Hick Had It in the Bag

Oops! I forgot the pictures of our newest free American Tourister luggage, the shoulder bag. We got them at the casino giveaway last Saturday. Which was St. Patrick's Day. Aside from a good crowd at the restaurant we walked past on the way in, and the green mint shake offered at Burger Brothers, and the old guy sitting on the half-wall of a plant decorations thingy wearing a green bowler hat...we wouldn't have noticed that it was St. Patrick's Day.

There WAS a large crowd that closed the valet parking, but it was for a wedding, Hick said. He was privy (heh, heh) to this knowledge due to his extraordinary observation skills in the men's room on our way home. He said a little boy was washing his hands, and an old man asked, "Are you ready now?" And the kid nodded, dried his hands, and said, "I hafta go do my job!" He was apparently performing some official duty in the wedding.

People were milling all around the long corridor when we left. Well-dressed people. Not the attire you would wear to a casino to sit next to people smoking like chimneys. Suits. Long dresses. I would have suspected a wedding RECEPTION, not the actual ceremony, but Hick insisted. Even VAL would not schedule her wedding at a casino.

Anyhoo...those darn people had to stand RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of that corridor. On the wide carpeted part down the center, where it's kind of cushy to walk on. Eschewing the leather benches along the wall, and the tile part on each side of the corridor that left plenty of room for schmoozing, and the entry area to the event center, which was off the beaten path. Good thing we didn't have luggage on wheels as the giveaway that day.

Our shoulder bags were not as big as we anticipated, but they were FREE. They came all flattened down, and Hick decided that he was not going to take them back to the car. "I'll just put them under my arm. They'll be easy to carry."

"Yeah. And you'll set them down, and walk off without them after your first slot." Seriously. I do NOT give Hick gambling money so he can leave our FREE luggage behind!

"No I won't. I'll remember."

"If you were smart, you'd put one inside the other, and wear it on your shoulder. Like my gambling purse!"

I think I learned about that tactic from a college professor. The if you were smart preface. So people don't think you're telling them what to do, and of course they want to look smart. Either that, or my second-best ol' teaching buddy Karen taught me that, as a method she used with her 4th graders.

"This one will fit right in!" Hick had my bag stuffed inside his in no time. When I saw him later, that bag looked like an anaconda that had swallowed a deer. "I put my coat in there, too!" Hick was rockin' the man-purse. "I put the strap over my knee when I sit down to play, so I don't forget it when I get up."

This Saturday is the grand finale of the luggage giveaway. The grandpappy of baggage, the large suitcase on wheels. I'm pretty sure that Hick will take them back out to the parking lot. And that everybody else won't.