Thursday, September 8, 2011

What If You Won?




There’s something to be said about the exhilarating feeling of opening the door of a casino. You have money to burn and you dream of winning big. So big that you’ll pay off the mortgage, the credit cards, the doctor bills.  You will be a hero by the time you’re done with this place. When you get home your husband will bow down and call you “Queen”.

Your girlfriends that came with you have all gone off in different directions because you, you had to work on your plan.

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So you’re walking around, scoping out the scene, looking for your lucky table, when you see her.  There she is, the little old lady running a Blackjack table. She will be nice and friendly so this is a good place to start the night. As you sit on one of the stools, she glares at you as if you are an idiot. “Are you betting or not?” she growls.  Fumbling around you finally place your bet and she begins to throw the cards down.  You notice it seems to bring the little old  lady pleasure when she says, “Busted.”  It’s a dead give away by the big grin that stretches across her very wrinkled face. After a while, you feel you should spread the happiness to someone else, so you leave this table before she passes out from the excitement.

As you saunter around in your new low-rise jeans, t-shirt and heels you are feeling pretty confident about your appearance. After all how many 45-year-old women can pull off this outfit and look good in it? Then as you turn the corner, you see her. Yes, it’s HER. You know the one. She’s got the low-rise jeans too but no mushroom belly.  Oh and her t-shirt seems to be a lot perkier than yours.  The long blonde flowy hair that bounces as she flirts with the guys surrounding her makes you wish you had gotten the extensions you had been considering last week.  You turn around and go the other way because it’s just too crowded over here with HER.

This experience has to get better. You go to the slots and pull the handle repeatedly. Win a little and lose even more. You’re thinking that gambling really isn’t what it’s made out to be but the environment is exciting and you’re going to see a great show tonight with the girls. Still mindlessly pulling the slot machine, you sit there, and then suddenly you hit the jackpot! The lights flashing, the sirens begin screaming, you are a winner! You won 500 bucks playing the slots.

After you claim your winnings, it is all you can do to keep yourself from going over to the little old lady’s table and gloating. However, because you have class and she has gone on her break you will not do that. Maybe you’ll drop by and dangle some of your money in front of HER. You can just picture her following you around like a little puppy. Ok, come on back to reality. She has the guys, the body and probably money too.

As you pack up to go home you ponder about how to spend the money you won. Savings account? Pay off a credit card? Or maybe you’ll just buy a pair of jeans that fit, have a good cup of Starbuck’s and take the family to a movie.

I wrote this a while back for an online magazine. I thought of it when Write on Edge challenged us to write about jeans this week. I love this topic cause I love jeans. I'd like to win $500.00 but unfortunately this never happened although I can pull off some low-rise jeans and a t-shirt.