April 22nd and 23rd… And they decide to start supporting Hollywood

 It was Earth Day, but Kodi didn’t think that Vegas turned their lights out for an hour at 8:00 p.m. like was recommended at home. 🤔

Each time that they had stayed at the Orleans in the past, Kodi had a little tradition.  On the last morning there, she’d always had a cup of coffee and a Bear Claw from JAVA, the in house coffee stand,  for her breakfast. 

 

She decided that since nearly nothing was the same so far this trip, she’d switch that up, and make it her FIRST breakfast.  Tom asked if having it in bed would work for her.   Well that would be a win for the day even if there weren’t many after that, she thought.👍

For himself, Tom bought an orange juice and …..say it along with me… ‘bagel with cream cheese!’ 😛

They showered and headed downstairs by 10a.m. planning on just playing all day, hoping for a great ‘off Strip’ win.  Tom had hit on his video keno machines nearly every time they had stayed at the Orleans in the past.  He was ready to get back to work and earn his keep.  Kodi had a great dinner planned for that night, she’d told Tom, but they were eating early…and he was pumped about it.

Kodi played a little bit , expecting the reward points to show up, thinking that perhaps they had been added overnight.  When they didn’t, she walked over to the Boyd Rewards desk and waited to talk to someone about it.  Well, it turned out, that some of the recent changes to the club were messing with her.  Now that they had dropped her back to ‘Dog Dung Ruby’ status, she would not get rewarded at all. 🤨 She was expected to play her little heart out until she could accumulate 750 tier points.  That would move her up to Sapphire level, and then her play would count for something. No bueno!

Of course, Kodi and Tom, being ‘old timers’ recalled when they used to go the the Gold Coast and Orleans years ago, and  you only got ‘points’ for $$ WON on a machine. That also was a pretty sad situation when you were having a trip like this one.

She played again…checking her tier status…250. What a pitiful little number that was.  She hadn’t asked how the games ranked , and didn’t care. She wanted to play a mix of games, including video poker and ‘silly slots’ and video keno, in hope of winning at SOMETHING.  She ended up accumulating points all day, drinking coffee with Baileys and multiple bottles of water.

She had arranged to meet Tom at the Alligator Bar at 4 p.m.  to tell him about tonight’s delicious supper.

They met up, and Kodi said “Follow me.”  Tom grinning, did just that.  He figured they were on the way to the Copper Whisk , where he knew they could use another check in coupon.  Nope.  Kodi kept walking.  She stopped at the end of the short line up for the weekend hot dog cart at the Sports Book. “ You can have whatever you want” , she said, winking.  “It’s dinner and a show time tonight .”  Their $2.00 hotdogs went down well.  Tom had a pop with his, and Kodi her bottle of water.  There wasn’t any peanut butter to put on the hotdogs, but that’s okay, because they didn’t eat them like that anyway. 😉

It was a quick meal at a penny machine, and Kodi snagged another bottle of water, then she said “Follow me!”  Tom did as asked.  Since they were leaking dollars so quickly, she’d figured out a way to slow it down a little.

She told Tom that there was a movie that she wanted to see.  ( She THOUGHT she wanted to see 🙄).

It wasn’t long into the saga that she realized she was a bit bewildered and not seeing what she thought it was about, she just numbly sat through the rest.  Her Daughter in law, a big Harry Potter Fan later explained, that there were  2 other  movies in this series that she needed to see before the one she watched, to be able to understand much of it. 😩. She was right about that.  

Tom was a good sport about it, because he’d not understood anything at all..LOL…and she PRETENDED that it was terrific. 🤫😜

It WAS a nice break away from the casino though , so they agreed to do dinner and a show Saturday night as well, but they would decide on the movie together. 😉

They played some double benched  lightning link games for a while and because of multiple small bonuses, were able to put a $100 bill in the back of Tom’s wallet for the take home envelope.  If it stayed with Kodi, it  just might have been too tempting, with the luck she was having.  They then  went their separate ways to lose just about everything in their pockets..except for loose change.  When Kodi got up to the room with her gift shop Mars Bar purchased with nickels and dimes, she found Tom munching on his gift shop Haagen Das bar!

It was going to be warmer according to the news broadcast the next morning when they got up.  Kodi said to Tom..”Hotter  tomorrow, but not too bad today…one last chance to put our swimsuits on and take a dip, or just get some relaxing sunshine, otherwise they are getting packed up and relegated to the deepest recesses of the one suitcase that I’m pre-packing to go home.”  He shook his head, so she sighed and buried them.

Because it was 9 a.m. and a Saturday , they knew that the Copper Whisk Cafe would be busy  but they decided to eat breakfast there, and use the coupon that they had.  They joined the line up that started in front of the entrance and continued around the corner for a about 100 feet. 

The half wall afforded them a good view of what was happening inside. It would make a strong man cry.  All but one of the serving staff they could see were wearing cement boots.  Could anyone walk any slower, from table to kitchen?  

A dozen tables that they could see in the one room fully visible were empty, but needed clearing and cleaning.  The lovely Hostess, picked up menus as she greeted the next set of guests, then had to open a drawer and take out the appropriate number of bundles of flatware wrapped in napkins. She then turned and serenely glided down through the room as though she had all the time in the world.  Her posture was perfect. Her makeup was perfect. She was out for a Sunday stroll on this Saturday morning. 🙄. She walked at the same speed back to the front of the restaurant and started the same process once more.  

They watched as the server returned to the table directly next to where they stood outside the wall.  She brought two meals of 4.  Then she left and brought a  single spoon. Left again and brought  two orange juices for the other 2 diners. They knew for certain that all four people had sat down at the same time.  It appeared the kitchen wasn’t organized either. She had no tray…just a thing or two in her hands. When they moved ahead a few feet, they didn’t see when the other meals arrived. This gal was serving at two other tables as well, but wasn’t combining her trips for efficiency .  Old people get frustrated by these things😉

A woman waked by the long line saying..”Hey you guys…I won’t ever try to eat here again. I just went over to TGIF and was in fast, ate and am out, and  some of the people in front of me when I was here , are still in line.  “  Hearing that,  a couple of  weary people further along the line left.  Tom suggested they should leave as well, but Kodi said they’d been there for twenty minutes and were half way through, and ….”Oh look…could that be the front of the house manager now?”  (Or a customer who just couldn’t stand watching any longer? 😂) 

They saw a woman in street clothes , quickly moving through the room, speaking to servers. She went to some of the un- bussed tables and cleaned them…using a tray, able to do at least two at a time.  Another gal showed up to follow her and spray and wipe the surfaces.

She went to the hostess stand and stepping briskly, took six waiting customers with her, seating them at different tables, one for four and one for two.  She came out into the waiting line with a notepad and pen and spoke to people.   When she got to Tom, she asked how many in his party. “Two”. “Follow me please.”  Just like that, she’d taken charge…and Kodi got to pass about 20 people in front of her… all sending virtual daggers into her back.🤭

Everywhere has staffing issues at the moment, but that’s exactly when management HAS to step up and work on the front lines when it’s necessary. It’s not hard to imagine how low morale must be among overworked and untrained employees.

Their meals took awhile to arrive, once ordered, but they were tasty and service was pleasant, if not quick.

Afterwards, Kodi played video poker, determined to get a quad or two. What was happening on the machines she chose was impossible, wasn’t it?  How many times can you get dealt trips without at least one of them catching a fourth card?

She got brave and tried some Ultimate X , but the hands that were 10 and 12 times never paid, and her budget wouldn’t sustain that kind of play, so she had to back off.  Tom apparently was getting enough good keno catches to stay even, so that was something positive.  AND she found that with both of them now playing on her card, she was nearly Sapphire. 

By the time it was Sports Book dinner time, she knew she had to stop gaming, or she’d have an empty daily envelope, and because she was playing in a stupid, desperate manner, and certainly wasn’t having fun. 

As they approached the Sportsbook area, Kodi’s excellent nose told her something was very wrong. 😣 The Hotdog Stand had a sign up apologizing for having to be closed for the rest of the weekend, because of circumstances beyond their control.  The Kodis weren’t the only ones circling like wolves looking for food to fill their hollow bellies.🐾🐾🐺🐺🐺🐺🐾🐾

“ Well, there goes dinner. The movie starts in 45 minutes,. How does a giant bucket of popcorn, dripping in delicious butter sound for dinner?”  They only went to perhaps one movie a year at a theatre when home, and hadn’t had popcorn in ages.  

“Sure, that’ll work. “

The entertainment tonight would be a movie that neither had heard of, so they had no expectations at all.  It was however starring, Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson, so they crossed their fingers.

They headed upstairs early..bought tickets and then figured out how to get the snacks ( Told you that it had been a while!) Tom bought himself a large pop, and Kodi had her good old bottle of water. She asked for extra, extra butter. 😋

Their assigned seats were in the very back row of the small theatre.  There was a railing in front of them, so that meant no big heads could block the view.  There were only about 30 people in the room, and of course, three of them climbed all the way up the stairs, over them and sat one seat to the right of Kodi. 🙄

After the half hour of previews and ads ( They  didn’t care because…POPCORN and NO MACHINES!) The movie started.  About 10 minutes afterwards, a lady to her right said to her companions “Do you want popcorn? I’ll go and get it.”  Kodi had noticed that they had a shopping bag full of chocolate bars. She wondered if they would share with everyone else in the row. ( Just them)

It was dark.  Just before the level they were on was a small step, with the edge painted white.  The popcorn lady was returning and suddenly became airborne, and landed face down on the carpet.The gentleman next to us jumped up as did a lady 3 rows down who got to her first.  Of course she protested that she was alright, but she needed to just sit there for a couple of minutes before trying to get up.  Kodi had had 3 similar swan dives in the past, so knew the shock that she was feeling.  She was assisted up, and then came slowly back to her seat.  Once she was settled, the fellow with her ( the other was an older lady) said he’d go and get more popcorn, and off he went.  After he’d gone the lady said to her other companion “ That happened because of my condition you know. I can’t bend my neck to look straight down.”  She also said, “ I can’t believe I could scrape my knees right through my jeans.”  No matter how ‘okay ‘ she thought she was…she’d be hurting the next day, Kodi knew.  Her husband/ friend came back with the largest size of popcorn, and the excitement was over. 

Kodi hadn’t even for one moment considered grabbing handfuls of  the original tub of popcorn off the carpet , even though it was deep, and the top layer would have been perfectly edible 🤔…( she hated to see anything go to waste)  because it was sort of BLAH to be honest. When did the added ‘butter’  start tasting like vegetable oil?? 🤢. The saltiness was tasty to begin with, but by the time it was 1/3 gone, she was done.

The movie was excellent, and the acting very good. It was based on a true story, and was a bit of a heartbreaker at times. Recommended….

They weren’t in a hurry to clear out of the theatre, so waited until the lights were on, and the little hallway to the exit door had cleared. The flying popcorn lady was limping and moved very slowly. She’d probably stiffened up after sitting for over an hour.  They all stepped carefully over the $12 worth of popcorn on the floor.

Once again the gambling was a disaster, but Kodi noticed that before she headed upstairs to bed, the light around her player’s card in the machine glowed blue instead of pink.