Back to the grind.

As I've alluded to in the past few installments, this holiday season was a busy one, enough so that I don't feel like I've had much time off. Or at least not of the "spend all day on the couch watching re-runs, ignoring personal hygeine" variety.

What we did do, though, was fun, and I do feel recharged for the upcoming semester. How long that will last is anyone's guess, but it will undoubtedly be linked to the return of the full student body in a few weeks.

In any event, after returning from Maine and New Hampshire, Sarah and I went on a day trip to Foxwoods with friends Shawn and Laura DeVeau and Greg Sorenson and Kirstie MacPherson. In the unlikely event that you've not heard of it, Foxwoods was the first of the large Native American casinos to sprout forth from the sowing of all the reservation bingo halls in this part of the country. It was soon followed by Mohegan Sun, also in Connecticut. Their success has led to any tribe with a meaningful number of members and some land to try to propose their own casino, though without success (yet).

Really, when you think of it, Native American casinos make a lot of sense, as it's reapplication of principles we used on them to steal their land in the first place. Palefaces come in, get some firewater in them, and drop all their ready cash. Tribe can then use money to buy land back. Hmm...

Anyway, the trip itself was fun, though it confirmed a simple fact: I suck at gambling. My sucking has two components. The first is that table games (such as roulette, blackjack, etc.) is the equivalent of setting my money on fire without getting the few seconds of warmth that torching bills would provide. I didn't even bother trying the table games at Foxwoods, for fear of embarrasment (and of high minimum bets that would have depleted me that much quicker).

The other component is that on machines I never quit when I'm ahead. I tend to win early and lose my earnings over time. My usual train of thought is something like "I'll just play a few more times," which about a half hour later turns into "What the hell was I thinking? Argggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Foxwoods itself is a nice if somewhat cartoonish facility, kind of like Main Street at Disneyworld meets Reno. The game rooms are of good size and remarkably well ventilated (smoking rarely bothered me). I never did avail myself of the beverage service, mostly because it took me most of the day to realize that the strange droning I heard from time to time was a server calling out "beverages" repeatedly. I assume the lack of tone or pitch makes it less likely that people will actually get drinks. Not that I didn't see a few people for whom this was no obstacle.

By day's end, I left with $17, thanks mostly to a lucky last spin on a slot machine. Should the occasion arise again I'd go back, though I don't think I could go too often. Which I suppose is a good thing.