Third time's a charm...

As Eddie Murphy once said (as Buckwheat... on SNL).  Once... Twice... Three times a mayday......  or to be more specific... Unce... Tice... Fee times a mayday... lol... anyway... here is my third blog for your reading enjoyment.

Today's blog was an EASY decision about what I was going to write about...  my LUCKY evening!

Let's start from the very beginning (a very good place to start... sorry, I had to).

Last week in the mail, we got an advertisement from a local Indian casino that their buffet was only $9.99 for "club" members... Before my big decision about losing a lot of weight, we had already decided to head out there for the buffet.  And just to be sure you all know... I ate pretty sensibly at the buffet...  Now... while sitting at the table, we had agreed to ONLY spend $20 between the two of us.  I figured that would be fine, since we NEVER win anything anyway, and it wouldn't be wasting TOO much money.  We finished dinner, and since I had a couple one dollar bills in my wallet, I would give the guy a $2 tip (don't judge me... it was a buffet, so he really wasn't working TOO hard for it).

After dinner, we had a quick restroom break, and while I was waiting for Heidi, I decided to (secretly) play the last dollar that I had in my wallet on a penny machine (fact... I was ONLY playing on penny machines all night... an important detail for later).  Well, I got caught...  In about 3 minutes of playing I was up to about $5.  Since we wanted to go up to the main floor, I cashed out, and we walked away.  While we were walking, I jokingly said "I'm so excited... I just quintupled my money!"... little did I know that this would be just the beginning of my evening...

When we got up to the main floor, Heidi split the $20 we had agreed on and gave me $10.  We walked around, not really having any luck (playing a couple bucks here and there).  After a little while, I saw a game I thought I had played at some point before (probably in Vegas or something).  I put in my ticket, which was still at about $5.  After about 20 minutes, I noticed something... I was up to about $20.  I decided to cash out the machine, and put in one of the five dollar bills I had (from the original $10).  Another half hour later or so, I was still playing, and got another ticket for $21...  Again, I cashed out the machine, and put in the last five dollar bill I had...  Then... luck struck again!!!  This time for $27...  At this point I knew I was doing pretty well, and was already up over $60... so I knew I should stop... or at least PACE myself.  I went over to the bill changing machine and cashed in my first $20 ticket... I gave $10 back to Heidi, and decided to play the other $10... Then... my luck started to wear out...... or so I thought...  Now, at one point, I was down to about $0.40 and I got a bonus... That bonus got me back up to around $8.  A few minutes later, I had gotten that total up to about $27...  then, something CRAZY happened... Heidi had gotten bored at the machines near me, so she got up and tried another machine...  At around the $27 mark, I got another one of the bonus games that gave me a few free spins... those few free spins turned into 20 free spins... and with that, MIRACULOUSLY I saw that I had won a MAJOR jackpot (for a penny machine) and was getting something like 16,000 credits... Or... to put it in $$$ terms... $160.  I immediately cashed out the machine and walked over to Heidi and said "You are NOT going to believe what just happened"...  I showed her the ticket and didn't even have to say anything...  I think her response was "are you serious?".  I couldn't believe it!  I have NEVER had that kind of luck.

Now, for a lot of you, having $200 doesn't sound like a big deal.  But for me, who has been desperately looking for a job for the last 6 months, it is SUCH a relief.  Honestly... I don't even want to spend it.  Just HAVING it makes me feel so much better about things.  I know they always say "Money doesn't buy you happiness"... but when you haven't had any money for such a long time... Well, it sure feels like happiness to me.