A song by Kelly Clarkson – “A Moment Like this…” the song pertains to a kiss, to love, to having that special moment…but ‘A Moment Like This’ fits – with everything. If you don’t know it, you ain’t living. A touch on things in my life…like hey…that’s what this whole damn page is about – my life. Get into it or get out of it!

My beauty Queen, Kayanna, fell and broke the two small bones in her arm. Yup…kids always seem to break something. The distressing part of this for me is that her mother took her to the emergency room, they x-rayed, and put her arm in a temporary cast, telling mom to take her to an orthopedic surgeon. Ok. Mom made an appointment but it took a few days. When Mom and Kayanna arrived, the bone had begun to mend; emergency did not set the bone! Where is that all coming from? What do emergency rooms do? Excuse me here where I want to have a huge fit. If they aren’t going to set the bone, why don’t they tell people that? My beauty queen will be no less beautiful to me but it’s possible she will have a slight arc to her arm as she grows. The orthopedic surgeon told mom that it would be horribly painful for Kayanna to start over, she would have to be put to sleep, both bones would have to be re-broken, etc., etc., etc. I lost my faith in the medical profession a long time ago. Faith renewal is not an option here. *Note to self and reader: If you require medical care, ask everything you, and your neighbors, can think of on your visits to your Dr. or a medical facility because you might be better off just doing a public opinion poll on the Internet to figure out what you need than trusting those that have taken the Hippocratic oath.

My baby boy, Darian, turned 35 today. Good God!!! Where do the years go? His birth is one of those funnies. His dad was my third husband. GET OVER IT! Yes, I’ve been married more than once. So what? I’ve even slept around more than once. But back to 35 and the funnies. My first son was born two weeks early; my second son was born two weeks late. My third son…the last, was due on the 8th of March. My husband, father of the third son, took a job as a car salesman when we lived in Portland OR. He sold the most new or used cars for the month and won two tickets to a closed circuit showing of the first Ali/Frazier fight. That fight was on the 8th of March, 1971. I can distinctly remember hubby saying, “That’s the night the baby’s due.”

And me saying, “Don’t worry honey, I’ve never delivered on a due date.”

OK…so we’re having a baby at 7:30ish just when the whole ‘fight’ world’s tuning into the Heavy Weight Championship of the World. Damn it! I love that boy! He’s not only my son; he’s my pal, my friend, my insight into better times and the future. And he’s the father of that sweet boy Riot. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARIAN!

And while we were out to eat at Lone Star over the weekend, Darian, Riot, Chad, and me, our waiter managed to place one napkin on the table and then fumble the rest of them onto the floor. The only problem was he picked them up off the floor and began to spread them on the table in front of us. I bluntly said, “Honey, we don’t want napkins that were on the floor!”

He left, without saying a word, and returned with fresh napkins…but honestly…what is this kid thinking????

And then I boarded the employee shuttle for Bellagio. It was full, standing room only. I was. A man behind me tapped my arm and offered me his seat, as he stood and grabbed the overhead rail. D-A-Y-A-M!!! Just when I thought chivalry was dead…just when I knew I was always going to be ‘kickin’ it on my own, someone blew me out of the water with the simplest of gestures! Little things mean a lot to me.

So now that we are done with me, let’s kick right into poker.

I went in to work on Monday night, signed the E/O play list and found out I really had to work. OMG! What is this world coming to? I started somewhere around 36B. When I hit a $15-30H game, Jim B. was in the 8s and after visiting a bit and dealing, I found out from him that Precious had died some months ago. Wow! Not that I miss him but he’s got a bit of history with me and most of it’s quite irritating from my side but there’s some humor in it…like life kicks us all in the butt at some point and we aren’t quite as smart and great as we thought we were back when. Nope…I have no mercy on that thread. If you’re a real person, you’ll know exactly what I mean. If you aren’t…well you have a long boring, unhealthy mental attitude and what happens from the time you were born until the time you pass really means nothing in the realm of eternity. In other words, go fuck yourself because the rest of us are living our lives while you are diddle fucking yours off into nowhere. Did I really just type that? Yes! And I meant it. Perhaps as I turn all the old posts into the Word Press format, time will tell the story of Precious.

I also found out that Ho passed. Ho was interesting on more than one point. He used to deal at MGM…I believe it was in the pit…in the beginning when I started at The Mirage. Ho, a small Asian man, was capable of having a fit when he lost a hand and capable of throwing quite a few $$$ when he won a hand. His thought was that if he could abuse the dealer, he also had to pay when he won. Somewhere in time, he had surgery – the surgery went WRONG! He had a horrible problem with motor senses and nerves on one side of his body. Somewhere in the archives of The Diary, I have a post about buttoning up his jacket, and that may be all the posts about him…but he’s remembered.

But on Monday, when I dealt my full shift, I hit Bobby’s Room somewhere around 1ish. The game had been full most of the night. When I got there, it was Minh Ly, Gus Hanson, and Barry Greenstein. Alex was sitting with Barry – reading a magazine. Damn if that woman ain’t cute. She gave me the biggest grin and hello. It was $4-8…yeah…you guessed it, add a ‘K’ after all that. There were chips in the 5s and Nate told me not to take time as he’d been gone forever.

The first hand I dealt was an Omaha 8 or better hand and I announced, “Time pot!”

The hand went to Gus and Minh slamming at each other. I left the bets in front of them and they ended up showing cards that split the pot. I asked if they would split the time. Gus said that Barry was paying the time. Barry asked me, “If you could play poker with those two, wouldn’t you be willing to pay the time?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I said, “I don’t know.”

Mostly the game was a slammer/jammer between Minh and Gus. When Minh left to smoke, Barry and Gus played Chinese, taking two hands each. When Minh returned, the game went back to its normal rotation. During one hand of 7 Card Stud, (put on your stupid cap Linda) I was sure that Gus was going for a Heart Flush…with a possibility of a pair and/or a straight draw. At the end of the hand, Gus bet, Minh Called, and Gus said, “Two pair,” as he laid down Kings and Nines.

Minh turned over a 6 high straight. Gus was sort of mutter mumbling/stammering as he held some of his cards up in his hand….CIS BOOM BAH! He discovered he had a Flush. Not that that’s a bad thing. except for Minh…and playing lots of hours can cause one to simply overlook a hand, but it brought about a lot of gloom and doom on Minh’s part.

For some reason in higher limits, one cannot overlook their hand. If they do, it’s like a needle or a slow roll; an almost unforgivable sin. Minh refused to ante and play after that so Barry and Phil went back to Chinese. An hour or so later, as I was moving through the room, toward the end of my shift, Phil Ivey was back…those were his chips in the 5s.

I didn’t care…I was gone…in more ways than one, Kelly Clarkson’s last note drifted off so long ago…into A Moment Like This…a moment in time.