ManInBlack's Place

February 8th 2015

2014-12-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

Well I finally have a date that I am returning to Las Vegas. It will be February 8th 2015. I already bought my airline ticket. My flight gets into Vegas at 8:30pm. I have 5 nights comped at the Rio. The first night I plan to just check into my hotel and sleep. But starting on Day # 2 the real fun begins. I have to find a place to live, and get my stuff moved from my storage unit. This is one of the few times that I wish I drove. Normally as long as a city has a decent Public Transit system then I am able to survive. However moving a dozen plastic tubs filled with household items is impossible on a bus....lol

It also looks like I will be arriving back with more money then I had planned on. If all goes as planned I will be arriving with a little over $5,000 + moving expenses. With so much money while I try and find a job I should have some time to play a bit of poker. I wonder if I adhere to some sort of Bankroll Management, if I would be able to make it last until I find employment.

Does anyone out there have any advice? What games should I play? What Limits? What buyin requirements? ect.

Updated Goals!

2014-11-23T19:38:00.003-08:00

Updated Goals

Pay November 2014 Bills- DONE
Pay December 2014 Bills- DONE
Pay January 2015 Bills- DONE
Pay February 2015 Bills- DONE
Save up $1050 in moving expenses and initial housing costs
Save up $3000 in emergency cash (aka “Bankroll”)
Buy Plane Ticket back to Las Vegas

Impression of Arizona

2014-11-16T22:14:00.002-08:00

Well for the most part people in this area are pretty friendly.

I live right by Arizona State University. So that means a lot of hot college girls.

Lots of cheap pizza places but the food is at best “Barely Edible”

Weather is very weird at times. One moment it is bright and sunny the next it is a monsoon.

Public Transit punishes you if you want to buy a Bus Pass on the bus. They charge $6 on bus but $4 if you buy your pass at a corner store. (Makes no sense to me)

Wages in my line of work are barely above minimum wage.

The Tempe/Phoenix area has a bunch of sports teams:

Arizona Diamond Backs (MLB)
Phoenix Suns (NBA)
Arizona State (NCAA)
Phoenix Coyotes (NHL)

Starbucks staff on Washington/Priest are very friendly

On My Way to Fresno, California

2014-11-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

I leave Tempe Arizona at 6:40pm and do not arrive into Fresno, California until the following morning at 7:05am. So that means over 12 hours on a Greyhound bus, this should be interesting. Well at least I will get a blog post out of it.

November 5^th @6:40pm- Bus was supposed to leave (Bus # 86365)

November 5^th @7:05pm- When the bus really left. Turns out the bus was oversold. And I must have been lucky because I got the last seat. The guy behind me was pissed. Now normally I prefer a window seat because it has more legroom and I can lean against the window to get some sleep. But of course since I was the last person to get a seat I was stuck on the back of bus with an aisle seat.

The bus was one of the newer ones with Power Outlets by the seats and Free WiFi. Since I was stuck without much room trying to setup my laptop and using the Wifi was impossible. And it turns out only some of the power outlets worked. The row in front of mine was able to charge their cell phones while my row was broken. For the first 4 hours there was 2 kids behind me screaming and crying. And just my luck their mom was too busy on her cell phone to even try and control her kids.

According to the schedule the bus was supposed to arrive in Tolleson Arizona @ 7:10pm. The driver “Kathleen M.” just skipped this stop all together.

We were supposed to arrive in Blythe California @ 8:25pm and leave there at 8:40pm. We ended up arriving at 8:45pm and instead of cutting the break short because she was behind schedule, the driver ended up staying there for 40 minutes. Turns out she couldn’t figure out how to properly close the handicap door/ramp. It took me and another passenger to get things fixed.

We were supposed to arrive in Indio California @ 10:25pm and leave there at 10:40pm. We arrived at 10:55pm. The driver dropped off 8 people. Instead of cutting the break short because she was still behind schedule, the driver ended up staying there for over 30 minutes because she was more concerned with the 8 people she just dropped off who were wondering where their connecting bus was. Now I don’t mind trying to help these people out but there were over 50 others on the bus who also had to make connections to their destinations. Plus we were already running late.

We were supposed to arrive in San Bernadino California @ 11:45pm and leave there at 11:55pm. We really arrived in San Bernadino at 12:35am, instead of cutting the break short because she was behind schedule once again the driver ended up staying there for the full break time of 15 mins. So we didn’t end up leaving there until 12:50am. Since by this point I was fed up with the drivers laziness I asked her if she could call ahead and see if the connecting bus that goes North into California could wait until we got there. She said that she would call and see what she could do.

We were supposed to arrive in Los Angeles California @ 1:05am and transfer to another bus at 1:45am. We ended up arriving at 1:55am. At least the driver did do one thing correctly. The connecting bus did wait for us. However there were only enough seats for half of us and the driver didn’t even load the guy in the wheel chair.

Now this bus was different than the previous bus. This one was a contracted bus through Americano Charters (Bus #60529). This thing was old and in poor shape. There was no power outlets or WiFi. And the bus smelled like urine. But at least I was only scheduled to be on this bus for 4 hours.

For the first stop we were supposed to arrive in Bakersfield California @ 3:55am and leave there at 4:10am. Sure enough we made it and left on time.

We were supposed to arrive at the Final Stop in Fresno, California @ 6:05am. Well we arrived at 6:10am. After the previous 12 hours on the bus system I must say I am very glad to have made it to my destination and only be 5 minutes late.

Living in Tempe Arizona

2014-11-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well since the whole incident that cause me to have to move away from Las Vegas, I have only 1 option for a place to live and it is down in Tempe Arizona. I have survived over 35 years without ever stepping foot in Arizona, but it turns out that streak has come to an end. My father (who has never really been in my life) was willing to let me come live with him. Now up until about 2011 I never really saw him. But he got in contact with me threw my uncle and said he was sorry for not being around during my childhood, and that he wanted to see if he could repair the relationship between us. I thought I would try and give him a chance. So over the next few years we texted every now and then, and things seemed to be going well. Then he made the offer that I could come live with him (no strings attached). He said there would be no rent, and I could get back on my feet. Now since I had no other options I figured “what the hell”. So on September 3^rd 2014 I moved down to Arizona.

Turns out his house had only 1 TV and it was in his room, and there was no WiFi. Also the plumbing was so messed up that toilet paper could not be flushed down the toilet or it would flood the entire place. Now I was starting to have doubts but I figured that I would go forward and try and make the best of it. I looked into getting these things taken care of so it would make my life easier and that I could use the WiFi to look for employment. Turns out there is no Internet Company that would hook up service to his address. (Area was too old and wiring was not scheduled for years.) Now without internet this is going to make finding a job a whole lot harder. I went out after a couple days and started to explore the town. I found a Starbucks and figured I could use their WiFi. After a couple weeks of looking for a job I had 5 job interviews and even a temp job (lasted 3 days).

Well it turns out the offer of no rent was not the case. He started talking about rent and me helping to pay the bills. Now I don’t mind paying my fair share when I am on my feet, but the reason I came down here was because of his original offer. And that I figured it would be a no pressure atmosphere to get on my feet. I get $300 a month Western Unioned to me every month from a family member. And that money has to pay my bills, food, toiletries, ect. And now to top it off my father wanted to take half of that? What originally seemed like a no stress chance to get back on my feet (which I needed), turned out to be a very stressful situation. Something had to change and change quickly.

(NOW ALL OF THIS WAS BEFORE I GOT APPROVED FOR UNEMPLOYMENT)

Now since the financial issue has been settled I still have the problem of no internet/tv/plumbing issues. I figured I would look to see if there was another option. Well it turns out another option soon presented itself. But it would mean moving back to Fresno California. After thinking for a couple weeks I decided that it was time to move on. The new option is with someone I have lived with before and whom I know I can trust. So I figure I can go there and save up money since I now am collecting unemployment. And then hopefully in February 2015 I can move back to Las Vegas. The only reason I want to try and get back to Las Vegas is because of my daughter. She is 13 years old now and I miss her with all of my heart.

Now I just had to break things to my father. I was dreading having to do this because he is a hard kind of guy. Well it turned out to go way better than I thought it would. And ever since it seems like things are going way better. Too bad it didn’t happen sooner…. OH well that is life I guess.

Lost my Job…… Yet Again.

2014-10-24T11:34:00.002-07:00

Well as with the story of how things go in my life. When I get comfortable and feeling secure in life, things then come crashing down. Well after 10 months of being employed I noticed my boss posted an inappropriate comment on a Hotel Worker Facebook Group that a lot of workers at various nationwide hotels use to vent and get advice. I posted about the previous desk clerk messing up and not charging a guest. And that I was able to get the charge thru onto a previous Declined Credit Card. She then came on the thread and said “If you forced the charge through I WILL KILL YOU!” She did this on August 2^nd 2014. When the next day I confronted her about it and told her that her comment was out of line, she said that she was just joking and that I need to chill out. Well she may have meant it as a joke but I did not take it that way.

Fast forward a couple weeks later I was fired. Now after being one of the most reliable members of her staff, and even coming in hours early on my own time (off the clock) to help out on Sold Out nights I am told of a complaint that was filed against me by an employee at another Best Western hotel up in Utah.

A few months before all of this I noticed a guest would book a “Points Reservation for a 2 night stay” every couple of weeks. When I would redeem points there would be just enough to cover the redemption. So I would deplete the account to satisfy payment for the current stay. And magically a couple weeks later the points account was refilled with more points, also “just enough” to cover the new current stay. Something seemed odd about this, because how come the account in question would be funded magically with the exact amount of points needed for the new 2 Night stay? Something about this screamed fraud to me, so having my hotels best interest in mind I did a search on Google for the person to see what popped up. Well on the first page was a mugshot for the person in question.

Now at first I suspected maybe this person knew an employee who was “Hooking them up with points”. At around this time there was a couple different employees who were stealing from the hotel that I had caught and reported to management. So I figured maybe this “Guest” was either associated with one of them or was running another scam. But upon investigating further I figured out that this person was an employee for Best Western in Utah. So that told me how the person was getting all the points. (BW Rewards sign ups so the points earned appeared to be legit).

Well over the next few months me and this person became pretty friendly and would chat about a lot of things going on in our personal lives. She mentioned on Wednesday August 20^th 2014 that she had some legal issue going on back in Utah. I told her yeah I knew about it. She asked me how I knew about it, and I told her that her mugshot was online. She was calm and we had a nice chat where she told me she ended up doing 45 days on a felony drug charge. And that with her current status she was not allowed to leave the state of Utah. I asked her how she was coming to Las Vegas Nevada all the time if she was not allowed out of Utah. She said her Parole Officer never knew.

Well fast forward a couple days after this conversation my General Manager called me because this lady told her General Manager that I did a Google search for her, and even played a recording where I admitted it. Now one of my job duties as a Night Auditor is to investigate “Questionable Transactions” of something doesn’t look right. So I was doing this when I was investigating things.

So in my opinion I was fired due to retaliation for the complaint about my General Manager making threats on Facebook. And that she was using this complaint to make me look like a disgruntled employee if I went further with my complaint and no one would believe my claims. The problem I run into is that my now ex boss has the owner of the hotel wrapped around her little finger. So if I go above her to the owner he will just cover for her and nothing will ever happen. When she fired me she gave me the long version of the “You won’t work in this town again” speech. Now even though Las Vegas is a big city, the hotel industry is a close nit group. Countless times I have went to job interviews and the manager was the same one who either interviewed me at another hotel/motel a couple years earlier or who knows previous managers I have worked for. She said that if I tried filing for Unemployment that for one she had never lost a case yet, and that she would lie and do whatever it took to get me denied. She also stated that our owner employs an entire legal team and that they would have them go after me if I dared filing a claim. She also said that she would also let any new employer who called asking about my previous employment know that I was horrible and lazy, ect.

During the previous 10 months I have seen her connections and also seen what lengths she would go to when fighting against previous terminated employees when it came to them filing for benefits. So she had me scared out of my mind. It got so bad that I figured I had to move out of Las Vegas to be able to find another job. So on September 3rd I was on a Greyhound bus heading to Tempe Arizona. I was there for a couple weeks before I said to myself….. SCREW IT. I AM GONNA FIGHT BACK! I made sure to get my paperwork together (Proof of Threat, Trip Advisor.com review about her abusing another employee in the lobby, ect) and call Nevada Unemployment and file a claim for benefits. Since I was already out of Las Vegas and her close nit group of connections, what could she do to me? Worst case scenario I get denied, and I would be in the same financial position that I was in already. Turns out she said that I was fired for being on the internet during work hours. She claimed to have proof that she was going to send to the investigator who was assigned to my claim. Now first of all she would allow every employee to be online as long as we didn’t go to sites that would infect the work computers with a virus. But that was just my word versus hers. Well it turns out in the end I got approved and was given back benefits from the moment I filed. She never sent in the proof of me violating company policy (being online). As of right now she can still appeal the decision but I am praying that nothing changes and I am able to keep the benefits.

I'M BACK

2014-04-11T05:22:00.001-07:00

Well it has been quite a bit of time since I have updated this blog. I stopped writing because I had no job and really didn't go out and do much. Well now that has changed. For the past 6 months I have been working at a hotel near McCarran Airport here in Las Vegas. Over the past few months I have finally been able to go out and play some poker. Boy was I rusty. Other then a perfectly played set of dueces I played against Lightning36 I have been having a up and down time of things. But rest assured I am going to be posting more from here on out.

ANTE UP PODCAST WINNER.

2012-10-31T17:12:00.001-07:00

Well I got an email yesterday from the good folks over at Ante Up, saying that a question I sent them a couple months ago was going to be in their shows "MailBag" segment. In the process I have won a shirt from PMS PokerWear. So on the bright side at least now I finally have something happening in my life.

NOTE: It was the October 25th 2012 episode at about the 18:00min mark.

http://www.roundersradio.com/ante-up/8622-jonathan-little

For the past couple months I really have not fealt like blogging or really doing anything socialable. Well now I am slowly coming out of the funk I have been in. I need to get off my ass and get things settled in my life. Ever since I got back to Las Vegas things have not gone that well for me. I briefly found a job but as I have written about before that turned out to be an EPIC FAILURE. And since I have no job and unemployment is barely paying me $132.00 a week, I had to move out of the place I was living at.

I ended up landing in the last place I ever thought I would end up. My ex has taken me in and is letting me sleep on her couch. Now this is turning out to be a mixed blessing. On the good side I get to spend time with my daughter every day. On the bad side I have to see my ex parade her new boyfriend in and out past me every couple nights. And let me tell you the walls in this place are super thin. So just imagine what I am hearing coming out of her room. So needless to say I need to get out of here. I need to get a job and get into my own place again.

I had a job interview yesterday at the Comfort Inn across the street from the Hard Rock. Things went ok, I should find out by this weekend whether I got the job or not. I hope I do get this job, it seems well suited to my skills. And I would be able to move in to the place Tony Bigcharles used to live at which is about a block or two away. So the commute will be short and easy. And I will be perfectly located to the Strip for all the poker action that I could ask for.

Well enough about my boring life.

In a Relationship

2012-10-18T12:48:00.001-07:00

Well it looks like maybe things are looking up for me in one way. I am in a relationship now. Things seem to be going pretty well, so far. We will see how it goes. I have high hopes for this relationship.

As of 10/20/12: She ran back to her ex boyfriend. I have come to the realization that Women are all lying BEEPS.

FIRED!

2012-09-24T13:29:00.001-07:00

Well the reason that I haven't been keeping up with this blog is because I have been dealing with a lot of bullshit in regards to work. Well now that is no longer the case. The co worker who I mentioned in the past who had it out for me finally got her way and had me fired. She made up a few lies and even though I have proof of those lies the company just went and fired me. She has friends in high places within this company it seems. So now I don't know what I am going to do in regards to work/place to live/ ect. Hell I was fired a couple weeks ago and have yet to be issued my final paycheck. The company is screwing me over in regards to it. So now I have to go down to the Labor Board and file a claim against them. Also since I live on site I am going to make them evict me. All they have to do to get me to move out is to simply PAY ME THE MONEY THAT I AM OWED.

KARMA IS A POWERFUL THING

2012-08-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

This post is gonna be short and sweet.

Well it looks like my exes marriage is already over. Her husband left her for one of his exes back in California. So the marriage has lasted 2 months. So now my ex is sitting there at her place drunk and crying over things. You know it is bad when her marriage still lasted longer then mine did. lol

KNOCKED BACK DOWN!

2012-08-18T03:29:00.002-07:00

Well when things start to go better for me in my life, I get a "Reality Check" and knocked back down.

Well for the past 3-4 weeks my supervisor has been treating me like shit. She keeps saying I am lazy, worthless, and other insults on my work ethic. She does this in front of other employees and even hotel guests. Now I have been working Front Desk for different hotels/motels for well over 10 years, and have never had my work ethic questioned. I have always been the guy who shows up early, and works late. I have never been a clock watcher. If I am scheduled from Noon-8pm, I clock in for those 8 hours, but work off the clock all the time. So to have her insult me like this has thrown me for a loop. I have spoken with her repeatedly about stopping the insults, and she refuses to stop. So after dealing with this behavior for at least 3 weeks, I finally went to the General Manager of the property that I work at.

Now I like my manager, he is a straight shooter. He was the manager at the motel I used to live at when I first moved back to Las Vegas. At that time I was just a tenant, and he was my landlord. Now after talking to him over the month I lived there, we built up a good relationship. Well he saw me keep going out on job interviews, and knew I worked Front Desk. So when he got transfered to a new property, he put in a good work for me and got me hired. I told him that the pay rate didn't matter, but I needed 40 hours a week to be able to survive. Now with most people 40 hours a week at minimum wage is not enough for people to survive off of, but I have very little in regards to monthly bills. He said 40 hours would never be a problem. Now because of this he has my loyalty.

I told him about the treatment that I was receiving lately, and he said that he would talk to his assistant (which is the one who was insulting me). Well the next day he pulls me aside and tells me that he spoke with her, and that things will be better going forward. She claimed that she was just "training me for mistakes I had been making". Now there are ways to correct an employee who is making errors, but yelling and insulting employees in front of other employees and motel guests is not how you go about things.

About an hour after all of this the hotel General Manager left for the day, leaving me alone with his assistant. now not even 5 minutes after he left she starts yelling at me for "Talking shit behind her back". Now I told her that I repeatedly asked her to stop with how she was treating me, and she never stopped. So since that was the case the next logical step was to go to a manager 1 step above us. Now I did not complain to our corporate office, I kept it on the motel level hoping this would solve the issue. She kept yelling at me, and at this time there was already 1 motel guest standing in the lobby. But since this was a friend of hers, she never stopped yelling. I tried explaining my case but I was getting no where. So I had to just take the abuse. But I decided I am going to keep a Microsoft Word document about all the abuse and retaliatory issues if they came back up. Since she didn't wait but 5 minutes after the manager left, I started typing into the notes section of my cell phone everything she was saying/doing. I included dates/times/words said/witnesses/ect. Now while I am typing all of this another motel guest walks into the office, but even this does not stop my supervisor from yelling at me. The only thing that made her stop was she ran out of breath and needed a break. I helped the motel guest who walked in, and after she left for the next 30 minutes I was yelled at again.

Now in this economy, and knowing how hard it was to even find this job I feel that I am stuck. Before this job I was out of work for 14 months. I had a sort of safety net during this time in regards to places to live. I had family and the possibility of my ex taking me in. Well now my ex is remarried, and the family member who took me in has downsized from a 3 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom apartment. So now it is "sink or swim" with me. I am on my own. As long as I am working 40 hours a week I can survive.

Well we all know what is coming next. About a week after being yelled at by the supervisor my General Manager calls me into his office and tells me that due to occupancy levels, that my schedule was being cut 20% from 40 hours a week to 32 hours a week. He also stated that since I was the newest front desk clerk that was another reason why I was having my schedule cut and no one else was. Now I have full faith in my General Manager, but the timing of this is suspect. So now there is nothing I can do but take this, and pray my schedule does not get cut even more.

Well sure enough I get a call on Thursday August 16th from the supervisor and she tells me that instead of coming in at 2:00pm the next day (Friday) I was to come in at 5:00pm. Now this cuts my schedule by another 3 hours. Now she claims that I can make up these 3 hours on Sunday, which is normally my day off. So now I have to come in on my day off to make up these 3 hours that I should of already worked. Now it is a good thing that I live on property and that I have no life, so coming in is not going to be a problem. But what if I still lived elsewhere? If I did it would have cost me $5 for a bus pass and a couple hours on the bus to work those 3 hours. If that was the case she may have succeeded in costing me money.

ITEM # 2 DOWN (PAY OFF SMALL DEBT I OWE THE EX)

2012-08-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

Well I have put another dent into my TCB items. I have knocked off # 2 on my list.

"Pay off a small debt that I owe my ex (around $115.00)"

So now I have 2 of the easiest items crossed off of my life. I even made a $50.00 payment towards # 3. And it is a good thing that I have been Taking Care of Business, because I just found out that my work is cutting back my hours. Instead of working 40 hours a week, I am now going to be working 32 hours. Now with 40 hours I was able to barely survive. So now since they are cutting my hours/pay by 20% who knows how this is going to work out. But all I can do is keep going about my life and hope that things will get better.

On the bright side I have had my daughter all week. We have been having fun swimming, going to movies, ect. Mainly she loves playing on my laptop. When she is with her mom, they do not have the internet. So since my daughter is addicted to YouTube.com and drawing, she loves it when I let her play on my laptop. She uses YouTube.com to find knew things to draw. She is a great artist. Way better then me. I am glad to see she has found something that she loves to do so much. I think for either Christmas or her next Birthday I am going to buy her a cheap laptop. Mine I bought brand new and it only cost $300.00.

Well I am gonna cut this blog short, time to cook dinner for my daughter.

ITEM # 1 DOWN (LEGAL SITUATION)

2012-08-03T13:03:00.003-07:00

Well for those who read my earlier post on things "TCB" I have taken care of the "Legal Situation" that I was vague about in my earlier post. Here is the full details on what that was all about.

On May 1st 2012 I was heading to pay on my storage unit. I was on the corner of 4th Street and Charleston Ave, i was in the crosswalk, the light said I had 3 seconds left to cross the street. Since this street only had 2 lanes of traffic I figured I could make it. I then started to run across the street. Now I saw a cop at the 7 Eleven a block away, but since I was in the crosswalk and the light said I still had time I wasn't worried. Well when I get to the 7 Eleven the cop had me stop and issued me a ticket for Jaywalking. Now to be honest in my life I have Jaywalked thousands of times and never gotten a single ticket. This time I was fully within the law, and they gave me a ticket. At the time of all of this I was unemployed, and living off a little over $200 a week in benefits. After paying $160 of that for my rent, it left me $40 to buy food and pay my bills. So needless to say I was beyond broke, and could not afford to pay for a ticket that I didn't deserve. Now if I was caught actually Jaywalking then I would own up to the fine, and take care of it.

The fine for Jaywalking is $160.00. And since I was not working and barely surviving I could not pay it by the date that they had given me. I had to pay by June 5th 2012. On June 4th 2012 I got a new job, and started that day. But of course I would not receive my first paycheck for a couple weeks. The next day on June 5th 2012, I called the courts to see if I could get an extension on paying the fine. The lady I spoke to was very rude and said that I had until 5:00pm that day to pay it off otherwise there would be a warrant for my arrest. I tried again to see if I could get on a payment plan or a couple weeks to pay it off. She refused and threatened me with arrest. Now I tend to live my life on the right side of the law, and this treatment had me knocked back. Up until this point I had faith in the local cops, and the Justice system. Now with this treatment between local cops, and the courts I have no faith in them anymore. When the cop stopped me originally he admitted that it was the 1st of the month and that he had a "Quotta" to reach. Now up until this point I thought a ticket Quotta was just a myth that criminals used to make excuses for their tickets. But now I believe otherwise.

Since I make minimum wage and as I soon found out my regular paychecks was barely enough to cover Rent/Food/Internet/Cell Phone/Storage/PO Box (aka my Bills). But it was not enough to set aside any money to pay off this ticket/warrant. My first paycheck was for 67 hours, my next one was for 80 hours. I came to the conclusion that in order to pay this off I would have to work Overtime. So the next check was for 96 hours (which included 8 hours of Overtime). After paying my bills and some people I owed money to, I was still broke. Now paying this ticket off was taking alot longer then I thought it would take. I figured I had to do something to pay this off, because if I got stopped by the cops for any reason this warrant would pop up and I would be arrested. I reasoned that if I got arrested I would probably lose my job, and be stuck homeless.

Now I like my boss (The General Manager) James, he is a real cool guy and has been patient with me. When I got this ticket back in May I told him about it, because he was the Manager at the hotel I moved into when I got back to Las Vegas. So when it turned into a warrant on my second day of employment I of course was open and honest with him about it. He was really cool about it, and said it would not be an issue. But he also said that I had to take care of it, ASAP.

Well since coming to the realization that I had to take care of a few things in my life to get into a better place (aka my TCB post), I decided to sell my Baseball Card collection. I first thought about Ebay, but I decided Ebay would be too expensive and take way too much time. My next thought was Craigslist. So I listed some of my vintage cards (1952 Topps, ect) in one lot, and my entire complete set collection in another listing (59 complete sets). I was able to sell the vintage card lot for $300.00 on Sunday. I then received a couple emails in regards to the complete sets lot. I was asking $850.00. The guy countered with an $800 offer. Now I wasn't going to nitpick over $50 measly dollars. His $800 offer was fair. So I accepted it. He said he would be able to pay for it on Thursday August 2nd 2012. Since I had $300.00 on Sunday, and I had Monday off of work, I decided it was time to take care of my warrant. It took 90 minutes on the bus to get there, and another hour waiting around the court house. But now it is all taken care of. I no longer have to worry about this hanging over my head.

Now all I had to do was close the other deal on Thursday August 2nd 2012. We decided to meet at my storage unit at 9:00am. Everything went smoothly and I had made $800. But alas I have bills to pay and people who I owe money to. So time to TCB.

ANYONE COLLECT BASEBALL CARDS?

2012-07-28T10:18:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to downsize my belongings, I have decided to sell off my Baseball Card collection. Does anyone out there wanna buy some cards? All these are complete sets in NRMINT/MINT condition.

1974 Topps Traded Baseball

1976 Topps Traded Baseball

1980 Topps Baseball ( Rickey Henderson Rookie )

1981 Topps Baseball

1981 Topps Traded Baseball

1982 Topps Baseball ( Cal Ripken Jr Rookie )

1982 Topps Traded Baseball ( Cal Ripken Jr Rookie )

1983 Topps Baseball (Ryne Sandberg Rookie/Tony Gwynn Rookie/Wade Boggs Rookie)

1983 Topps Traded Baseball (Darryl Strawberry Rookie)

1984 Topps Baseball (Don Mattingly Rookie)

1984 Topps Traded Baseball (Dwight Gooden XRC)

1985 Topps Baseball (Roger Clemens Rookie/Mark McGwire Rookie)

1985 Topps Traded Baseball

1986 Topps Baseball

1986 Topps Traded Baseball (Barry Bonds Rookie)

1987 Topps Baseball (Barry Bonds Rookie)

1987 Topps Traded Baseball

1988 Topps Baseball (Greg Maddux Rookie)

1988 Topps Traded Baseball

1989 Topps Baseball (Ken Griffey Jr Rookie)

1989 Topps Traded Baseball

1990 Topps Baseball

1990 Topps Traded Baseball

1991 Topps Baseball

1991 Topps Traded Baseball (Jason Giambi Rookie)

1992 Topps Baseball

1992 Topps Traded Baseball (Nomar Garciaparra Rookie/ Jason Varitek Rookie)

1993 Topps Baseball (Derek Jeter Rookie)

1993 Topps Traded Baseball (Todd Helton Rookie)

1994 Topps Baseball

1994 Topps Traded Baseball (Jason Schmidt Rookie/Paul Konerko Rookie)

1995 Topps Baseball

1995 Topps Traded Baseball

1996 Topps Baseball

1997 Topps Baseball

1998 Topps Baseball

1999 Topps Baseball

1999 Topps Traded Baseball (C.C. Sabathia Rookie/Josh Hamilton Rookie)

2000 Topps Baseball

2000 Topps Traded Baseball (Miguel Cabrera Rookie/Adrian Gonzalez Rookie)

2001 Topps Baseball

2001 Topps Traded Baseball (2 Albert Pujols Rookies)

2002 Topps Baseball

2002 Topps Traded Baseball

2003 Topps Baseball

2003 Topps Traded Baseball (Robinson Cano Rookie)

2004 Topps Baseball (Yadier Molina Rookie)

2004 Topps Traded Baseball (Felix Hernandex Rookie/Howie Kendrick Rookie)

2005 Topps Baseball (Justin Verlander Rookie)

2005 Topps Update and Highlights Baseball

2006 Topps Baseball (Matt Kemp Rookie)

2006 Topps Baseball Update

2007 Topps Baseball (Josh Hamilton Rookie)

2007 Topps Update and Highlights Baseball

2008 Topps Baseball

2008 Topps Update and Highlights Baseball

2009 Topps Baseball

2009 Topps Update and Highlights Baseball

2010 Topps Baseball

I JUST WENT DEGEN LIKE TONY!

2012-07-21T11:08:00.002-07:00

Well lately I have been working as much as my company will allow me to. I need to take care of the things I mentioned in my last post. Well this paycheck that I received last night was alot bigger then my normal check, thanks to some overtime. But after crunching some numbers I realized I would be around $100.00 short of paying all my bills, and taking care of that legal situation that I mentioned about. So like I always do when I get off work on a payday, I went to Sam's Town Hotel & Casino. My plan was to cash my paycheck and at most play $40.00 on some Black Jack. My goal was to win $30.00. Well for the first 16 hands I would win the first hand, the dealer the next hand, then my turn again, and then the dealers turn. So it went back and forth like this for the first 16 hands. Then the pattern changed. Well long story short, about ten minutes later I hit my $30.00 goal I had set for myself. It was at this point that I did the smart thing, and cashed out.

I left Sam's Town and went across the street to Wal Mart, to get some groceries and some toiletries. I was able to get a ride with my work's Security Guard, so it made bringing home my cart full of stuff, very easy. Then came the next bit of work, I am moving from a Studio Apartment at my work to a 1 Bed Room. Now employees do not get much in the way of discounts, but we do get to choose what kind of unit we want, and it is the same price whether we choose the Studio or 1 Bed Room. So why not get the bigger unit! Well when I moved into this property about 3 weeks ago, I only had to make 1 Car Trip. But moving between units ended up taking me 9 trips from one end of the property to the other. I started at around 12:30am, and finished around 3:00am. So then it took me another 2 hours to unpack everything. Now at this point it is 5:00am. And I have to be at work at Noon. Well no sleep for me because I have to do laundry. Well that took until 7:30am. Well since it is already too late to get my normal sleep, I decided I had to run some errands. One of my co workers asked if I was going to the store and if I was "Could I pick him up a KING SIZE Almond Snickers and a Large Rockstar energy drink?" I told him that I would, and so I hopped on the City Bus that goes down Nellis Ave towards Sahara. That is the closest Bank of America to where I work, since I had to make an ATM Deposit so I could pay some bills.

Well when I got off the bus I saw a Circle K Convenience Store right there on the corner. I decided since I won $30.00 at Sam's Town earlier that night that I would sit and try and win the $8.00 that my co workers stuff was going to cost, on a Video 21 machine. I pulled out my wallet hoping to find a $20 bill. Well it turns out that all I had was a couple $100 bills. So I put it in with a stop-loss of $20. Well I was betting between $1-3 a hand. I would get up about $5.00, then I would go down $5.00. Well after about 5-10 minutes I was at $95.00 in the machine. And instead of hitting the "Deal" button, which would have bet the $2.00 that I bet the previous hand, I accidentley hit the "MAX BET" button. Now normally on these machines MAX credits is usually only 10 credits of what ever denomination you are betting. And since I was betting dollars, it should have only been a $10 bet. However I didn't notice that this machine was a 100 Credit Max Bet machine. So my entire $95.00 was eaten up on this one hand. Now as any of you who read this know I can not afford such a huge bet. I didn't hit the Deal button I went straight to the employee who was working the counter, of course she had no idea what to do. So I went to her boss. He said he would have to call the Slot Route Operator to see if anything could be done. After waiting about 5 minutes, the manager comes over with the slot route operator on the phone and says I have to play the hand. And that there was nothing that they could do. Now when I worked in a convenience store a few years back, the slot route guy would come out, and open the machine. This would in turn cancel the hand and put the credits back to the player. So to say I was pissed would be an understatement. But unlike TBC, I stayed calm and told the manager repeatedly that I could not afford to play the hand. I figured that they jsut wanted a shot at my whole $100 bill. Well I begrudgingly had to play out the hand.

I was dealt an ACE+2 (total of 3 or 13)
I hit and was dealt a 9 (total now of hard 12)
I then hit again and got an ACE (total now a hard 13)
I then hit again and got another 2 (total now a hard 15)

With the dealer showing a 9, I figured now I was screwed. Here comes the face card, to screw me over.

Well the next card was a 6 (For a 6 card 21, and the automatic win)

So at this point I had $190.00 in credits in the machine. I couldn't have hit the cash out button any faster then what I did. I was greatful that it worked out. Now I have only done this accidentally hitting MAX BET once before. A couple years ago I put a $20 bill in a machine and built it all the way up to $50. Well at that point I hit the MAX BET, and bet the entire $50. But at that time in my life I was working two jobs. Plus I only had $20 in the machine out of my pocket. If I lost I only have a net loss of $20. Well I won that hand also and cashed out at $104 after playing a couple more hands at a dollar a piece to win tip money for the slot girl.

Well I started out with being $100 short of bills, to $70 short after winning the $30 at Sam's Town. Now with that $90 win at Circle K, I have all the money I need for my bills, and my legal situation. I even have $20.00 on top of things.

This all happened almost 2 hours ago and my heart is still beating a mile a minute. I am very thankful that the Gambling Gods decided to give me a win, when I needed it the most. I may be down over my lifetime at Video Black Jack, but this is a nice start.

TCB

2012-07-19T23:13:00.001-07:00

As Elvis once said,"TCB". Now after everything that has happened with me lately I know know what I must do. Time to TCB.... (Take Care of Business). I have a 7 step plan to get my life back on track. Now some of these things

1. Take care of a legal situation that I am in the middle of. (around $200)

2. Pay off a small debt I owe my ex ($115)

3. Pay off a decent size debt that I owe my brothers ex wife ($600)

4. Sell off my excess stuff (Including my Baseball Card Collection)

5. File for Bankruptcy (I ran up close to $20,000 in credit card debt trying to support my ex and our daughter over the past decade)

6. Save up a Bankroll so I have a financial cushion

7. Move out of Las Vegas (if I need to)

With the past couple years going as bad as they have been for me, and since now I am on my own, I need to get my life back in order. Once I accomplish these 7 steps, I should be in a much better position then I am currently in.

Thanx To a True Friend

2012-07-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

After I posted my last blog, and posted about it on twitter I got a phone call from Lightning36. He talked alot of sense into me. I just wanted to write a quick note of thanx to him. You are a true friend. You are right in so many different things. Iwill be using some of your advice in the coming months.

The Ex Gets Married

2012-07-14T00:15:00.000-07:00

Well as of a few minutes ago, my most recent ex has gotten married. She has been with her boyfriend only about a month, and they are now married. To top it all off he just moved here to Vegas on July 7th 2012, and now they are married. I was with this woman for close to 10 years and she never wanted to go through with our actual marriage, yet she rushes into marrying this guy. To say I am hurt is an understatement. I know her and I have been seperated for a little over 2 years, so I have no idea why it hurts me so much, but it just does.

From what her cousin told me a couple weeks ago, my ex is going to have 2 weddings. One ASAP, and another for her family in a year. Because heaven forbid her family finds out that she rushed into marrying this guy. And as recently as 6 hours ago when I confronted her about what I heard, she lied and denied everything. Well i just found the marriage liscense on this website:

https://aivitals.co.clark.nv.us/WebPIInternet/DocDescMain.aspx?sk=20120713000465660&ref=f1eb24fb-9ee2-4e8c-be2e-d9d926a541b6

The whole reason I moved back to Las Vegas, was to be closer to my daughter. Now I have been replaced.

Well with the way my luck has been going the past couple years this is just par for the course. It makes me wonder what the hell I did, to have KARMA treat me in such a way? Oh well now I guess I am more determined then ever to take care of a few things in Vegas, and then to get the hell out of this town.

Finally Getting Settled

2012-06-29T13:47:00.001-07:00

Well it has only taken me about 3 months to finally start to feel comfortable again. I just spent all day yesterday moving into a new place. About a week ago I received my first paycheck in almost 14 months, and it fealt great. The only problem is the first paycheck is usually never a full paycheck. So Instead of a 80-88 hour paycheck, the one I received was for only 67 hours. After paying my bills I was only able to pay 1 weeks rent instead of the 2 that was needed to get me until payday. I have a roommate who I thought would help me out with the other weeks rent. Well that never happened. This roommate is my exes cousin and she has been living with me for over a month. She will occasionally put in some food into the household, but never really paid me any rent. So when I asked her for some rent she offered to "Loan" me the $160 that was needed. What the hell? Seriously she should have offered to give me the rent money, seeing as she lives there also.

Well I talked to my boss, and he found a way that I could stay at the hotel I work at for about 2 weeks for FREE, until I get my next paycheck. Then I will be able to get my own place and pay for it. I really appreciate him for doing this for me. Now going forward I will not be sharing a place with anyone. This will be the first time in well over a decade that I am fully on my own.

As of July 6th when I get paid I will be fine financially. I am not going to be rich, but at the very least I will be able to pay my rent, food, and other bills. I am used to being in a relationship and having someone to rely on in case things went sour. Well now I have no one. So this is going to be a whole new experience for me.

Well anyways it is time for me to get to work. Will write again when I can.

Sorry Everyone

2012-06-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to the TBC Meetup for a while now, but on Saturday night after I got off of work I decided to stop by this little Taqueria near my place. Well it turns out I got a case of food poisoning. I kept trying to get up on Sunday but I had no energy, because I was dehydrated due to throwing up all night/morning. But on the bright side I lost a couple pounds.....lol. Of course I have eaten at this place quite a few times and this was the first time I had any problem. So I will

Anyways if there is still the second meetup I should be able to make that one.

Bally's with @Lightning36

2012-06-22T01:48:00.003-07:00

Well today was an exhausting but good day. First I started out by working my standard shift at work. But today was payday. I got my first paycheck at this new job. Like with all first paychecks it is never big enough to pay all the bills that I need to pay, but it is a good start. I am about $100 short of things, but I will find a way to manage like I always do. Since I am short, this means that I will not be able to play in the TBC Poker Tourny scheduled for this weekend. But I do plan on at least making an appearance to meet a bunch of you who read this blog.

I spent a little time after I got off work with @Lightning36 over at Bally's. He treated me to a late dinner over at Harrahs. The food was great and so was the company. It is nice to know there are genuinely nice people still out there in this world. Since I originally moved to Las Vegas back in 2005, I have found that it is very hard to trust people. In my opinion most Las Vegans only care about themselves and aren't that trustworthy. But like I said at the end of my last blog posting, I am slowly finding out that I have overlooked some nice people. So @Lightning36 when you read this I want to say Thank You again for a wonderful meal.

We were trying to meet up with @CJEspinosa0 but it just never happened. But while we were waiting by the lounge this Blonde Hooker in her early 40's walks up and asks @Lightning36 and I if we wanted a date. Only in Vegas....lol.

After such a busy day and even though I am short on my bills, after leaving @Lightning36 I decided to let my Degen side come out a little bit. So I sat down with $40 at a Black Jack table to try and see if I could win $15 to pay for the cab ride back home. That way I wouldn't have to walk, or take the bus. Well it was up and down for a little while, but then I had a Double Down where I hit out 21. But the weirdest thing happened, the dealer ended up hitting 7 times, for a total of 9 cards before finally busting with a 22. I have seen many crazy hitouts by dealers, but never a total of 9 cards. So before the dealer could sweep away the cards, me and another guy at the table had to pull out our camera phones and take a picture. It was that nuts. Well anyways after that hand I was up exactly the $15 that I wanted to win. So I cashed out and caught a cab home. I wasn't going to be greedy, I was happy for winning the amount that I wanted to win.

Well everyone Good Night and Good Luck, it is time for me to pass out. I have another busy day at work tomorrow...... well I should say today since it is already after Midnight.

FINALLY GOT A COUPLE DAYS OFF

2012-06-19T00:34:00.002-07:00

Well I am finally enjoying a day off. I been working hard since I posted that I got a new job. Yesterday on my first day off, I just lounged on the couch. I had no motivation to get off it. I was exhausted from the previous week and a half. I have had a good week and a half. I have been finally feeling myself getting out of the depression that I suffer from. I even got a girls phone number this week. That was a first in well over a decade. So I am a bit rusty, you might say. I didn't even have to ask her for it, she offered it to me and said we should go for drinks some time. Now even if nothing comes from getting her number I must say it was good for my male ego.

Now I am on my second day off and have to get things done around my place. This place is getting kind of dirty since I have been working. Now anyone that knows me will tell you I am a very organized person. So this place is too messy for my taste.

In a week or so I am planning on moving to the hotel that I work at. It will save me alot of time and money in commute costs. And since it has bigger closets then where I am living at now, I can store my belongings there and cut out my storage bill. Now overall I don't have many bills, but every little bit counts. And to top it off there is free wi fi so there is another bill that I will get to cut off. Who knows maybe I will be able to play some poker for a change once I get all my bills taken care off.

On another topic I am starting to find that maybe Las Vegas isn't all that bad. Up until recently I been feeling this town is full of people so willing to rip everyone off. But lately because of this blog I have found a couple people who seem to genuinely care about others. Now that is a refreshing change.

Well I think it is time to get a few things done around here.

GOT A JOB

2012-06-09T00:45:00.002-07:00

I am exhausted from work, so I am gonna make this short and sweet. I finally found a Full Time job. The pay sucks but it is barely enough to survive on. So that is a start.

DEPRESSION!

2012-05-17T20:06:00.003-07:00

I doubt anyone out there really reads this blog, but to all of you that do I just wanna say I was sorry for not updating this thing in a while. Things have not been going as well as I thought they would when I moved back to Las Vegas. I was expecting to come here with a little bit of a bankroll, so I could see if I could grind out a living at the Poker tables while I tried finding a Full Time job. Well I ended up rushing to get back to Vegas and didn't have time to save up as much cash as I had hoped for. So all my plans pretty much ended in a EPIC FAIL.

I have went on a few job interviews with varying levels of success. I even as I wrote about in my last blog entry was sent in for a Drug Test. But so far I have had no job offers. The last place that sent me for the Drug Test, just pisses me off. I know for a fact I passed because I don't do drugs, and the fact that the manager in one of his many excuses says that I passed. This guy, his name is Josh, has been giving me the run around. He has given me 4 different excuses in the past three weeks. Seriously if you are not interested in hiring me, that's fine just be man enough and tell me.

I am staying in the same weekly that I checked into when I left The Rio. I have been talking to the manager here named James. The conversations have been just basic chit chat type of stuff. He knows that I have worked the Front Desk of hotels/motels for the past 15 years. So last Friday when I went to pay my weekly rent, we start our normal chatting. Well there was a line of other tenants trying to pay their rent standing behind me. James tells me to hang back for a bit, because he had something he wanted to talk to me about. Now at this point I have a feeling it may be in regards to employment. Well as soon as everyone else gets taken care of I pay my rent, and he tells me that his companies Corporate office is transfering him to another location which is located out on Boulder Highway. He says the new property is struggling and wanted to know if I wanted to come over there and work for him? Of course I told him that I was interested. He tells me he has to start there a couple days later on Monday, and that he will give me a call when he knows what his needs are. Now since I have been given the run around by so many other employers, I will just wait to see what comes of things.

With everything that I have been going threw trying to find a job over the past 14 months, it is no wonder why I am in a depression. Oh yeah I forgot to tell everyone. Yes I am in a severe depression. It has gotten alot worse of the past 14 months. No matter what I try doing nothing is able to get me out of it. Now that I am back in Vegas and closer to my daughter, at least I have one good thing going for me.

But then there is my mother. Now her and I have not had much of a relationship until about a year ago. Well last April she made contact with me, and I thought maybe she had changed over the past 13 years since we last were on speaking terms. For the first 6 months everything was fine. But then things went back to the way they used to be. She called me about 2 weeks ago rubbing it in that she got $12,000 in lump sum money from SSI, and she wasn't gonna help me out with anything. I am barely surviving and she has the balls to call and rub in how much cash she has, and say she will not help me out in any way? Now I understand it is her money, but for someone who says they want a relationship with me, and wants to meet her grandchildren for the first time, this is a bad way to go about things on her part. As far as I am concerned she could take her money and blow it on drugs/beer/ect. My whole life I have been the guy people turn to when they need help. So by me even having to ask for anything it is a big hit to my ego and pride. But sometimes I have to do what I have to do to survive. So since she wants to be a vindictive bitch, I am done with her. I can't believe I ever thought that she had changed. She obviously is the same twisted witch that she ever was. So in regards to her I am done with her drama.

Other then all I mentioned already I have been pretty much doing nothing since moving back. All of that will change when I find employment. But until then I am stuck waiting.