Casino Night in the 'Hood

I am lucky enough to live in a beautiful, deed restricted golf course community here in Saint Augustine, surrounded by some really great people, most of which I haven't bothered to get to know. While our house in the Tampa area sits endlessly on the market, we've been renting here in this community, and I suppose I feel like I don't want to get attached to people in case when we buy we don't stay here in the neighborhood. Stupid reasoning. I have a phone. I have a car. It's not like we'd move far from here in any case. Here's the entrance to my neighborhood. I blocked out the name for my own safety.

The other part of not making close friends is that I'm somewhat of a recluse. I suffer quite badly from panic disorder and the simplest thing, such as going out to lunch with a friend, is nearly impossible for me. Shopping with a friend? Uh uh, ain't gonna happen. I hate this part of me, but I've dealt with it for so long that it's just become part of who I am. The recluse. The anti social one. If there is a party, let's say next door at our friend's house, I'd probably go, but I'd wind up coming home on and off to decompress. It makes absolutely no sense because I'm surrounded by great, funny people. They're not in the least bit scary. But illnesses such as mine are not logical, nor are they based on reality. The fear is always there, whether I'm taking a ride to the supermarket, or strolling the aisles of Wal-Mart. If you've ever had a severe panic attack you can probably empathize with me at least a little bit. But hell, I've gone off on a tangent, and in the second paragraph no less! This is not what my post is about!!!!!!!

No, this post is about a great get-together our community had last night called Casino Night. I think we pay $500 a year in association fees to live here, and from that, only $33 a year is taken from each family to plan all the different social events in our community throughout the year. Last night's shindig cost us absolutely nothing. We were just asked to bring either a dessert or an appetizer. The clubhouse was set up like a casino with oodles of blackjack tables, a craps table, and a roulette table. Outside in the breezeway was poker. There was plenty of alcohol to go around for mixed drinks, a keg of beer, and lots of water and soda for those of us who don't partake of the good stuff. Imagine that. We paid nothing, and there was an open bar! Plus, you are given $20,000 of play money to gamble with. This is not usually my type of thing. A huge crowd, loud music and gambling. But ooh, I really did have fun! I got semi dolled-up, walked in there and was instantly welcomed by people I know, and then throughout the night met so many more people I didn't know, who turned out to be so nice! Of course, more than half of them were juiced, but they were still nice!

Pic of me and Jimmy just before we left home.



Here's a picture of Tracy gambling. Now, I barely know her as of yet, but she kind of adopted me last night and seems to think I should join the community planning commitee. If only she knew what a stretch that would be for me! But we'll see. I told her it might be worth it just for the bullshit factor. Tracy is in the black spaghetti strap shirt. She's married to Jimmy's good friend, John.



I actually had a great time gambling too, and made a profit! Here's me and Jennifer. I have no clue who the hell she is. She came to play next to me and I made Jimmy take a picture of us. You can see by the look on her face that she's wondering why this insane woman has her arm around her, taking a picture. Little did she know I was probably among the 5% of people completely sober!



Larry was there, and wearing the coolest shirt ever! I wish I could say the same for his footwear. He was wearing the gaudiest pair of white cowboy boots I've ever seen. I think they even had rhinestones on them. Damn, I really wish I would have snapped a picture of them. Would have given y'all a good giggle. On his left is Grisel, and on his right is Michelle. She's one of two Michelles I know, so I call her black Michelle. LOL



Here's a pic of the back of Larry's cool shirt.



Jimmy and John played at the same blackjack table all night, and OMG, a woman that was playing with them the whole time thought they were a couple! Gee, I wonder, can you imagine why?



My friend from next door, Grisel, on left, and Michelle, (white Michelle...heeheehee) on right.



No clue who these chicks are, but they seemed happy, so I snapped! Oh wait! Lady in the pink shirt is the one that thought John and Jimmy were "together". That's probably why Jimmy popped her some bunny ears.



I even took a very quick video so you could hear how loud it was in this place!



Ooh, what's this? Shelia will be so proud! I took a "potty" break and snapped away! Diva pictures!





Now this next picture is completely rude and I should be so ashamed of myself for taking it. I'm not though. It was just too good to pass up. This pretty chick walked in and the first thing I noticed was how short her dress was. Long, beautiful legs, but OMG, who the hell wears dresses this short? Only Heidi Klum should be allowed. This was almost indecent! Okay, so she looked smokin' hot and I'm just jealous. Whatever. Anyway, I was sitting at a table directly behind her, and to take this picture without her or her friends knowing, I put the camera on the table, sneakily turned it on and faced it in the right direction, and then when no one was looking, pressed the shutter button. Ooh, I am so bad. Probably one of those situations where I should have asked myself, What Would Jesus Do? But come on, Jesus didn't have a camera and probably wouldn't understand my blogging obsession for details.



You'd think that once the party was over, that would be it. I'd go home to bed and this blog post would end. But noooooooo. Tiney left the festivities a little earlier than most (10:10), came home, read some emails, then got in my jammies and crawled into bed to talk to Jill on the phone. Jimmy was getting a ride home with John and Tracy. At 11:45, call waiting interrupts my conversation with Jill. It's Jimmy, calling from John's house telling me that everyone wanted me over there. Oh yes, because I'm just so popular, the party can't go on without me, right? But then Tracy takes over the phone and starts yelling at me to get my ass over there, jammies or not. She then passed the phone to a very tipsy Larry who said he'd go home and put on jammies too if only I'd walk over. At this point Madison was sound asleep and Mikayla was heading to bed herself, but hey, my people were awaiting my presence. What could I do? I put on my crappiest clothes, smoothed down my bed hair, put my bra on again dammit, and once again locked the kids up tight, then walked across the cul-de-sac to John and Tracy's house.

John was behind the bar, the men were playing pool, Tracy was bringing out chips and dips, and I was trying not to yawn. At some point after midnight Manuel whipped up a bowl of homemade salsa and boy was it good! Here's Larry taking a shot at the pool table. Isn't this a cool room? It's an addition they did a couple years ago, and I love all the windows!



I wanted a picture of me and black Michelle, and at the last second Larry popped his head in the picture. Doesn't he look completely odd here? He's got a look of a deer caught in the headlights. A very drunk deer.



Here's a picture of me and Jimmy around 1 a.m., right before I left to finally go home and nite-nite.



And this last is my favorite picture of the whole night! There's nothing like 40-somethings acting like teenagers to put a smile on my face! Yep, I give to you John and Tracy.



And that's about it! I gathered up my stuff, bade everyone goodbye, and snuggled up to read the end of Tribute, by Nora Roberts. Great book, and a wonderful way to end a fun night!