"[Reno] baby! [Reno]!!!!!"

Hey all. So I might have told some of you, I have been telling everyone I can, but I had one of the greatest nights of this summer last night. It all started at the BBQ some friends of my boss' had in Reno. So there is a new sport sweeping its way west from the Windy City. That's right, Windy City is a place somewhere in the Midwest on the shore of a huge "lake", and it's sometimes called Chi-ca-go.....or maybe it's Chi-ca-ho, maybe it's a soft "g", I dont know. Anyway since you're dying to know what this sport is, I will tell you. It is called Bags. Man even the name is cool. Simple, yet so self explanatory, because thats basically what the game is, a giant game of bean bag toss. If you're having trouble envisioning this, think horseshoes without the horse, the shoe, and the pole in either pit. Instead there is a box with a hole in it and you stand 28' 8" away from the opposite box and toss a bag that weighs 1lb. into that hole....if you can. This phenomenon apparently has all but replaced drinking sports like horseshoes in the Midwest, and they are attempting to legitimize the sport by creating a league, the MWBBA (MidWest Bean Bag Association), but they will never take away its importance to the inebriated crowd who cant do normal sports that require coordination, not to mention how great it is b/c you dont have to set you drink down in order to play. Anyway, this sport was pretty fun and intense all around. There was money to be made, a cool $70 actually, split between you and your partner. My boss won. And that is what leads me to the next part of my story.
So we would have played bags all night, or until the booze had run out for those guys (since I was dd), but a neighbor came and complained that we were being too loud on a friday night in the middle of the summer at 10pm.....yes there are bedtimes for children to be met, school on saturday mornings, and of course everyone has to get up early in the summer anyway. Anywho, regardless of how anal the neighbors were, we kept pushing the envelope until finally the hostess finally put her foot down and made us stop playing at midnight. So here were a bunch of guys, quite drunk from....well, drinking, and they had nothing to do, and my boss had $35 burning a hole in his pocket. What else could we do? yea nothing..........nothing but go 5 minutes to Circus Circus Casino/Hotel in Reno!!!! Yes these guys STARTED gambling at midnight. I felt like I was back with LOG or YFC, starting everything in the wee hours.
So we walk in the doors and there is an empty stage with keyboard and drums and other instruments on it....well Matt (one of the funniest people I have ever met) and his brother in law Chuck (a very funny guy also) beeline towards the stage, setting themselves up behind the keyboard and drums respectively. They had not been on for more than 2 seconds when 6 guys in white suits who looked like they wouldnt think twice about crackin a few skulls came up and all but forced them off the stage. We were lucky tho cause they didnt get kicked out.
After that little charade, my boss Seamus, hit up the roulette table with his $35, and put it all on black. He won. kept it all on black. He won. He pulled 35. He won. He left the $210. He won. He then pulled 100 out, left the 320 in. He won. He pulled another $115 out makin his pocket total $250, left about 400 in. He lost. It didnt matter tho, he won 5/6 roulette runs, and multiplied his worth 7 times over. Man. He was so money, and he so knew it. Awesome. Anyway the whole time this was happening, my boss had been talkin to us about how he didnt have to worry about being in trouble with his wife cause he had entered the Bags tournament for $2, and plus, he said, "My wife's in CONNETICUT!!". She is visiting family until tomorrow night. Well as more money rolled in, he felt it more and more necessary to tell everyone this. Soon we had half the pit shaking their heads at him yelling "I dont know if you guys heard!!! My wife's in CONNETICUT!!", and the other half ooohing and aaahhing cause Matt had told them that he had won $134,000. Man, I was dying from laughter. Seriously some of the funniest stuff ever.
Anyway, Seamus' money lasted him a while and he got several hours of fun in on the craps tables as well as his favorite game, blackjack, but he ended up spending it all. And he didnt feel bad at all. "That was the best $2 I've ever spent! I had an AWESOME time!!!". There were many different times of comedy, too many to count, but at the end of the "night" (it was 430 by this time), Seamus was out of money, Chuck had lost $20, my brother had lost the same, and Matt was up $100. So of course he treated us to breakfast. Well I say of course cause but in reality I gave him a hard time about how I needed something in my stomach to drive them home. He was cool with it tho. We finally peaced out of there around 5am and headed to drop off Matt and Chuck at Matt's house, then to Seamus' house, then back to camp where I came into my room and as I was closing the window, the Sun peeked over the horizon. Crazy. Such a good night. Sooo much fun.
So during the night I was only bummed about 1 thing. The fact that I was only 20yrs 11months and 29 days old. GAAH!!! Only 2 more days!!!! I dont know why Im trippin out, I just wanted to gamble!! but its not like Im stayin up at night thinkin about being 21 yrs old. Im actually just stoked cause we're doin the same thing we did last night next weekend for my bday!!! Since there are kids at camp during my Bday, I wont be able to go out until the next weekend, which is ok with me cause my best friend Bryan is comin up from SD to join us!!! Anyway, Im lookin forward to this week for so many different reasons. First; Im turning 21 on Monday, Second; It's the last week of camp!! wooot, Third; it brings me closer to going back to my family, and to you guys in Irvine my extended family. Sooo cool. Anyway this is getting a lil out of hand, but I will leave you with some words of wisdom from my boss that I will learn to live by:

"I figure, if I get into bed and I'm not in trouble, and I wake up and I'm not in trouble, I'm probably not in trouble"

Stay out of trouble everyone.
Joe