I walked into the briefing room all set to be Henry 1 when 77Rick asked me if I wanted to work dispatch. Junior had called off (for the second straight night) and 77Rick was faced with putting me up there (for the first time) or putting Schempp up there with Ted and - as 77Rick put it - seeing which one came out alive because those two do not get along. So I was thrown up there despite the fact my dispatch experience consists of a couple of hours training last fall, all of which has been forgotten.
If you know your way around a computer, it's not that hard, because most everything anyone on the crew does, including 10-10's and 482's, has to be logged in, but the program is easy to use and I picked it up in short order.
The fun part is playing with the surveillance cameras. Not all cameras in the casino can be viewed from dispatch, and of those not all can be controlled from dispatch, but a lot can be and it's great fun and soon enough I was stalking, er, surveilling, like a pro although Ted warned not to spend too much time staring at cocktail waitresses.
With the camera at the sports bar it is even possible to see inside of purses. This was funny. We zoomed in to look inside one hooker's purse and there several ID's in there, as well as a generous supply of condoms and Ted made a tasteless, funny remark about how they appeared to be ribbed for her pleasure.
Later, I'm watching the slot area near the e-core. There's a hooker pretending to play slots when a middle aged, chubby white guy walks past her and makes eye contact. Ted wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, so I filled him in, which was easy because in another life I did some sports announcing.
"Ted, we have eye contact. Oh, wait, he's walking past, no sale evidently. Wait, he's stopping; he's taking out his cell to check his messages; he's looking at her out of the corner of his eye; he's glancing at the phone, at her, at the phone, whoops, no sale, again! He puts the phone back in his pocket and walks away."
By now Ted is following along on his monitor. The guy takes a couple of more steps before stopping and taking out his phone again to see if there had been any calls for him in the past five seconds.
"He's looking back, again, Gaylon."
"He could be looking for that quick hummer before breakfast!"
"Aren't we all?" Ted said.
The guy actually walked away and stopped a couple of more times before deciding a hummer wasn't on the menu.
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Last night I was sitting in PBX with my angels Angelica and Maria when Angelica asks why are guys such slobs? Maria is on the phone, probably with her boyfriend, judging by how curious she seemed to be about my answer.
She should be. I am not all that neat and am a leading authority on this matter. I told them there is a bird called the Prothonotary Warbler, the male gender of which (and I assume there are other birds with this trait) makes several unused nests, requiring the female to show up and make a real nest.
I told her bachelors were like the Prothonotary Warbler, that a messy bachelor pad was really a shout out for a woman to come and make a home. Angelica was skeptical, but she's only 20 and not completely of the world yet.
Tonight I was able to offer a more or less conclusive proof of my Prothonotary Warbler Theorem. I am at the New York, New York gate around midnight when Judy - in her role as Mary 1 - comes by to chat. We BS for a bit before I take the opportunity to steal the Mary 1 chariot and go to the can. Afterwards I stop at Eddie - 2 to chat with Rich for awhile and all in all I'm gone a little more than ten, maybe fifteen, minutes.
I get back to the shack and holy living fuck, Judy's done a complete makeover! Not only has it been tidied up, but she's sprayed down and cleaned the walls and counter and there's even a pot of coffee brewing! Jesus H., I'm thinking, no wonder her husband married her.
I related this story to the girls but neither was completely convinced. They maintain we're just too lazy to clean up after ourselves.
Judy's pretty handy, too. There are several portable generators at MCSD, including two at the New York, New York gate and for some reason we were running them and burning all the fuel. One is running and providing power for the shack when I get out there, but fuel is running low and I will be responsible for securing the first generator, starting up the second, and transferring the power cable.
I don't have these skills, and can't perform any of these tasks. I tell Judy this and it's plain she doesn't consider this to be a bulletin, although I did come up with the brilliant idea of running both generators simultaneously. Judy stepped in and took care of everything else.
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