April 15th, 2013...

It should have started out like many other days that had come before it. Since I had a doctor's appointment, I had taken the day off and the original plan was to go to the park for a couple of hours then go meet up with a friend and hang out with her for the day (she was going to come to my appointment with me), but none of that happened. No, I take that back. I did go to the park. Sunday night we got into a bit of a text messaging battle because she was being stupid and immature so that part of the Monday plans were over. Monday morning I woke up at 5:45am after apparently hitting the snooze button several times but I don't remember doing it. I finally got out of the house at about 6:30 and usually I'm almost at work by that time. Even though I wasn't going to work, certain people in my house know my routine, but she didn't question it, just commented I must have been running late. So, I went to the park where I spent the next 90 minutes not answering M's question about whether or not I was still going to come over at 8am as planned. As 8am drew nearer, I decided to go to one of the several Indian gaming casinos in the area...and by area I mean within a 30-45 minute drive. The closest location I don't like so I went to their second location which I'd never been to before...the Talking Stick Resort. After finally figuring out where I could park, I went to the casino/hotel entrance and encountered something that is very common in Las Vegas, but much less-so than the Phoenix area. Apparently even valet parking at Indian casinos don't put fancy cars in the valet lot with the others
 
When I was a teenager I would've been drooling all over this Lamborghini. I'm not a fan of the color, but that's okay. I still would've liked it. My friend Shannon and I were all about the fancy, expensive sports cars. We would go to the Porsche dealership in our neighborhood and get the car brochures they hand out to people who are interested in the cars. It was obvious we didn't have the money for one, but we were only maybe turned down once or twice. Anyway, I had brought $40 to spend on gambling and after losing the first $20 on video poker, I decided to save my other $20 and maybe find something to eat. But then I saw a machine that had a bunch of games the other machine didn't have so I decided to see if it had video Black Jack. I was pretty sure it didn't since I have yet to find video Black Jack outside of Vegas. Not even Laughlin had it that I could find.  Anyway, imagine my surprise


 The minimum bet, however, was an unpleasant surprise, but I still had to play. I made a couple of stupid choices in my playing and with the payout, even on a black jack, not very high, it wasn't long before I was out of money.
   
Oh well. I was just glad to have found video Black Jack and close by. I will probably go back to that place, but I won't step foot into the original Casino Arizona location. I lose my money too quickly. hahaha. So, after blowing my hard-earned $40, I decided to go in search of food. It's a casino, right? Casinos have buffets usually. And Talking Stick DOES have a buffet...but it's only open on the weekends. Huh? Apparently it's not a huge money-maker for them to bother having it open all the time. The sign said breakfast was available 24/7 at the Blue Coyote Cafe so I went there and after looking at the menu decided to get what is called a Farmer's Scramble. It has scrambled eggs, cheese, ham, bacon, sausage and potatoes. Not bad. Not bad at all.
  
Something interesting this cafe does is instead of putting lemon in their water, they actually put a slice of cucumber in the bottom of the glass. When I first saw it there I thought it was maybe a lime, but when I took a sip of it, I knew it was cucumber. It wasn't strong enough to be overpowering, it just let you know it was there. I wasn't sure with the first sip or two if I actually liked it, but by the 4th, I thought it was pretty good.


 From the casino I went to my DR appointment. Apparently this is a new location for them and they don't have their signage up yet so I was wondering around, looking for the place when someone poked their head out a door and asked if I was looking for Dr "N" (she said her name). Dr N is fairly nice, but as typical with previous DOs, she was chasing other perceived medical issues rather than what I had gone in for. But I got a prescription for Naproxen and one for Percocet, which is what I'd been hoping for. I only got 40, though, and I don't anticipate being able to get more than that so I have to make them last. I don't take them daily, though, just when the pain is really bad and not being helped by OTC stuff. 

Somehow, I'd managed to "avoid" hearing about any of what had gone on in Boston until about 4:00pm, even though I'd been near a TV when the news first broke. It's a horrible tragedy what happened and I hope the person or persons responsible are caught quickly. There's all kinds of speculation out there as to who was responsible and inaccurate reports about a middle eastern man being held for questioning. There's also reports that a person wearing a hoodie had been turned away from a secure area as well as a rental van carrying medical supplies. When stuff like this happens there's always reports that often turn out to be untrue. Last I heard, there were 3 deaths...the initial 2 then one later on. One of the first 2 was an 8 year old girl, which is the biggest tragedy. There were reports of traumatic amputations of limbs caused by the blasts. While the bomb wasn't likely professionally made, they knew what they were doing. My heart goes out to everyone involved, whether it's a runner, a spectator or a first responder. I applaud the people who ran to see if they could help the injured. Apparently spectators were going to help. Most people were running in the opposite direction of the blasts, but many ran towards it to help. I'd like to think I would have been one of those. I was an EMT for 8 years so I'd hope I would react properly and do what I could to help, but you never know until you're in that situation, which I hope to never be in. Please keep Boston in your thoughts and prayers.