Triple Lucky

This weekend was almost an embarrassment of riches. Not only did I meet my TLF band members (NICK RHODES....do you understand how AMAZING that was?!?!), which was incredible in itself, but on the way home from Vegas I had some (read: tons of) luck in the slots. Oh, wait. Let's backtrack a bit.

As anyone close to me knows, I'm not a risky person with money. Without meaning any offense with this statement, there must be some part of me that's Jewish (again, sorry, wasn't trying to be derogatory) because I can be quite stingy (read: miserly) with money. Especially when gambling. For whatever reason I can't make the jump from taking chances to being OK with losing money. All I do is sit there and think about what I could be doing with the money I just lost.

So, yesterday at Four Queens my Dad gave me $20 to gamble with. And even though it wasn't even my money, I was still cautious. I played a Wheel of Fortune machine and decided that I'd play until I either doubled my money OR hit a spin, which is just fun. Well, after a few minutes, I hit a spin which paid 100 quarters (and therefore doubled my money), so I was done. $42.50 was my end result.

After all the errands yesterday and then hanging with Alex, I didn't get on the road home until about 5:30 p.m. Well, as I'd hardly slept the night before (I kept waking up to pinch myself to see if meeting Duran Duran really happened), this was about the point I hit the wall. I was SO tired I couldn't stand it. My Dad called and said I should find a hotel and stay there, so I decided to get a room at the Virgin River hotel in Mesquite. While there, he said I needed to play "his" machine - the same machine he's hit at least four or five times (loyal blog readers may remember him hitting it over Thanksgiving last year). I told him I wouldn't, I hate gambling, and it's a waste of money. He said I'd change my mind when they took my social security card and paid me out. Yeah, whatever. I wasn't going to do it.

This morning I went to check out from the hotel and decided to humor my father. I had $6 to my name, so I put it all in his stupid dollar machine (which takes $2 a pull - so I had three whole pulls to play). To really appreciate the scene, you'll have to imagine me cursing him the entire time in my mind. I put the $6 in the machine and was thinking, "I hope you're happy now, Dad. I'll pull three times, lose $6 and walk away. Happy now?!" I pulled one time. Nothing. My thoughts: "See that? $2 gone. What a waste. I could've used that for breakfast." I go to pull again, and the machine hits a 7 and two Triple Luckys. I don't know what that means, but the machine ceases to work and the light comes on. I'm convinced it's broken. But, no. The reason it said, "See Attendant" is because I won $1,440!!! Can you believe it?!!? I've never won anything remotely exciting like that before, let alone cold, hard cash.

I still can't believe it. Wasn't meeting Duran Duran enough? But an actual jackpot on top of it?!?! How can I be so lucky?? They took my picture for the local paper (jackpot winner, baby!) and paid me 14 $100 bills - wowza!! Thanks, Dad, for the tip! Guess I should listen to him more often, huh? :) Now, how can I spend $1,440 in a jiffy? Oh, wait. What? :)