It Was A SIGN .........

Sometimes I try to pay attention to the signs the earth is giving out ... sometimes I miss them completely.  When I went outside early in the morning, I should have paid more attention.  This is a most unusual cloud formation for this area ... I never see this here.  It was a SIGN. 

I paid no attention whatsoever and went about my day like it was any other day.  I ate and I sewed.  THIS is a bacon taco.  You've never had one?  Bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and special sauce on a tortilla.  That's a salad plate (my best china) and so I only get ONE.  It hit the spot and I was feeling good about it being Bingo night.

Until I got to the Lodge.  Members have a key code and can come in any time they want.  NON-members are more than welcome to come and play, but they cannot come in the door until we open at 4:30.  All winter long, they have been allowed to enter the ante room early because it was cold.

HOWEVER ... they never follow the rules and wait there.  They just rush the main room whenever they feel like it.  It's all about who is in line FIRST.  That makes the paid members unhappy that they do not get their cards before anyone else.  It's a Bingo thing.

On this night, we did not open the back door to the ante room.  It's not cold and it's not hot.  They have to wait outside until it's 4:30.  You would not believe the ruckus!!  They began beating and kicking on the back door, screaming bloody murder.  I ignored it until someone let a non member in, who promptly went and opened the door.  

I put on my Big Girl Pants and told them they had to wait outside.  Goodness gracious ... the screaming and kicking was epic!!!  THEY ALWAYS LET US IN EARLY!  No, no they don't.  It was a SIGN.   I got a standing ovation from the members who said I was their hero!!

Here I am, setting up for the night.  THIS is the infernal machine.  It does everything it can to mess with us, including never balancing.  Well SOMETIMES it balances, just to mess with us even more!  If it doesn't stay plugged in, it loses its mind and deletes two full hours of programming.  

It rang up $82 when I knew it was $44 and it rang up $1400 received instead of $140 ... all night long it gave me fits!!  So much so that I forgot to hand out TWO of those little red tickets.  You know the ones.  Oh yes, she came running back and I apologized.

Thankfully I'm not alone here ... there are 17-18 hardy souls that show up every Tuesday night to run the show.  This is the back room that sells pull tabs.  Pull off the tab and see if you won cash, up to $250 I think ... but there is only one of those in 500.   If there are three numbers, you get to play a special bingo game that has payouts of $500.  The onslaught of people buying these cards for $1.00 each is amazing to watch.  Thankfully, I don't have anything to do with this side.

The best SIGN of the entire night was the one that said CORN DOGS $2.50 each.  For the first time EVER I was able to skip the stomach cramp inducing hotdogs and have a GREAT corn dog instead.  As you can tell, it was inhaled in two seconds.  We had 138 people last night and they sold 72 corn dogs.  

At last it was time to exit, but only after spending an additional 30 minutes trying to get the infernal machine to balance with the money I had in my drawer.  Turns out this time it was operator error since I had not rung up all the payouts ... making it look like I was short.  In the end it came out okay ... if you are within $10, that a WIN when it comes to the infernal machine!!

As usual I feel like I got beat with a stick this morning, so it will be a slow day.  It's budget time at the Lodge and wouldn't you know, I'm an accountant.  I bet you can guess what I'll be doing all day!!  I wish I could say I'll be on the couch, but I'll be on the calculator!