Saturday, December 11, 2004
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The HIB
It stands for the Holiday Inn on Broadway, which is how we refer to the branch of the Casino that's located in the basement of said hotel. I just came off a nine hour graveyard shift there and I'm exhausted. The fact that I'm absolutely wasted is the one reason I'm not getting into bed and falling asleep. I know that if I do, there is no way I can haul my ass out in 45 minutes to drive Jim to work. He's working on a Saturday because he's taking Monday off to go to
ICBC to get his license back. His
two month suspension is officially over today but because it's not a weekday and ICBC is not open, he's going to have to wait two more days. I have to mention that he would take the bus, but because it's not a weekday,
transit doesn't start operating early enough for him to be able to get to work on time. In fact, the Skytrain is so damn lousy that it doesn't even start running until 7am on weekends. Eventually I'm going to settle in a city that never sleeps. Meanwhile, I have to contend with a city that sleeps early on weeknights and wakes up late on weekends. How exciting.
The HIB is very different from the Coquitlam Casino (where I am regularly posted). The Coquitlam Casino is big. Before they opened the latest one in Richmond (the River Rock Casino, referred to as "the Rock" for good reason) it was the biggest one they had. After the slated expansions due to be completed sometime next year, it's supposed to be the biggest again. Both Casinos (Coq and the HIB) have no windows. But while Coq tries to trick your eyes with murals that depict vague outdoorsy shapes the HIB doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It knows is a small casino in the basement and it's cosy and I like it. It even has potted plants which, in the spirit of the season, are adorned each with a small string of lights. I thought that was a nice touch although the lights might always have been there and I failed to notice them the last time I was there picking up a shift.
It's a smaller casino and the tips are much worse than what I'm pulling at Coquitlam. But it's a smaller casino and more people know each other. There's somehow a stronger sense of community. They do things differently there too. I won't go into the details, because they really won't be significant to people outside the business, but I think it's cute. I don't plan to request transfer any time soon but I certainly wouldn't say no to picking up the odd shift there.
I met alot of my classmates from dealer school. Caught up with talk of who left and who got fired. The most juicy story is of course about Steve (who I'm sure everyone in our class heard about within a week of his firing) who got canned because he mouthed off to a pit. None from our class were surprised, mind. It was just juicy, I mean, word has it that they didn't even provide him with a reason for his dismissal. They just told him that he no longer had to turn up for work. They can do that too because it was within his probation period. Whatever though, Steve lives at home and goes to school. This job wasn't important to him in any meaningful way.
Need sleep.
I think
Puja jinxed me. We were having an
MSN conversation earlier where she mentioned that she was having bad cramps. My period hadn't even started. After that conversation trailed off and I went about my day, my period came and now I have KILLER cramps. Damn you Puja. Damn you and all your paracetamol.
posted by Joie! at
5:45 a.m.
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