HAPPY BELATED NEW YEARS !!!!!!

Finally, a New Year's Post.  I would recap my year of 2013, but really, you're already bored or you wouldn't be here.  I have to admit it, there is something about reading my blog that makes the reader feel like they really have an interesting life compared to mine.  It's all about perspective.

New Year's Eve, Sheila, Mark, Joyce, Gary and I headed to Firewheel Golf Course for their New Year's Eve Casino Party.

First of all, we paid $75 per person to go.  It included a very decent salad, pasta, and chicken parmesan for dinner, unlimited keg beer, and then black eyed peas and champagne at midnight.  There is dancing, and everyone gets a chance to make a fool of themselves performing karaoke.  Each person also gets a few thousand dollars worth of poker chips to use for gambling.  It used to be wine, etc., but has gotten cheaper as time has gone by.  Oh well, it goes to support the performing arts of Garland, Sheila's home base.

We all met up, and started out with dinner.  Well, most of us did.  Mark was under the weather, so he passed on the Italian food and went straight for the desserts.  After munching, we all selected a Black Jack table, based on the fact that the first table had one of the ugliest people I've ever seen.  There was no way I was going to look at her all night.  I am not trying to be mean, just honest.  She was pretty bad.  We sat down and all started playing.  We had a dealer that was not only attractive, but one of the luckiest (or best at cheating) dealers I've ever seen.  I lost on 19 of 20 hands and decided to call it quits.  I did announce (no... not loudly, but in a normal voice) "She's never going to get any tips if she continues to not let anyone win".  With that, I got my fat butt out of there.  I headed to the craps table.  Now, I do need to say before I continue,  I was not the only one losing.  4 out of 5 of us would lose on every hand she dealt.  Did she just not get the fact that it was not real money?  It was supposed to be fun for the people?

Mean while at the craps table, I was the solo player.  I was also the unluckiest person alive.  However, I had some great dealers.  They declared that I rolled before they were ready.  One of them was NEVER ready if I rolled a seven instead of my number.  Finally, a couple joined us.  I actually started rolling pretty well once someone else was there to cheer for me.  After a short time, the table pretty much started filling up.  Sheila even strolled in for a while.  She too, had gotten tired of not being able to win any hands at Black Jack.  Gary, Joyce and Mark continued playing.  We went up and down all night long on Craps.  Sheila left once, and came back later, then left again.  I spent the entire evening there.  I did tip my dealer $20.  It sure did help.  I ended up with $9,000.  The final roll of the dice took about 20 minutes cause the roller kept hitting a 7 instead of the number 10.  I complained once on one of her rolls that my little finger was hurting when she rolled and I wasn't able to verify that they actually hit the wall before landing as a 3 and 4.  Of course, it was called a mis-roll and she re-rolled.  I am not kidding, she rolled a 10 once, and they paid us all but kept all bets in place.  Every time she rolled a 10, they paid us.  They did the same with all the place bets.  It was funny.

People came and went throughout the night, and I did notice their tips jar had a lot of money in it.  I actually saw one guy put a $5 bill in it, and informed him that the standard was a $20 bill.  He apologized and put in a $20.  Needless to say, the dealers were really nice to me.  I may not know how to play craps that well, but I do know how to tip.  Since it's not real money, the dealers have a lot of leeway.

At around 11pm, they have everyone cash in their chips for coupons.  They have a silent auction going, as well as a lot of gifts that you can put a raffle ticket in and attempt to win.  I put all but one of mine in a trip to a real casino.... well as real as an Oklahoma Indian Tribe can make it.  Sheila and Mark won the trip last year, and as luck would have it, he couldn't go so I got to go with Sheila.  The other ticket I put into Pappas Restaurant.  I also bid $40 on a family night gift.  It was a huge rubbermaid storage box full of games and candy.

At midnight, we all sang Auld Lang Syne, drank our champagne, ate our black eyed peas, kissed each other, and had our picture made.

Yes, we were quite an attractive group of people.  We all decided Mark needs to get a hat like that to wear full time.   You Canadians might want to put that on your Christmas gift list for next year.  After that, they started calling out numbers of people winning the raffle prizes.  Not once did they call my number.  They did call one number that was only 5 away from all my numbers.  Naturally, that lucky Sheila won something.  She is so lucky, she won something she didn't put a ticket on.  She won a gift certificate to a restaurant.  Now that is friggin lucky!  After that, they announced winners of the silent auction.  I won the item I bid on.

 As you can tell, it is a pretty substantial tub, and it was really full.  I planned on keeping the tub (stores Christmas decorations really well), and giving the rest to my daughter's family.  They love board games.

We all were pooped, so we called it a night around 1am.  When we left the club house, we found that my car had been decorated.  I didn't take a picture of it, but Facebook had pictures of the people that decorated it.  By the way, it was not only covered on the outside with toilet paper and police crime scene tape, but it was filled with balloons and had dice hanging from the mirror.  When we opened the door to get in, several balloons escaped into the wind.  We did NOT chase them down.  It did take a few minutes to get the car drive ready.  It was also extremely cold.

 This is Chloe and Megan (my nephews daughter visiting us from Oklahoma) working on the car.

 Yes, my daughter, Angela, the one that is teaching the girls what great fun it is to decorate things.  Trees would have been better for draping toilet paper on, but I do not drive a tree.

The car was actually right outside the entry to the club house.  Angie said there were several smokers (including Mark who never told me) that just watched them and laughed.  One man did come out an take pictures of them doing it, along with the license tag number of their car.  Oh well, it really was a surprise, and no permanent damage was done.

After we left the golf course, we took the goodie basket over to Angie's house.  We opened it so I could take the tub home, and inside was a $25 gift card.  Woo Hoo!  I figure the tub would have cost around $10 at Walmart, and that put my total expense (counting the gift card) to only $5.  It was a huge success after all.

Now, that's how we spent New Year's Eve.  It was a great way to end 2013, with some good friends, and starting out 2014 the same way, and seeing family.  That's what life is all about... friends and family.  Have a good one!