Happy New Years! 4 Dollars to Call!

Well.. the new schedule came out and I expected to be on Day shift again this week, however it turns out I moved over to swing for the week. New years eve I am working at 5 PM "until". I was not terribly pleased as this meant I couldn't spend new years eve with Estie. It was our first one since we got married and I wished I could have been with her. The rest of my schedule was 8 PM on Monday and tuesday and then 4 days off for the rest of the week.

The time leading up to New years was great. We went on the Gondola ride at the Venetian and got to ride on the boats, and listen to the beautiful singing of the Gondola drivers. We had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris and some excellent food! I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting. We also visited the Bellagio Christmas display, it was amazing! Polar bears made out of live carnations, Reindeer out of Pecans, a 35 foot christmas tree, 100's of poinesettas. It was absolutely gorgeous! Estie and Clarese took her brother (Johan) to see the rest of the sites. They rode the rides at Stratosphere, and NYNY. They spent a lot of time sight seeing, and he utterly enjoyed the sights around town.

New Years eve Johan had to go back to England where he lives now, and I had to go to work. It started out slow, but since we had only 10 dealers and 6 tables it moved by pretty well. At midnight the room emptied out down to 1 table. It was very amusing to be sitting there on New Years eve with everyone counting down to the new year and we are there dealing out hands. "Happy new Year sir, 4 dollars to call".

After midnight we had a short reprieve when we got to have some dinner and relax a few minutes before the real fun started. With 300,000 people on the strip it was a mad house, and a whole bunch of those were coming in to play poker with us! Between 12:30 and 1:00 AM we went from 1 table to 9. It ran smooth as silk with me and Loughman at the front directing everyone, and the supervisor Rick getting the dealers on the tables and the money. As soon as a table was full they started dealing. We had all 9 tables running 10 handed at 1 AM and we held all 9 tables until 5 AM when we started breaking down. I ended up going home at 7 AM after 14 hours of work. I had reached that point beyond exhaustion where everything was just a haze. The nice thing was it was good money. The bad thing was it really really messed up my sleep schedule. Atlanta time, working mornings, then switching to nights, and getting off at 7 AM. I was definately broken. I was so tired on Monday when I got to work that I decided to go home early so signed the Early out list. Well I'll be damned if all the people from New Year's eve didn't want to go home! One guy called in sick, 2 people had to work overtime, and it was insane in the room. I ended up being their until 4 AM and coming home exhausted AGAIN. On top of that, one guy didn't show up for New Year's eve and was fired. So they added another day to my week giving me Saturday night at 9 PM. The next day I come in to work at 8 PM again and find out that another guy has been suspended for getting in a fight while off shift in the room, and now I have been given ANOTHER day at 7 PM on WEdnesday. My 4 day weekend has now become a 2 day weekend.

Tuesday I go in, and again sign the EO list trying to get home before 1 AM so I can get a good nights sleep. I am still not able to sleep past 11 or so... which really sucks when you go to bed at 5 or 6 AM and are already exhausted. Unfortunately for me... noone is going home again, AND someone calls in sick again, so AGAIN I am there until 4 AM. 3 Days, 22 hours of work all in the late evening and early morning. Welcome to the life of a dealer I guess. Tonight I am in at 7 PM and if they scheduled me for another shift I will probably cry!