I had a conference in Atlantic City last week, and it was my first time to that, uh, fair *cough* city.
First of all, most of the casinos and hotels in the AC were understaffed because of a strike. This resulted in numerous problems. I hate having people in my room, so I usually let the “Do Not Disturb” sign hang there the whole time. There was no sign in the room, so I inquired at the front desk.
“You’ll have to talk to the cleaning staff.”
I inquired with the cleaning staff.
“Oh. Only the front desk has those.”
Great. After they cleaned the room while I was at the conference, they had left a sign on the back of the door. Unfortunately, they stole my soap. (I bring my own soap to hotels because they usually only provide soap with lotion in it and when I use that I never feel like I’m fully rinsed off.) So I retaliated by taking the soaps, shampoos, shower caps, and a roll of toilet paper. I also didn’t take the extra 5 minutes to straighten up behind myself when I left. Also, no tip. Not much retalliation, really, since they only “straightened” my room once, but I thought the all the assistant managers and managers who had to take their turns cleaning should see what their striking staff goes through in every room. Bastards.
One of my coworkers was visited by some friends of his from Philly. Apparently the friend, whom we’ll call, Gamblin’ Greg, was a regular to casinos. Hey, whatever tickles your pickle. He played the roulette tables all night. Winning and losing. But mostly losing. The odds are in the casino’s favor after all. (Strangely, every table we approached hit 17, and we changed tables frequently. It was always when we approached a new table, 17 would have just hit. Weird.) Though, despite his bad luck, he was a really funny guy. He referred to the people we saw through the safety of the car window as the walking dead, and kept calling AC “The Dawn of the Dead.” He had tons of stories of being accosted by people who were looking to make just a few bucks so they could turn around and blow it on slots or craps or whatever. “Blow you out here, blow it in there,” was a phrase I think he used on a trip between the Tropicana and the Borgatta.
I only gambled about 5 bucks. Gamblings isn’t really that much fun to me. I’d rather spend my money on beer, food, and movies. Not necessarily in that order. I did earn back what I gambled in free drinks though. But, after tips, I probably paid about half price for the drinks all night. Not too bad. Considering that my dinner was covered by my per diem, I think I may have MADE some money. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.
Though I’ve never been to Vegas, I now see AC as Vegas’ slutty little sister. Vegas is like, “Hey, wanna party? We’ve got an open bar set up in the lounge, and people are doing lines off strippers in the den.” To which AC responds, “No thanks. We’ve got a few kegs of Beast set up over here, and I think the guy with the anal warts is trying to talk himself up to my parole officer. By the way, I borrowed your crotchless panties yesterday. I had a job interview.”
