One of the promotions was a Private Party. Once you played the slots and earned at least 20 points, you could take your player's card to the promotions center and have it loaded with $20 of free play. PLUS you could get a wristband that allowed entrance to the Private Party, which involved free food and drinks. It was plainly on the High Winds website, and also advertised on posters in their vestibule. I had copied the offer word for word from their website to an index card. I did this for the promotions from each casino, and gave a set of index cards to my sister the ex-mayor's wife after we got back in our separate cars after lunch at Lee's Chicken on the way down there.
Still...Sis questioned the Private Party.
"I don't get this. Why is there a Private Party? Do we get to go? What's going on at the Private Party? Free food and drinks? What's that? Is it a meal? What kind of drinks? Soda? A bar? It's from 7:00 to 9:00. We're usually at another casino by then. How many are allowed in? What if they run out of food and drinks? It says to get a wristband at 6:00? Then what are we going to do?"
"I don't know. That's what their promotions page said. I don't know any more than that. Maybe you don't want to go. I don't care. But it's $20 of free play, and you're probably going to gamble enough anyway to get to 20 points. For all I know, they're serving free soda and a bowl of popcorn. You guys decide. I'm just letting you know the promotions."
Of course Genius was interested. "If that Private Party has free drinks, that will be well worth it! I think we should go."
Sis was skeptical, but we all went. We arrived around 5:45, and by 6:05, Sis, Ex-Mayor, Genius, and Friend had their wristbands. I got mine about five minutes later, because I was playing a machine that I knew an annoying guy wanted, and I didn't want to give in to him. I'm like that sometimes.
There's my bracelet, next to the Garmin-brand fitbit thingy Genius gave me for Christmas. These Party wristbands were snapped on like a hospital ID bracelet, with a plastic clasp thingy. Hick did not have a bracelet, so Sis interrogated him and sent him to the promotions desk to get one. Hick was under the impression that he was missing out on $20 free play (which he WAS), and had no clue about the Private Party.
The promotions lady scanned Hick's player's card, and asked if he wanted a bracelet. "SURE! If it's FREE!" So he got one, still not knowing what it was good for. A lady next to him, when asked, said, "OH! I get a BRACELET?" Yeah. Not everybody there was a former valedictorian like Val, Genius, and The Pony.
Speaking of The Pony, he did not have a bracelet. Newly-awoken Hick, after a symposium by Sis, started in on The Pony. "What do you mean you haven't got 20 points in play yet? I've seen you playing! I don't care if your card wasn't working! Give it to me! I'll play it for you. Give it to YOUR MOM! She plays higher than I do. What are you going to do when we go in there to eat, sit out here by yourself and starve?" Let the record show that we had not eaten since breakfast at 9:30 a.m.
Of course The Pony took offense, and meandered off by himself, and Hick sent me as a search party of one, to corral him and break him so he could attend the soiree with us. The Pony did it on his own terms, and got his party bracelet.
High Winds is not a large casino. It was not overly busy, this being a Thursday night. When 7:00 (PARTY TIME) rolled around, we didn't know where to go. Genius had scoped out the situation, though. Upon arrival, he'd asked where it would be held, what would be served, and how much was allowed. The lady told him it was cheese and crackers and those roll-up things (PINWHEELS) and pasta salad and whatever drinks you wanted, including liquor. "So get one and get back in line!" Her advice. Not his.
Anyhoo...we saw Genius and Friend at the head of the line. It was a back room full of round tables, 8 chairs to a table, and long tables up front loaded with food, and a long table at the back with a bartender. The food looked appetizing. A vegetable platter with carrots/broccoli/cauliflower, giant bowls of spinach dip, two kinds of round crackers, cubes of yellow/white/pepperjack cheeses, cubes of ham, bowls of colored pasta salad with broccoli and ham chunks, pinwheels of ham/cheese/tomato/lettuce/mayo, and some sliced sub sandwiches.
It should come as no surprise to you that Genius selected our table, the one directly in front of the open bar. As he said later, "I didn't want us up there by all the traffic of the food line." I could kick myself for not getting a picture of everybody's plate. It was an afterthought that I got the aftermath.
That's my Diet Coke cup, after it got watered down while waiting on my table of alcoholics. Genius was having whisky/Cokes, as he called them. I think Friend had the same. Sis had two bottles of beer, as did Ex-Mayor. Hick had one bottle of beer (seeing as how he was our driver, and I didn't know how long we were staying). That's Hick in the background.
The only complaint I have is that the bartender lady would only pour me that little cup of Diet Coke. Sure, I could go back as often as I wanted. But you'd think she could have given me a whole can of Diet Coke. It's not like I was asking for a fifth of vodka.
You could go through the food line as often as you wanted. We were all fat and sassy after that free Private Party. Except maybe Sis, who was only sassy. She didn't eat anything but 8 crackers and a handful of giant olives she took off the bar while the lady was turned around getting her bottle of beer. She said she didn't really want what they had to offer. Oh, well. More for me!
We were allowed free run of that room until 9:00. Around 7:45 we went out to the casino floor to gamble some more. Genius and Friend made numerous trips back inside for drinks. Genius had been lucky with his gambling, coming out $40 ahead. As he said,
"I hope they know they just paid me $40 to drink all I can in two hours!"
Well played, Mr. Genius, well played.
ReplyDeleteHe IS quite aware of the value of a dollar, and the potency of the alcohol.
Delete$40 to drink for 2 hours is pretty good, but I'll bet Garmin pays a lot more!
ReplyDeleteYes, but I'm pretty sure the drinking part is frowned upon.
DeleteGenius is enjoying that three-week twilight period between graduation and career. You can take the boy out of college, but you can't take the college out of the boy. Probably not until his first paycheck.
Your sister sure sounds like she's the life of the party...
ReplyDeleteThank goodness there were no lampshades for her to use as a chapeau, and I kept her off the table.
DeleteAll that delicious food and Sis eats eight crackers?? Is she secretly on a super-model diet?
ReplyDeleteGenius is a genius alright, sitting himself out of the way of the food line and so conveniently right by the bar.
Not according to her plate at the breakfast buffet. She said she wasn't a fan of the cheese, and the big sandwich was "ruined" by having tomato and mayo on it. I can't imagine she turned down the pinwheels!
DeleteGenius said that after his second trip to the bar, the lady knew he wanted a double whiskey/Coke every time he showed up.
How often/many times can he get a double whiskey & still find his way back to the bar?
DeleteThe "bar" was two long tables put together, with a lady bartender behind them, and her liquor stock on a portable carts, with coolers for the cold stuff. Their actual bar is in the gaming part of the casino. This room was off to the side.
DeleteI'm pretty sure Genius didn't get too far away from this open-curtained meeting room. He'd play a few spins, then go back when his drink was finished. Remember, he's still processing that alcohol with his "college liver" as he calls it.
On Monday at 8:00 a.m., I think that "college liver" will cease to function, and he'll be on his "adult liver."