Dropping off & Picking up

Dropping off:

This weekend was pretty tame. All extra energy is being held in reserve and is expected to be released next weekend. I can spend a solid few days at the bottom of a glass, feeding that introspective monkey on my back jello shots to keep him from jabbering on and on about existentialism, life's equation, and how mine is not proceeding down the prescibed path. Shut up, monkey! Have a jello shot! Go play some blackjack!

Did I say blackjack? That's right. Not but two weeks removed from the travesty that was my last casino adventure, here I sit with friends of mine planning another casino adventure to celebrate my twenty-eighth year. Why don't they just present me with a bill? :p

I'm kidding, of course. I didn't need much coaxing. As Hunter S. Thompson surmised at the end of Fear and Loathing, I'm "just sick enough to be totally confident". So, I will not speak of it further. Afterall, history doesn't repeat itself. Or was that... hmm... anyway...

If any of you have ever seen Snatch, directed by Mr. Madonna (aka Guy Ritchie), there is a scene near the beginning of the film that involves the discovery by one of the characters that another character, played by a Benecio del Toro (Franky Four Fingers, a notorious gambling addict), was placed in an environment of temptation. On the phone, this guy seems shocked and apprehensive to learn that Franky might have run amuck. Cut to a rapid-fire montage of stills of Franky, amid all the glitz and glamour of a casino, blowing his wad(s?) and grinning from ear to ear all the while. The music that accompanies it mirrors the ecstatics of a junkie in the middle of getting their much-needed fix. It's brief but hilarious. Check it out sometime -- oh, and watch the movie too while you're at it :p

I like to joke with neighbors at the table. "Who says you've gotta pay rent?" "I've gotta turn this two hundred into two hundred thousand, or I'm a dead man."

Well, enough about casinos. They can be enjoyable every once in a while. Nevertheless, win or lose, after this trip I plan to take a long time off from them.

Picking up:

Changing the subject before I go, I was at the dry cleaner last week to pick up some clothes. It's a nice place, very cheap in comparison to some of the vendors around town. The staff are of some indistinguishable asian nationality. "It doesn't matter though, does it? Are you prejudiced? Because in spite of [their] race, [these people are] very valuable to me." Another Hunter S. Thompson gem for ya. :)

They are very nice people. When I entered, the lady that assisted me was very congenial. She was making small talk. "Hi. Did you have nice day?" I had. "Are you glad the kids are going back to school." "Looks like rain." Things of this nature.

After a few moments, she excused herself to collect my order from the racks. Returning, she asked, "So, did you have a nice day?" Either she wasn't really listening at all, or she didn't buy my story. I was having a good day. I promise. :)

It inevitably reminded me of the scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where Ed Rooney was out looking for Ferris. (I always wondered why he chose the hang-out he did. They never really elaborated on why. Afterall, Ferris was off galavanting around Chicago.)

Anyway, after confronting a girl he mistakes from behind for Ferris, he walks up to the bar to get a napkin to wipe away the soda she spit on him. The bartender is watching a baseball game in the background. As Rooney is drying himself, he absently inquires in reference to the baseball game, "What's the score?" The bartender replies, "Nothing, nothing." Rooney, still focused on his clothes, asks, "Who's winning?" Irritated, the bartender pauses for a moment, and then, with caustic wit, answers, "The Bears." :p