Back at ya!

My best wishes on Father's Day, as well... to our members and readers. Mine has been great so far... Jacob, who normally wakes the house up when he gets out of bed, was already up and playing his games quietly when I came downstairs. No fuss, no yelling or demanding breakfast... just quietly playing his building game. I actually got to sleep till 8 AM... and that's a treat for me even before I went back to work.

Something Ryan said made me think... every house has its "poli-sci" junkies, in my experience. Someone in the casino will have a political opinion about any topic, and will voice that opinion at every opportunity. Most (if they're smart) will confine it to the break room or some crossfire on a dead game, but a few are dumb enough to bring it to the customer, too.

Shockingly enough, I wouldn't have put Ryan in that class. In fact, I can't even say that Ryan brought his fascination with all things political to my attention, because I dragged it out of him in a half-hearted attempt to get to know a new dual-rate that someone had conveniently placed in my pit. It's always been my experience that when getting to know new casino people, finding common ground or experiences is the best way to do it, then finding something funny to relate to that shared view. It gets people past the nervous, anxious stage to a point where they can (at least) function in their new role in the pits. So, as I fished for some insight into the "glamour-boy" that Carpenter had assigned to my pit as a brand-new floor, it took about two questions to find what I was going to spend the next several years beating him up over... a Mormon Republican.

Keep in mind that I knew his name (Ryan, with a Celtic family name), and simply made the not-too-broad of a leap that he might stem from Irish Catholic roots (which, in fact he does). That is what I thought our common ground would be... until he dropped the Mormon-Republican thing on me. However, we weren't 15 minutes into our first hour of working together, and the fur was flying in all directions. I may even have called him a "fascist" that first day... but the point is I don't think either of us actually gave any lasting offense as we discussed politics in the pit. Had we, then we wouldn't be friends now, right?

We have a junkie at this house, too. His name is Tom (unfortunately), and his last job was in Tampa, FL. I won't beat around the bush, and I'll say he is an awkward-looking gentleman that can't be in his 30's yet (he's like a shorter version of Michael W. of the famous "protruding stomach" that we all remember) that is a far better dice dealer than Michael ever was, but is of equal skill in smooth communication and fashion sense. We have only been in these meetings for five days here, and he has already managed to alienate himself from at least half of his fellow supervisors, and is well on his way to a very long and lonely time here in NEPA.

My point is that Ryan didn't force anything down my throat... I asked the questions and led him into that first debate (which has been going on, nearly uninterrupted, since the late 90's), not the other way around. The "Tom" here in NEPA doesn't even have that much sense. He is the type that will interject his opinion in conversations he isn't even involved in, with no thought or care as to the views that others might hold. A risky course of action in any industry, but especially dangerous in the casino business when so many of your fellow employees are hailing from all corners of the globe (literally, too).

I take no offense from "Tom"... I have every confidence in my ability to rationally, calmly and very quickly destroy whatever argument he might be trying to make. He is simply too young and too brash to have any real insight outside of what he reads, sees or hears in the media. The fun part is that he is rabidly GOP in his views. That's right... I'm not describing a liberal, but an enthusiastic conservative with no tact, taste or temperament to help him profess his views and opinions.

A quick example: Our son, Jake, has been diagnosed with ADHD for about 3 years, and it is only in the last year that his treatment for this condition really began to show some improvement. During the course of Friday's adventures at the casino training center, I was talking with other parents and this topic came up (as it so often does when talking with parents about the trials and tribulations of raising kids). "Tom" wasted no time in declaring that ADHD (and all other "alphabet soup" disorders) were nothing more than liberal fiction made up to offer the next generation of Americans the means by which they could avoid personal responsibility and depend on the Government for all their needs. A rather awkward silence ensued among the other people I was talking to, but I didn't miss a beat and asked "Tom" if he had kids. His instant response was "I'm not married" (a very insightful response, don't you think? Does anyone in this world anymore still instinctively correlate the two: marriage and parenthood?). I put on my best smile, slapped him on the arm, and said that prior to being a parent myself, I might have agreed with him, but when you see your child suffer utter and complete frustration and anxiety through no fault of their own, you will follow any course presented to you to give that child some relief and support, and our present course of treatment was making a world of difference for JAKE, first and foremost, and for us only as a result. I explained that my primary responsibility as a parent was to make sure Jacob is growing up into a functional, well-adjusted adult human being and if alternate parenting methods, some medication in the morning, and counseling for his mother and me is the best means to fill this responsibility, then that is what I will do all day long.

Tom's response? "Huh... I never thought of it that way." and walks off. The others I had been talking to were amazed that I had managed to get him to go away without picking a fight (which must have been what they had all done to get him to leave them alone).

I really am going to like this job...