Foxy Lady

Two Saturdays ago, we were at my place, and Ronny said he wanted to go to the casino. He has never been, and I haven’t been to the ones near here. Having never been, I would need to look into details a little bit first, so said it was kind of sudden, maybe next weekend. I meant “let’s plan something ahead.” He heard “we’re going next Saturday.”
This past Friday, Ronny came over and at one point mentioned that he took Saturday morning off from work so we could go to the casino. I again was a little taken-by-surprise, so hesitated. He made some comment about being spontaneous. I said I had an appointment to get my tires fixed (one flat and one leaking) on Saturday. He thought I should reschedule, but ditching the appointment to drive on those tires down to Connecticut just seemed like a bad idea to me. Plus, Ronny had to work Saturday night (see the ‘Bettering’ post). So, I suggested we go on Sunday instead. He was OK with that.
Saturday we ran some errands anyway. While my tires were being fixed, we had lunch at the Chinese buffet next door that he really likes. I earned points for that idea! Picked up some stuff at Target, got a work shirt at Goodwill for that night’s new job, stopped by the Jeep dealer to ogle Liberty’s. I called our friend Brad to see which of the two near-by Connecticut Indian casinos would be better for a first-timer. He suggested Foxwoods. I invited him and Cris to come along, but they couldn’t make it, so we have Tentative plans for a trip to Mohegan Sun together some day. (Though, as this story unfolds, you may agree that Ronny might not want to go.)
We wandered around the casino for a while, taking in the sights. It is a large place – has like 5 separate casino areas. Although, most of them are still all slot machines. There is a separate Bingo hall and a dedicated poker room. The rest is mostly slots with some table games mixed in. Ronny went up to a nickel slot and tried to put in a dollar. They take 5’s and larger. Just then a coin change cart wheeled past, so he asked her for nickels. She gave him a dirty look and said the smallest she had was quarters. When he handed over the dollar, she gave another dirty look and even grumbled something about “only a dollar”. But Ronny didn’t much care. Unfortunately, the nickel machines don’t take quarters, either. So four “pulls” later at a quarter slot, his dollar was donated to the tribe. I noticed they actually have some machines that have a lever on the side for you to pull, but most of them are just little buttons now. I think it speeds up the cash flow…
Next we found a coin change counter. By now, Ronny has seen penny slots, so asked for a roll of pennies. Another dirty look, and the smallest she carried was nickels. That was fine with him, so Ronny got a $2 roll and headed back into the fray.
Forty nickels do last longer than four quarters, but it was still about 5 minutes until he had made his second donation to the tribe. As we wandered some more, I pointed out the $5 slots and mentioned that the speed he burned through his $2 roll was how fast they were burning through $200. That kind of made him mad. Knowing how hard he has to work for money, and having grown up in a poor family, it just is a bit insulting to see someone pouring that much money into a noise-making machine.
Ronny asked if I was going to play anything. I told him I wanted to do a little video poker, but hadn’t seen any machines for that yet. As we continued to wander around taking pictures of Indian-themed statues and such, we eventually came across the v.p. machines. I sat down at one of the machines. It had slightly lower pay-off levels, so it was actually available. But the pay-off level was to balance out the fact that it included jokers in the ‘deck’ so you were more likely to get a winning hand. I played for a little while, holding steady, to slightly losing ground. Then I hit a 4-of-a-kind. I had started with a $10 bill, and had climbed back up to $12 thanks mostly to the 4-of-a-kind. So, I decided to cash out. I like the v.p. better than plain slots because it involves “playing” instead of just feeding coins into the machine. It takes just seconds to burn through your money at a slot, while the poker machine can while away full minutes!
Ronny wanted to try his hand at the v.p. Seeing me win $2 had inspired that gambling itch in him. He was already down by $3, so wanted to play another five. He was going to seek out change again, but I explained that he could put in his $20, then just hit the cash out button when he was ready. So, in went the 20 dollar bill…
Lady luck had been smiling on me a little better than she smiled on Ronny. He hit a number of pairs and three of a kind, but nothing that paid out anything hefty. After a while, he had dropped to $15, so I told him he had spent his five, and could hit the cash out button now. He wanted to keep going! He wanted to get back up to his starting 20! (Uh-oh) Again, played for a while, won some one- or two-point hands, and gradually worked down to $10 left. Again I stopped him, and pointed out he was down to ten. He said he wanted to keep going. This time I got a little more adamant about having him stop, so he agreed he needed to finish. Reached over and pushed the ‘bet’ button, instead of the ‘cash-out’ button. At that point, you have to finish the hand. Lady Luck seemed to abandon him again. Now he was determined to get back to $10. He actually held steady for a couple hands, then won a straight, which brought him up to $10.75. I told him he was over ten, so should push THIS button to cash out. He started to get that glimmer in his eye and said he wanted to keep going. I fairly sternly pointed out that he would just keep losing more money the longer he played, so he agreed to cash out. When he got the two fives and three quarters back, it hit him that he had lost about another ten dollars, and got a bit remorseful. I tried to cheer him up a little bit by pointing out that he won 75 cents more than the ten even I had told him to stop at! He appreciated the gesture, but was still bummed about the $12.25 he had blown that day. It is a casino, though, so it shouldn’t have been that bad to walk away only twelve down, but I think my two dollar gain made it seem worse.
Then we went on to dinner. I was a little surprised that the restaurants were more Six Flags priced than I expected. I suppose this isn’t the Vegas strip, so there isn’t much competition on drawing in the crowds, so they have no need to make the food cheap. Entrees at the steakhouse were 25 to 40, and I could see the gloom across Ronny’s face as I checked out that menu. I had been scanning menus all day, so suggested the southern-cooking restaurant Amy Ruth’s. He asked what that meant. When I said Georgia and Louisiana, he said that sounded cool. Lady Luck again turned her back on him, though. The waiter mixed up the orders, and brought him the wrong food. They brought out the correct ones after I mentioned it, and they even let him keep the side of mac and cheese that they had brought by mistake. He had ordered the fruit juice. It is their own “special” mix, so they don’t tell you what is in it, but it was very good, and Ronny loved it. He saw them bring a doggie bag to someone, and he said he wanted one of the Foxwoods bags. So, when he said he had too much food and couldn’t eat it all, I pointed out that he needed to take left-overs home so he could get a bag, anyway. That pleased him! I had ordered the chicken-fried steak. I hadn’t had that since leaving Kansas, so thought it would be nice. I forgot this was Southern style, not Midwest style. Instead of the sausage-gravy on the side like in Kansas, this was smothered in beef gravy. Which I think ruins the chicken-fried coating and turns it to soggy mush. I also got the mac and cheese and the cheese grits. (Cheese!!!) The grits were only good if the spoonful was loaded with cheese. Ronny got the potato salad. I avoid ordering that because recipes can vary SO much you never know how it will be. This version had a lot of vinegar and mustard seed in it. We both thought it was gross. Since Ronny had suffered losses at the slots, and I had my wallet full of winnings (OK, so it was two whole dollar bills), I offered to buy dinner.
We walked past the Ben & Jerry’s on our way out. I was very tempted, but I was comfortably full, and that would have made me uncomfortably full. And I need to lose some weight (yes, it was my new year’s resolution), so we headed right on out the door. On the way home, Ronny said he had fun! That is the point of going there, so I guess it was OK after all. Still, I’m not sure if he’ll want to go to Mohegan Sun.