// June 16th, 2006 // 3 Comments » // Personal/Blog News
Sorry I’ve been away for so long. My days have been filled with non-stop action for the past month or so. I really should post small updates throughout the weeks, but I try to be more of a medium/large post kinda guy, so I put it off until I have a lot to talk about, then forget most of what’s happened lol. Lets see if I can give an accurate recap…
The Bachelor Party
The 20th we had an awesome bachelor party for [Matty] B[lanchete]. Rather than the normal drunken debauchery, we decided to invite the girls and head down to Foxwoods for a weekend of gambling and sight-seeing. Amme, Zach, Doody, Jesse, and Kelly came, and we had a great time.
On the way down we strayed from our directions to go through Providence to hit up this really great vegan resturant I’d heard about called Melanie’s Vegan Eden. Unfortunately once we got to Providence we realized they were closed until 4, and we had to get to our hotel posthaste, so we instead headed to Spice of Life and got some crazy wraps. Doody and I got a gyro with falafel. I never knew what falafel was until I ate it, and it was pretty darn good! B and Kelly enjoyed their veggy wrap, even though it wasn’t anything special, because it had some really good vinegarette sauce on it. The best part of Charleston was when we passed the big sign that said “We Have Hot Weiners!” ROFL *Sigh*, I’ll always have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy.
Amme, Kelly, B, and I’s car made our way to the hotel, while Zach and the other’s car had a crazy we’re-lost-and-trying-to-find-the-hotel with the result that when they finally found our hotel, they were experts at navigating the greater Groton, CT area. They knew where to get everything from gas, and groceries to medical supplies and wholesale good.
The hotel had a decent indoor pool so we got settled and went for a swim that ended in us sinking the patio furnature to the bottom of the pool and trying to sit in it anyway. After that we all got spiffied up and headed out to foxwoods.
We had a hell of a time finding vegan food at foxwoods. I’d looked online for vegan resturants, but there was a dearth of them in the foxwoods area and I had assumed there would be vegan options at some of the many many resturants. There were vegan options at some places, like the Hard Rock Cafe, but there was also a 2 hour wait and we were starved! We ended up going to the Golden Dragon chinese resturant, and they ended up having good spring rolls and fried tofu. I know B and Kelly get sick of tofu relatively quickly, but they said it was a good meal. I loved the place because Amme’s mom always gets me ox tail soup when we go there (a korean favorite) and I always scarf it down. Their lo mein is also very light and low-oil. I remember one of the waiters was singing loudly to himself whenever he walked by. That was really entertaining.
After eating our fill, we headed out to one of the many casino floors. We had pooled our money to cover B and Kelly’s expenses as well as some gambling money, so we went and all got some quarters for the slots. Unfortunately B and Kelly didn’t win big, but some of us did!
Doody had no real urge to gamble, and Zach won a few dozen coins, ending up with slightly more than he came with, which is the important thing. Amme didn’t do as well, but didn’t lose much, and came out ahead if you include the money she gave me to bet with, but I’ll get to that. On the other hand, Jesse showed the one-armed bandit who the real swindler was, and won at least two 300 coin jackpots, a 200 coint, and man many 100, 50, and 20 coin spins, all on the same damn machine. He wouldn’t get up from it until he bled it dry. After filling his change cup, Jesse forgot the 2 rules of gambling:
1. The casino always comes out ahead in the end.
2. Don’t get greedy!
Whenever I win a lot, I like to put aside my winnings and continue betting with my original cash until I start a losing streak or lose it all. The machine went cold after his second 300 coin spin, and he ended up spending half his cup, though he still left the casino with at least $70 more than he came with.
I had mixed luck with the slots, and opted to have some fun at the Black Jack table instead. Unfortunately, the smallest tables were $25, and I was *very* apprehensive to place such large bets, but Amme finally convinced me to play at least $25, and she gave me $25 of hers to play too.
I don’t like to play BJ unless I can find a really friendly dealer. I sometimes make mistakes and I like to have fun above all else, so Amme and I walked around until we found a nice lady. My first hand… Blackjack!
“Yeah! Thats the way to start,” I thought. And continued to get face cards for the following 6 or 7 hands, ending up with around $175. Then this pissy, moody, mopey guy took over dealing and after one hand I said no thank you sir.
I walked two tables down and who could it be but my old dealer! I sat down at her table and she asked why I’d moved. I told her I wasn’t feeling it over there and she responded, “Hey, you’ve gotta play where you feel it!”
I should have walked away after $175, but in the mix I forgot for a few seconds my gambling rules, and ended up dropping down to $25, and winning back up to $100 i think. After that I realized I was being a dumb-ass, and walked away. At least I doubled our money, which is what I did last time I played, and coming back with any money more than what you came with is certainly something to celebrate.
After that little run we went to the arcade wanting to play “Target Terror”. Target Terror is a mindless shooting game with live-action sprites. What makes this game amazing is that if, in a given level, you shoot out 20 windows or blow up 10 monitors or 10 oil drums, you get bonus games.
Now be forewarned, these are not your ordinary shoot the tin-cans in 30 seconds games. Oh no.
Level 1 bonus: Turkey Terror – Its duck hunt, but instead of ducks, it’s terrorists throwing frozen turkeys at your ass, and you have to gun the turkeys down. It culminates with a barrage of thousands of english-ass-tonnes of turkey filling the screen like pop-ups on granny’s 233MHz.
Level 2 bonus: I don’t know what it was called, but it’s missle command with parachuting terrorists. not as outrageous, but very fun.
Level 3 bonus: Golden Terror – Think “Golden Tee” but with something gone horribly wrong. Level 3 was as far as we got, but this was by far the best bonus game of the three. In this gem, you hit flaming golf ball bombs at terrorists in golf carts on the driving range. They drive across the screen and you have to blow them up by driving balls at them. But wait, thats not even the best part. If you blow a hole in the ground, they fall in the hole slanted, and then the cart behind them will rev his engine and do a wheelie while peeling out, then jump the fallen cart like Evel Knievel!
I howled and cried with laughter when I first saw this, and could barely shoot the screen between my spasms of giggling. This game is truely wonderful.
Despite my love of Target Terror, they didn’t have it there! The website said they did, but it was nowhere to be found. Regardless, we played a lot of other fun games, and Amme kicked my ass at Need for Speed Underground to the tune of “Get Low”.
The next day we went to Mystic where I got to eat lunch at Mystic Pizza!!! I was soooo thrilled. I really love that movie and didn’t even know it was based on a real location. Everyone there was super nice, and although we couldn’t find vegan food again (there aren’t any within an hour of foxwoods), we did find a good health-food store for B and Kelly to fill up at. Everybody in the town was really nice and it was a cute little town.
Our next stop was Mystic Aquarium. We watched a beluga whale training session, seal training session, and Amme and I petted live rays! They felt really neat, like a rubbery cool piece of leather. It was a lot of fun, but we missed Jesse. He stayed outside because he had electronics homework to do, so he found a nice comfortable tree to sit under and camped out.
All in all, it was a great time. We all had a lot of fun and I’m glad we all got to hang out together. We definately missed Jalbey, Johnny, Evan, and Trevor.
