Holidays in Vegas: Will the jinx continue?

Presents are unwrapped, parties are over, and I have packed, unpacked and repacked my luggage for the third time as I prepare for my holiday trip to Las Vegas. I’ve been putting off this trip for the past eight months. Granted, I’ve been busy — trying to settle my worker’s compensation claim, helping to launch Nonstop Honolulu and being part of the Gubernatorial election. However, the main reason I’ve been putting off this trip to Vegas is due to two reasons… superstition and paranoia!

The reason I have this trip to Vegas is because of my last visit to Sin City. You’ve seen it before in dozens of movies and television shows. Someone hits the jackpot, and the casino in an attempt to get that person to stay longer, offers them a comped room. I’ve always managed to break even or occasionally make money through smart play, but I never thought that I would ever be one of those people who would get a comped room. Back in February, I took a liking to playing three-card poker, a game as quick as blackjack, but without having to do addition in your head. The top hand in three-card poker is a straight flush with a 70-to-1 payout. So, a $5 blind, $10 bet and $1 side bet equals a $1,120 payout. During my last trip to Vegas, I hit that twice. That’s $2,240 on two hands of poker, which brings me to my first hesitation on going back… Luck!

After winning that much money on two hands of poker, I knew there was no way I would be that lucky on my next trip. The casino offered me a comped room, because odds are that they would get that money back, if not more, on my next trip. I came out ahead and I wanted to keep it that way.

The next reason I put off my trip was paranoia. I know that with the thousands of people who lose money in casinos every year, they could care less about my measly $2,000, but I can’t help but think that the minute I step into the casino, someone operating the security cameras will say, “There he is!” The minute I sit down at a table, a call will come down to the pit boss instructing him to swap out the dealer. I will be dealt a really good hand so I make my second bet and then lose to the dealer’s hand, which will conveniently beat my hand by one card. Anyone who has played blackjack can tell you how aggravating it is when a dealer always beats you by one or worst, keeps hitting to get a five card twenty-one!

So, why am I going to Vegas now? Well, the voucher I have expires at the end of the year, so I had to either use it or lose it. However, this now brings me to an interesting quandary. I put off my trip to Vegas for so long that I will now be there on New Year’s Eve, a day that has always been bad luck for me. I’d even go so far as to say that I’m jinxed.

• 2000 – I’m out with a group of friends when someone has the bright idea to go hang out at Lagoon Drive. My friend who is driving doesn’t see the road block of sheriffs. He runs the road block and sheriffs run up to the car with their automatic weapons drawn. Thankfully, we got out of there with only a reckless driving ticket.
• 2001 – While visiting home for the holidays (I was living in West Virginia at the time), I found out that my friend from college was in a bad car accident. She had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend after telling him that she was pregnant. After visiting her in the hospital, I went to meet up with another group of friends from college. After a few drinks, someone said, “Lets go to Femme Nu!” I walk in the door, and who is sitting at the end of the bar working, but a girl I knew from college. She is sporting a much “curvier” figure, which she said she paid for after working in the club only four months. After a few minutes, I turn around to find that my “so called friends” have ditched me and taken my cell phone and wallet with them. It became blatantly obvious that I had been set up. I ended up having to ask my ex for a ride home, after she finished work of course.
• 2002 – West Virginia: After an event at the Greenbrier club house I was loading the truck that would take me back to the bakeshop in the main part of the hotel. I slip on a patch of black ice. My feet literally go over my head and I fall flat on my back. I spend the night at the hotel clinic, because the nearest emergency room is over 20 miles away. I spend the next two days in my apartment sprawled out on my couch.
• 2003 – Michigan: Broke up with girlfriend two days before New Year’s Eve. Let me tell you, it sucks going to parties and having everyone ask about your significant other. Then, while at a New Year’s Eve party, someone rear ends my car in the parking lot, smashing my bumper and breaking my tail light. I’m not entirely convinced that it wasn’t done by my ex-girlfriend.
• 2004 – After no symptoms the day before, I wake up New Year’s Eve with the flu. I spend the entire party at my aunt’s house on the couch.
• 2005 – The band at the school where my sister teaches is marching in the Rose Parade. My entire family plans a trip to Pasadena for New Year’s, but having just started a new job, I couldn’t go, so I spend New Year’s home alone with a bottle of red wine.
• 2006 – My baker at the time has his wife call in to say that his mother died. He leaves, so I have to cover his shift. Guess what? His mother is alive and well.
• 2007 – One of my bakers quits after an argument with the kitchen manager, so I had to work a double shift on one of the busiest days the year for the second year in a row.
• 2008 – The night cleaners forget to replace the cover after cleaning a floor sink. They then place a floor mat over it so that no one can see that the floor sink doesn’t have a cover. I step into the floor sink, falling forward, spraining my ankle and almost hitting my head on stainless steel table, Oh, and I had a knife in my hand. I spent four hours in the emergency room, and because it was a workplace accident, I had to also take a drug test.
• 2009 – I finally get New Year’s Eve night off, but an errant rocket hits my car and breaks my driver’s side mirror. There’s still a dent in the door, where the rocket hit the car before ricocheting into the mirror.

As you can see, New Year’s Eve has not been very good to me this decade, and this year, I will be in Vegas of all places. Who knows what will happen this year. One thing is for certain, I will not be doing ANY gambling on New Year’s Eve!