There's always a silver lining

So my parents decide they want to make a family trip down to Lake Charles for a little family gambling today, since my sister was in town for Spring Break and the whole family had taken tomorrow off from work to spend time with each other.

Of course, I was totally set to watch the Big XII championship game at home, but since it was "designated family time," I decided I could find a bar at one of the casinos that would televise the game.

I knew I probably wasn't going to gamble. The only other time I had been in a casino was a week after my 21st birthday (also at Lake Charles). My parents gave me $100 to gamble with. After 10 minutes, and $20, I had hit the jackpot on a machine and won $500. Right then and there I knew I would never gamble again, because I didn't think I could do any better than that.

So today, 5 years later, I went back to Lake Charles. I found a place televising the miserable Big XII Championship game, and I spent all afternoon wincing over missed field goal after missed field goal. I finally gave up when the 'horns were down by 18 with 1:00 left, much to the delight of several LSU fans taking pleasure in my sorrow.

So I meander over to my parents, who were religously hitting the $0.25 slot machines, losing as usual.

I walk over to the $1.00 slots and put in a crisp $10 bill (courtesy of the $100 my parents once again gave me to gamble with, despite the fact that I'm a 26-year old grown man who can pay his own way in life. Some things just never change in the eyes of parents).

Anyways, I hit a "mini-jackpot" on my second play and turned $1 into $30. I cash out and decide, "OK, I'm done. I ain't gonna do any better than this." So I go back to the bar to see what other games are on. Nothing catches my interest, so I walk around the casino some more.

Suddenly, I see a lone $5 slot machine. I think, "What the hell. I'm probably never coming back here." I throw a $20 into the machine and proceed to bet a single $5 credit.

I pull the lever, see an odd combination come up on the screen, and suddenly lights, bells and whistles go off like crazy. Security rushes over, as does one of the casino workers.

In all the confusion, I assumed I hit the jackpot, but I had no idea how much I had won....

Until the casino worker tells me, "Congratulations sir. You've just won $2250"

Suddenly, my resentment towards Eddie Sutton subsided and I cracked my first smile of the day as the lady proceeds to deduct LA state taxes from my winnings and give me a cool $2135 in straight up cash money. I felt like Tony Soprano for the rest of the day, walking around with a huge wad of $100s in my pocket.

Speaking of which, time to catch the late broadcast of tonight's "Sopranos"

 

Well, seeing as how they only play nickle and quarter slots and spend $100 bucks each in a time span of 5 hours and my sister only plays $40 (and pockets the other $60 my parents give her)... I am the only "big spender."

It's only the second time we've been as a family and we take it as light hearted fun. None of us play the table games b/c we don't know how. We go because its the only place we can go as a family of four 21+ year olds that doesn't have noisy kids and is a place we can talk (not like the movies).

But to each his own.

I'm trying to figure out how to spend my new windfall, but ultimately I've decided to dump it all in my savings account, and maybe go to Office Max to buy some DVD-Rs for my DVD burner.

Woo hoo, big spender!

 

Yeah, um $15,000.