So, maybe you've heard of these things called "time zones"? They help mankind from accidentally doing everything at once. Like, say, my and my friends all want to play basketball at 8 PM. But, someone in Tempe, Arizona, also wants to play basketball at 8 PM. Well, since Tempe, Arizona has daylight at a much later time than we do here in the real world, we get to have 8 PM first. It's only fair.
So, I woke up a little late for me on day 2, around 9 AM or so. Unfortunately, using this "Pacific Time Zone," which all those Vegas people do, it was more like 6 AM. And here's a tip about Vegas -- there are more people awake and about at 3 AM than there are at 7 AM. The dividing line between "late night" and "early morning" happens later there. I blame time zones.
So, I'm up and ready for my day to begin, and all right thinking persons are asleep. So, I kill some time, get a shower, walk up and down Fremont Street, gamble a little. I even do some calisthenics. So, having killed some time, I call the Wisconsin crew and see if they want to get some breakfast.
It's probably 7:20 AM at this point. I hear two mumbled death threats and one ambivalent response that could either have meant "I'll see you down there" or "whatever you need to hear to leave me alone so I can go back to sleep." I would repeat this process on Sunday, at a later time. However, I take no responsibility for that one, as those guys were on Pacific Stripper Time, which also shifts back your clock some.
We got some food in us, and then played some Vampire. This was a good thing, because I really don't play that much anymore. I do get some games with Marty and Sarah, which are fun, but lack something when the game is designed for four- or five-player tables. I got to catch up with folks I haven't seen in a while and refresh my knowledge of our game. I also got to see some new cards, new strategies, cool stuff.
My roommate took second place in a poker tournament, winning a nice piece of cash and my admiration. Another V:TES player took second in another tournament, bringing in a more sizable chunk of change. It's nice to see that the rumored connection between the skills of nerdy card games overlaps a bit with the skills of poker.
Kevin took us all out to a national park, Red Rock Canyon, which was great. I don't know how deep the canyon was, and while everyone else was climbing down, I pointed up and said, "I want to meditate on that one," indicating some round, tall peak of rock. While my friends laughed and called me Buddha, I got my climb on, and got a great view of rocks, sky, fashion models, college kids, and dead scorpions. (One of those is a lie.) It was nice, and my friends eventually acknowledged my awesome deeply spiritual nature by sitting lotus style and having photographs taken of themselves for their Facebook pages. Well, not really. I think they were still making fun of me.
Kevin then showed us how to get free money from casinos. The casino will sometimes give you X dollars, which you can use to win real money, but you cannot cash out without gambling and winning X dollars first. I didn't really understand, since if you give me something for free, I may make the leap that it has no value. Afterward, we were all comparing how much we made off our fake $25. "I got $13," said one. "I got $7.50," said another. "I got a rock," said I. Kevin was very disappointed. I resolved to do better when we returned in two days.
Also, available at this casino, the "Snuggie"? I don't know the Snuggie, because I don't have a broadcast TV channel, but everyone I ask seems to know about it. And it's apparently a hilarious commercial. There are cult elements. I'm sorry I couldn't bring anyone a Snuggie, but the casino was tricksy with their Snuggie distribution.
I gambled a little more, then took a cue from David Buerger and agonized over my deck choices for a bit. I went to bed at what I thought was a wicked late, but was actually very reasonable, time. Time zones, y'see. Sure. Also, I think there were people in my room after I was trying to sleep and I think I tried to castrate Rehlow by accident. I'm sorry, man. You shouldn't mess with the sleeping Heslin.
--5:24 PM, EST, Hatboro, PA, never betray the way you've always known it is
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