Well, that was a waste of make-up

The first blind date has come (kind of) and gone (totally) and quite frankly it was (not) a (complete) bust.

Allow me to explain.

My aunt works as a dealer for a local casino. As such she has some regular patrons that enjoy playing specifically at her table. One of these is C. C likes to play black jack and comes in every two weeks or so while he's in town on business. He prefers to play at my Aunt's table because she's entertaining like that. And her bosses like it that she has regulars. It's basically a win/win.

A few weeks ago, about the time I was formulating this crazy idea, she was shadowing a new dealer who happened to be doing very well so my aunt got a chance to talk to this guy a bit more than she usually would. That's when the light bulb went off and she decided to arrange the date.

Fast forward to tonight. As far as I know, based on an email from my aunt, the date has been confirmed. We're supposed to be meeting at the casino near her table because I don't know this guy from Adam and he's only seen my picture maybe once. (Ironically and completely unintentionally I was wearing the same shirt tonight that was wearing in the picture my aunt keeps behind her work badge.) My aunt was supposed to introduce us and we would go from there.

I arrive at the casino and allow the valet service to take my car because it's a lot safer to do it that way than to park it myself and then have to go find my car in the dark or in the parking garage. I'm willing to spend a decent tip to be safe.

There are two immediate bonuses to meeting a blind date at the casino when it comes to the safety issue: The valet parking mentioned above and security. I love security guards and in general the ones I've met at the casinos are pretty much awesome. I'm pretty sure that if I had chosen to self park I would have been able to ask a security guard to escort me to my car and honestly, having them there made me feel a lot better about meeting a stranger for a date in case things had gone south.

But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. Or maybe that was closer to a ramble.

Anyway, I wandered inside and hit the bathroom to make some minor adjustments to my appearance and freshen my lipstick before wandering down to flash my ID at the security guard and head to the gaming floor. I walk in and do a quick walk about to see if I can find my aunt but she's not there yet. I'm a little early, so I camp out near one of the sets of dealers tables and wait. She comes and is assigned to a different set of tables, so I just follow her over. I'm not certain of the rules, so I'm hanging back a bit until I'm sure that it's ok for me to even sit at her table and not play. It was, so I go sit and get comfy. She gets pulled away again and I'm just hanging out.

The appointed time arrives and goes and he's not there. No big. He's from out of town and a pre-emptive 'ish' was added to the meeting time, anyway. I'm just big on the whole being on time thing. So, I sit there, talk with my aunt when she gets back, buy an amaretto sour (yummy), and smoke a few while I'm waiting.

I should interject here that casinos are not my favorite of places. Not because of any moral standpoint or anything like that. Frankly, I figure it's a game and no better or worse than people who plug money into Facebook to get extra perks in FarmVille. There are people who have an addiction to these things and I in no way mean to make light of that, however, in the overall scheme of things, it's entertainment. No, the reason I do not care for casinos is the atmosphere. The lights are blinky and the music and voices and klaxons are loud and the whole place tends to smell like desperation and cheap perfume as a general rule. Friday and Saturday nights to tend to hold a more jovial atmosphere, but since my usual experience with casinos has been during the day the idea stands. I'm not averse to them, but I probably wouldn't be able to handle working at one. So to all those that do: I raise my glass.

At some point while I'm waiting, my aunt is sent on break. This is around 7:30. I decide that I'm hungry and go out to the diner that's outside the gaming area to get dinner. I had a nice sandwich and a soda and do some debating as to whether or not I should go back in. I decide to because A: the optimist in me wants to think that C is only deplorably late and B: what else do I have to do? I'd set aside my entire evening for this, after all.

So, I go back into the fray and perch in my chair at my aunt's table. I can't play, because we're related and it's against the rules, but I've never seen Pai Gow Poker and it's kind of interesting to watch. Besides, I don't have money to spend gambling. So, I got to sit there and watch the game, drink free soda, and smoke a few more.

This is where things get interesting, not because C ever showed up, because he didn't, but because it was an excellent chance to observe.

There was a lady that had been playing at the table for a while. She was nice and pretty entertaining in her own right. We joked around about how she ended up being my blind date for the evening.

One guy was wearing a purple check shirt. One of the decks on the table happened to also be purple check on the backs. This meant that the cards had the opportunity to be camouflaged against his shirt at times, which made for some rather amusing interactions once it was realized. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but a few giggles were had.

At some point this couple showed up and they were a bit intense. Obviously, an argument had happened before the came in because both were still pretty riled from it. He played, she didn't and their communication between each other was that subdued sort of pissed off. When he talked to my aunt or any of the other players it was fine, but when they talked to each other I kept expecting explosions.

Another guy joined in after purple shirt left and his first words were, directed at me, "Will you help me out if I need it? I've only played this once." To which I was compelled to reply, "I've been sitting here all night and haven't played a single hand." And we all laughed a bit and my aunt explained that she or any of the other players could help if he needed it.

I also got to see my aunt in action and it was pretty cool to watch her deal out hands and be able to figure up who won and didn't in the span of a few seconds. I'm still trying to figure out how the game is played. And seeing her open her table was kind of neat because there's a lot of security protocols and opening tactics that she has to do to make her table ready for play. And there are security cameras everywhere, including right over her head so they can literally watch the table and make sure nothing shady is going on. It's all kind of heavy, but it makes sense, really.

I decided to leave about the time that my aunt's table was starting to get full. Better to open up my spot for a paying customer and I wasn't getting anywhere anyway.

All this to say: The evening wasn't a total bust. Sure my date didn't show up, but I still had fun. I got to watch and learn (sort of) a new style of poker and see different people and their reactions as they were playing. Sure the lights and noise bugged me a bit, but that always happens with me and casinos. And I figured at that point, I'd dressed up and come out, I may as well make the best of it. And it worked. I had a nice night out.

General consensus? I'm not sure. I kind of feel like I should give C a second chance should the opportunity arise just because the situation is a bit unique. He's not a local guy that can stop by on a whim and for all I know he got caught in the storm that's going through north of here and couldn't make it in through no fault of his own. And there's a bit of a difficult communications breakdown since he really has no way to get a hold of my aunt to let her know what's happening apart from seeing her at the casino. At the same time, we had confirmed in theory and he'd told my aunt that he would be there. I guess I'll cross that bridge if it comes up.

But, I think my aunt is more disappointed than I am that he didn't show. She was really hoping for this to work out well. There is some disappointment on my part, but I'm choosing to believe that he saw me from across the room and felt unworthy to sully my radiant beauty with his presence. Because, I'm hot and stuff. XD

And there's always the next date.

****

Got a thought on whether or not I should give C a second chance? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Have a good night! Tune in next week for a Blind Date Horror Story.

K

PS: Hearing Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas" while at a casino is the very definition of irony.