…is what I will be doing tomorrow all day.

For those of you who don’t know, my mother is in a wheelchair and gambling is just her most favorite activity, carried over from before she got sick. Even if I had to beg, borrow or steal the money we use for our (warm weather) monthly outing, I would find a way to get my mother to the casino. If that is all it takes to keep her happy, who am I to grumble or deny her?

Here’s the rub: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this to you before, but I was a closet smoker for quite a few years. And I have to say that I loved everything about it. Unfortunately, once I started working from home with my own business, it was much too easy to light one up at will and things were starting to get a bit out of control. Well, I quit a few months back and in ten days I will have been five months smoke free.

This has been hard at times, but not as hard as it could have been because of two things: 1. Lots of snow kept me homebound many days this winter, removing me from temptation’s way. 2. Smoking in public places was outlawed here last year. So I managed to get this far without cheating even once. Although there are days….. But, the main point is that I haven’t. I just haven’t picked one up even when the craving was intense.

So, guess what? Casinos are exempt from this law! Yowza! And if you’ve been to a casino, you know as well as I do that fat people, ugly people, bad dressers and chain smokers make up the majority of gamblers frequenting these rectories of iniquity. Just in case, I picked up some fake herb cigarettes. They happen to absolutely suck, but may keep me out of trouble if the need starts grabbing at me.

Now it is supposed to rain tomorrow. But you should know by now that I simply love rain. I really do. So that would just make the day better for me. In fact, much better.

Now if you’re wondering what we do up there: Well, we are girls and she is in the wheelchair…so we keep it simple and play poker machines and slots. I’m particularly fond of a slot machine that has this happy smiley face guy come out now and then to announce a bonus game. Another slot, The Price is Right, is a bunch of fun, featuring the voice of (now deceased) Rod Roddy and video versions of Plinko, Punch a Bunch, and the Dice Game. And yes you get to spin the wheel and bid on showcases.

Mostly, I leave the picking of the machines up to Momma since it is more or less her day.

But I will come home having either blown my wad or won big. I mean what’s the fun of it otherwise?

So keep your fingers crossed and wish me well.

xo, Angela

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Rhetorically Yours, Sidetracked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.