August 2, 2000.  Wednesday
 
 

    Yesterday, I was winding down the day at work and looking forward to a laid-back evening at home, and maybe going to bed sort of early.  So around 3, I got a call from Matt, who had come across  tickets to the Yankees game.  Some client of the law firm he's working for.  So after juggling a the lineup of who was going to the game, Matt, his friend Veronica, and I  finally got to Yankee Stadium around 7:30.  My first trip to the ballpark, as well as to the Bronx.  The seats were pretty good, and sold for 55 bucks, which is more than I'd ever pay. But pretty much everything was on Matt.  Of course, in this generous mode, he wants to be called "Uncle Matt."  fine by me.  I was sitting 10 rows back on the third base side, drinking 7 dollar bottles of pretty good beer, and stuffing my face with hot sausage and peppers.  A pretty good ballpark experience. We also had access to the "Stadium Club," which is this sort of wood-paneled club in the stadium.  I suppose it looks kind of swanky, but it wasn't too impressive. Basically, they let you into this place so you can order 7 dollar vodka tonics.  Which we did.  And it was pretty good.

    Well, the night was a pretty pleasant surprise. One of those rare times when I didn't really want to go somewhere and went and ended up enjoying it.  So around the 7th inning, before Jen got to the ballpark, Matt and I somehow decided we wanted to go to Atlantic City.  I'm not sure exactly how it came up, but it was like "Oh yeah? I'll go."  "Oh yeah, well I'll go."  i guess it had something to do with who was more spontaneous and wacky or something.  So when Jen got there we ran the idea by her, called Jed in Brooklyn, and the trip was basically set.  We left the stadium around 10, and on the train Matt ended up talking to three guys who were also law students in New York for the summer.  Curiously, they were all dressed almost identically.  Light blue shirt, khaki pants, etc.  Jen and I got a pretty good kick out of that, and from the ensuing dialogue.  Not that I'm not glad that Matt's in the law.  After all, he did get a car from his firm to drive us back to Brooklyn.

    So we got back to Brooklyn around 11:40, made some minor preparations to get in the Atlantic City mood, and were off around midnight.  I myself was pretty amazed by the spontaneity of the day.  Of course, as soon as we got going, it started to rain.  the rain was accompanied by some of the most spectacular lightning I've ever seen.  It was really crackling and trailing across the entire sky.  It was blinding at times, and lit up the sky like it was day.  So I was a little nervous about the trip through unfamiliar territory on a dark and stormy night.  I always seem to be the one driving when the conditions are the worst.  And it did seem like a sign that we shouldn't go.  Plus, there was the usual screaming, outrageousness, and critiquing of my driving.  Fuckers.

    So anyway, we got there around 2 am, parked the car for 2 bucks, went into Caesar's, and found the casino.  Unlce Matt gave Jed, Jen and me around bucks each!  thanks Uncle Matt!  The whole night was just one swanky affair.  And it's always easier to gamble with somebody else's money.  Matt really wanted to learn craps, and Veronica had a pretty good basic understanding, so we started with that.  Almost immediately, Jed disappeared.  I looked around for him for a while, but couldn't find him. So I watched Matt play craps for about 20 minutes, in which time he won about a hundred bucks.  Then after a few more minutes, Jed shows up, grinning ear to ear, unfolds his hands and shows me three 100 dollar chips.  He tripled his money in less than half an hour.  eventually, Jen and I tried our hand at craps.  None of us really had a good idea what we were doing, but the general feel was this:  it's almost impossible to lose at Craps.  We weren't sure of the rulse at all, but you gotta love a game where if you don't win, you don't necessarily lose.  So it was really tough to lose a lot of money.  I wish i'd figured this out sooner, and bet more money.  I was betting around 10 bucks a roll, while Matt was betting more than 25.  at my top, I was about 90 bucks ahead.  I ended up with about 25 bucks on the plus side.  Jen finished with 55 over, Veronica with about 230, and Matt, who started with a hundred, walked away with about 470 dollars.  the cool thing about playing craps with your friends is that you all generally go together, if the roller is winning, everyone is winning.  I wish I'da won more, but hey, I have 125 bucks I didn't have yesterday.  And I seem to have caught the gambling bug again.   I didn't walk away when Matt and Veronica did, and I paid the price immediately. No self control.  two extra minutes cost me 40 bucks.  And I knew in my gut I shoulda walked away.  Oh well. I suppose you'll almost always leave a casion wishing you'd done something different.    And I suppose it's naive to think that craps is really that easy to win. But boy, it sure felt like it. Maybe there was just an unusual hot streak, but the money was flying for the hour we were there, and I was a little disappointed to be leaving so early.  But it was good. Normally we'd stay there all day, and lose all our winnings. So it was actually a god idea to go late at night, so we could only stay two hours. Anyway, it was the most spontaneous and exciting night I'd had in a long, long time. very surprising.

    Of course, I was halluncinating a good deal today, falling asleep with my eyes closed several times.  We got back to NY around 7am, and I had to go to work almost immediately after.  On the train, there were two people that looked like Matt and Jen.  At one point, it looked like "Matt" was trying to get "Jen"'s attention. But "jen" was ignoring him, so I almost hit "jen" in the head to get her attention.  Fortunately, I woke up just in time to save myself a major uncomfortable confrontation.  But I spent the whole day in a daze.  Everytime I tried to get work done on my computer at work, i fell asleep with my eyes open, and when I woke up after a few seconds, I noticed I'd typed words that I was speaking in my dream dialogue.  Weird.  But sort of interesting now that I think about it.  Anyway, I don't think I've really conveyed how cool an evening it was.   I can't believe five people walked into a casino and everybody won. What's more, I took part in the winning!   But I haven't slept in 40 hours or so, and I'm not feeling really eloquent. Just long-winded.
I have some pictures, from the night, which you can see on this page.
 
 
 
 

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