Weights/Casino/Spending

Wednesday night I got home from work and went straight downstairs to the weight room. I was supposed to do legs, shoulders and arms but I managed to convince myself that my shoulders got enough work in on Monday so I skipped them.

I have this love/hate relationship with squats. I like doing them because they’re a good exercise but on the other hand my surgically repaired knee makes them really challenging. I decided to get them out of the way first. I did four sets with a good amount of weight (good amount for me, not for your average weight lifter), did the arms and some sit ups, took a shower and went to the bar.

Thursday morning I noticed something wasn’t right. My left knee was very tender and didn’t want to straighten out completely. I had to stretch it out in order to walk after sitting at my desk for any amount of time. I figured I might have tweaked it or something and that it would go away in no time.

Today as I sat down on the shitter I noticed that my knee was fat. The whole outer side of my knee ballooned out with an obvious build up of fluid. It isn’t as painful today but your knee doesn’t swell up like this unless something’s wrong.

I hate going to the doctor. I hate hospitals and all the sick people. And I hate surgery. When I initially had knee surgery it took forever to get it back in working order. Even two years later you could tell I was favoring it when I tried to jog. So now here I am with a fat knee and soiled underwear as I think I might have to go in and see about it. Fuck. It’s not like I felt any pain when I was squatting so it might turn out to be nothing. I guess I’ll just take it easy this weekend and see what it’s like on Monday.

Damn it, just realized I have to mow the lawn this weekend. Crap.

In other news…

Even though I said I was going to stay away from the casino for a while I found myself there again Wednesday night. I sat down at a table with a cute asian woman and an older gentleman. They were pretty quiet so of course Mr. Party (me when drinking) tried to liven them up with some high fives and cheering. And wouldn’t you know it but the table changed from being average to paying out like a bank teller with a gun in her face. Everyone was playing properly and the dealer kept on pushing chips across the table. I started out betting two hands of $30 and gradually increased my bets to two hands of $50. As I was doing this the other two were increasing from $50’s to $100’s. At one point I was up $300 and the Renter snatched my original $300 away from me so I wouldn’t leave down. After that I would build up what I had in front of me and push additional money her way, usually $100 every 15 minutes or so. In the end the dealer pulled something out of his ass and I quit. The two people on the end had huge stacks of green chips ($25’s) sitting in front of them. I only had about $275 in front of me when I looked over at the Renter to color up the chips I had given her. To my astonishment she handed me $900. I had just turned my $300 into $1,175.

This leaves me with a big problem. You might be saying huh, you just won $875, what kind of problem can that pose? See, I have this mentality that at some point I will more than likely lose that in the future so I just sock it away for that rainy day. And then at some point I do lose it and mope around like a fat girl whose prom date canceled the day before (and she really wanted to get laid). So to avoid this problem I have come up with a possible solution. Instead of putting it in the savings account like I usually do I’m going to, uh, I don’t even like to say the word, I’m going to spend it. (Whew that was tough.) That way I’ll be less likely to go to the casino when I know I’m not playing with their money. All you women with your $200 purses and designer jeans are scratching your heads in bewilderment. How can spending $900 be a problem? Well, I’m not like most people. I’m cheap. While I do spend a lot of money on beer and chicken wings it pains me to buy new Levi’s or shoes for work. Hell, I had to take a scissors to my current work shoes just last week because the lining was falling off and irritating my heel. I’ve walked out of a store before when I thought their prices on juice was too high. Just this morning I had to rip my dollar out of the soda machine at the last minute when I realized I could walk across the street and get a two liter bottle for the same price. So, do you see how spending $900 is going to be a problem for me?

I told my dad about this problem and he immediately handed me an ad for flat screens. Come on now, you’d think he’d know me by now. I can’t spend $900 on a TV. I’d have to be extremely loaded (drunk, not rich) to go out and make that purchase. Watch, now the Renter will start buying me shots this Saturday at 3:00.

I have started to put some thought into this. It’s just a start so don’t laugh at me. My list of things to buy as it stands right now:

1. Sunflower seeds
2. Coffee
3. Stamps
4. Eggs
5. Chicken
6. Milk
7. Paper plates
8. Underwear

Yeah, I know, that’s only like $40 but that’s all I’ve come up with so far. I suppose I could go out and get some new jeans since mine are a little tight (at least partly from the squats). But I don’t really need anything else. I’d like a new stainless steel cat-back exhaust for the Jeep but my exhaust is fine the way it is except for the lack of any growl in tone. I’ve put thought (and looked online) into buying a laptop and I could probably do it mentally if it only cost $350-$400 but then again I don’t want a piece of shit or anything. And the only real reason I would use it would be to tell the sad, disturbing, and sometimes disgusting story that is my life on this here website.

So it comes down to this. I need your help. I need your help in trying to think of something that would be both valuable and useful to me and not lavish in any way. I don’t splurge (unless it comes to beer or the eleven chicken legs I ate on Wednesday). I don’t purchase things just to have something nice (except for those retro Jordan’s which I’ve never worn). I can’t waste money like I do my brain/liver cells. So please, comment and help a brotha out.

UPDATE: The Renter and I went back on Friday night. I had to litterally grind out $100 in profit to which the Renter said I was better than that. Ended up leaving down $450. Fuck. So I made her drive me to Walmart, Pick N Save, and Menards on Saturday because I was still loaded.