Our second trip to Vegas, we were “flush”, but not “loaded”, by any stretch of the imagination. We were there for a week. Arrive Saturday’ depart Sunday. And, for some reason, we didn’t “do the envelopes”. (Dumb! Our first trip Our Girl had enevelopes for everything — bfast, lunch, dinner, snack, am gambling, afternoon gambling, evening gambling, show#1, show#2, hotel tips, … you name it there was an envelope for it. I think she was afraid of being broke. We were on a very limited budget.) Now that we were “experienced” Vegas visitors.

Arrived on Saturday. “Broke” on Tuesday. She was crazed. Wanted to go home then.

(I wasn’t THAT upset. I had my emergency stash and I had opened a Las Vegas bank account during our first trip. I had visions of moving to Nevada. Obviously delusional as anyone who knew Our Girl would know.)

I convinced her to “reload”. We found and visited the local Merrill lynch office and got a cashiers’ check. Took it to “our” bank and cashed it.

The vacation continued. We had a great time.

The Saturday before we left, Our Girl tallied up where we stood dollar wise. We had won quite a bit. Enough to replace the “reload”. So she was relaxed and conffessed that she was scared when we did that. “I thought we’d lose everything.” I told her I wouldn’t let that happen.

Sunday morning we checked out and went to the Continental Hotel to have bfast and play a little. It’s literally right down the street from Avis. At bfast, I was playing keno. She took sheet marked some numbers and says “Can I play this?” I said: “Sure, give me a dollar.” She casually replies: “I have three singles left to gamble. Can I play three?” “Sure, you want different numbers for each dollar?” “No, just put it all on that ticket.” “That’s dumb, but it’s your money.”

(Anyone who knows Our Girl is laughing, they know where this is going!)

She watches the board. “To root in her numbers”. Out of the first 6 numbers, she gets 5! I’m going nuts. (I could have “conditioned the ticket” played it in “ways” to ensure she got a decent payday.) Were watching. 5/6 would be nice. 19 numbers other than her “51”.

(Yeah, you know!)

They draw the twentieth number.

It’s “51”.

She has an $8k winner. All total, since some of her numbers she picked, overlapped with mine, and I play “way tickets”, we have 11k$ in winners.

Do you know how long it takes for them to verify winners like that?

I leave her to cash; I go drop off the luggage and check us in. Return to the Continental Hotel, she’s just getting her cash.

Big Smile!

We drop the car at Avis. Run thru the old airport. Make the plane with about 20 minutes to spare. She gets a 20$ roll of dollars and plays the airport slot. Loses.

She’s upset all the way home. She lost that $20. She tells people that “she left Vegas a loser”.

She hated to lose.

… and, yes, her first priority was to repay the “reload”. Then she bought stuff for the kids. She was anything but a “loser” imho.

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