Almost Your Sugar Daddy
So you know how I was down $200, but kept a $100 chip in my pocket? Eventually, I decided to head back to the Pai Gow table with it. But instead of at the $25 table, I sat at the $10, since I figured my $100 would last longer that way. After a bit of playing, I was broke. I was down to maybe $2.50. At this point, I almost walked away, trying to learn my lesson. Impulsively, however, I pulled the only cash I had in my wallet, which was two five-dollar bills. I put it down as my bet.

Hours upon hours later, my last effort cash turned into over $600. It helped that I'd been playing the bonus bet, since I sat there long enough to be dealt two four-of-a-kind hands. Eventually, my dad woke up to an empty hotel room (around dawn) and gave my brother (who was at the table with me) a call on his cell phone. He didn't make us leave, but it was clear that he thought it'd be a good idea to call it a night. My brother and I both left the table in the black, each with our own $500 chip. Man, that sucker felt good.

Being up an overall $300 (minus $20 I pissed away at a slot machine), I was in a good mood for the trip. This happened before we left for the Grand Canyon. With my new-found cash, I justified buying souvenirs whenever I felt like it. My most exciting purchase was a "National Parks Passport." They're small spiral notebooks, with spaces for cancellation stamps, like a regular passport. Most of the 350+ sites maintained by the NPS have little inkpads and stamps at their Visitor Centers for you to stamp your "passport." It's a new goal to visit every single one of these sites. Unfortunately, even if I average five per year, that's at least 70 frickin' years. But I can try. I got five on this past trip (Lake Mead, Grand Canyon, Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano, and Walnut Canyon), and I can pick up a few in the Gulf Coast and Atlanta regions in the next few months. I'm going to try to pick up 50 stamps in the next two years or so.

I also got an annual pass to the national parks, which is a rather stupid program. Usually, when something like an annual pass is sold to some attraction, the idea is that for some people, it will be an extraordinary deal. But you hope that even more people won't use the pass nearly enough to make it worthwhile. What the NPS does, however, is offer you a chance to put old receipts up against the purchase of an annual pass. Between the three of us, my dad, my brother, and I paid $40 in entrance fees. So at the last site, I put in an extra $10 to get the annual pass. The way this system is designed, you never need to anticipatorily purchase the pass, but instead wait for your fees to reach $50. So you never spend more than $50 a year, and you only spend it when the value of the pass is totally apparent. I like the National Park Service and its philosophy, but they're just being stupid here.

I also got a guide to all of the NPS's sites, so I can better plan in the future my trips.

Anyway, after we returned to Las Vegas, I kept gambling. And I lost my earnings. First I just lost $200, but bolstered by previous efforts, I threw in that extra $100. It was not long for this earth. So I left Las Vegas at scratch, but I had a great time. And I definitely left remembering the feeling of being down $200 dollars. I think it's okay to feel stupid for losing, as long as you never gamble beyond your means, and you only go gambling infrequently. I don't mean infrequently while you're at the casino, but just don't go to the casino very often. If you asked me before the trip if I could spare $200, I would've said 'no.' But if I really needed to, I could've tightened my belt. And it would've been worth it, because Vegas is one hell of a town.
- posted by roger @ 9:43 PM