Then you pull the lever, the pictures move around and eventually stop in some incomprehensible pattern that is only decipherable by the machine itself which tells you if you won something or not. Basically you just keep pulling the lever and looking at the "pay out" line which invaraibly reads "0" 14 times out of 15. Five dollars goes in about five minutes and since you have no idea what pattern of randomness results in a "win" you constantly feel like you're getting screwed by the machine. On the plus side, your right arm gets a good workout. The machines also have a "spin" button for those for whom pulling the lever requires too much effort. I refused to push the spin button. My laziness has limits.

The blackjack table was much more enticing and after about forty-five minutes of looking around and staring at a table trying to muster the courage to sit down, I took a seat. I recall asking girls in junior high to dance being easier than this. I tried to make it less obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. This, naturally, made it even more obvious that I, indeed, had no idea what was going on. The dealer gladly took my fifty bucks, dealt me in, and the game was on. The minimum bet was $15 and after losing my first two hands and being on the verge of seeing fifty bucks gone in a span of four minutes, I won a hand. Then I won another. I hovered around the $50 mark for about ten minutes before I got hot again. I won about three hands in a row before losing the next. Thorsten had to convince me to quit. All in all I made $22.50 in about 15 minutes of work. Blackjack's my new game. Well, it beats the nickel slots, at any rate.

I decided yesterday that I may have one of the coolest summer jobs imaginable. I got into the lab yesterday and a couple of us discovered that there were tickets online still for yesterday's Detroit-Milwaukee game. After about five minutes of discussion three of us decided that work was entirely overrated and our time would be much better spent watching live major league baseball. So we bought our tickets online and left. What other job pays well, lets you set your own hours, has little to no expectations, and lets you leave all day to go see a ballgame?? You're jealous, I know you are. Don't even try to deny it.

Turns out the company we bought our ticekts from screwed up and gave us the wrong ones, which were no good. So we went back to the office and they gave us the right tickets and free food coupons for our hassle. Nothing makes me happier than free food. Well, maybe free beer, but that's not exactly original. I bought a Tigers hat as well. Milwaukee won 6-5. It didn't really bother me. I'm not a hardcore Tigers fan.

Last night was Matthias' birthday, so we went down to the neighbourhood pub to celebrate. Doug, our boss, and his wife came as well. Whenever Doug comes he usually picks up the tab so that, apparently, means an essential open bar for us. Not good. Not good at all.

We showed up at six and I think most people were relatively out of it by about ten. Andreas managed to get kicked out after going outside with Meghan for a smoke and falling down a time or two. Two weeks ago, some girl grabs him in a bar and how he geets booted for excessive drinking. You would never know he's the quietest guy of the bunch. Thorsten was pretty gone as well.

Highlight of the Night goes to Krishan "KY" Yadav for coming home with a phone number from some guy named "Eugene". He's getting married not long from now. How ironic. Honourable Mention to Preston "P-Town" Chase, our senior postdoc, for passing out in his office at the lab around 2 am, waking up at five, going home and coming back to work before ten. As for me, well, I took Andreas home around 12 after he got kicked out. Let's just say I had trouble riding a bicycle in a straight line.

Only Chemists would do this on a thursday.

As an aside, I don't want you all to get the impression that all I do here is drink and gamble. Generally speaking I behave myself quite well. I was not the most drunk of the lot last night, I knew where I lived at all times, I did not pee in a place not designated for peeing, and I have yet to be banned from any local watering holes. I guess this just isn't the lifestyle I am accustomed to at home where I do volunteer work and study a lot.