A Great Weekend

I love three day weekends. Something about having that extra day off makes going back to work so much more bearable. I had a busy start to my weekend, and then a lazy end to it. It was perfect.

Friday after work, Donald and I took off to Laughlin for a quick trip. It took us about 5 hours to get there, including the time we stopped for dinner, but we talked the entire way. One of the reasons I love being with Donald is that he's so easy to talk to. We never have awkward silences or a lack of conversation. So, while sitting in traffic wasn't pleasant, at least the company was excellent. We stayed at the Aquarius hotel, which was actually pretty nice. They have a smaller casino than we expected, but it was still well laid out. I adore any casino that has a No Smoking section of slot and table games for those of us who don't like to breathe in smoke from the person sitting next to us. We wandered around for a while, played a couple of slot games, and then went up to our room. We slept in Saturday morning (almost missing checkout time) and had a lovely brunch at the buffet. (People watching is by far one of my favorite activities, and let me tell you, there were plenty of interesting people to watch.) After brunch we hit the casino for an hour or so before we had to go back home. Donald wandered over to play blackjack, while I made a beeline for the Goldfish video slots game.

Now here's where I have to explain a little. I love video slots. I think they're cute and fun and quite entertaining. I'd play them even if I didn't win money. I also get excited when a bonus game pops up, regardless if it's my machine that gets it, or one next to me. When I sat down on the middle machine of a 3 machine strip, I had an elderly woman on either side of me (It's snow bird season in Laughlin, which raises the average customer age from 40 to 72). These women were not there to have fun, apparently, based on the glares I got any time I wiggled or clapped for a bonus game. (For the record, I'm not loud and obnoxious about it. In fact, I'd bet you couldn't even hear me two seats over. I'm quietly excited about the game.) Finally both women left, and a nice and friendly woman sat down. She and I had a great time exclaiming over bonus games and lamenting when we got crappy numbers. Her husband was standing behind us and remarked that he hated slots and could't understand what we were so excited about. Twenty minutes and a lot of fun later, he decided to see what the fuss was all about and sat down at the machine on the other side of me. At one point, the woman (who's name I never got) remarked that she'd never met anyone who got so excited when OTHER people won money. I can't help it! It makes losing money much more acceptable if you have fun while doing it! Actually, I ended up almost doubling my money, so when we left there, I was in a fantastic mood.

We drove back home Saturday afternoon and hit up the Anti-Valentine's Day hockey game at CBBA. We got there a little late, so we missed out on the Dark Knight bobble head giveaway, but at least the Reign won and put themselves back in first place in their division. After dinner at BJ's we went home and crashed. Something about sitting in a car for 4 hours makes you REALLY tired. Sunday started the lazy portion of my weekend, as I didn't get out of my pajamas until near 5pm. We had dinner out in Orange County with my parents and sister, and picked up Mia who was being puppy-sat while we were out of town. Since I also had Monday off, I spent the day in bed on my laptop watching movies and doing some work on my new website (which will hopefully be ready for a March debut!). I was well rested when I returned to work on Tuesday, which is something I haven't been in a very long time.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. I hope all of you have a fantastic Valentine's Day, or a rockin' Single's Awareness Day, whichever you choose to celebrate!