Birthday shenanigans, and a lucky miscount

Kathleen Anderson

Birthdays are interesting events. We spend the first part of our lifetime saying I’m almost…and the later part I’m only…

Either way, they deserve to be a celebration of our lives.

In our family, we celebrate our “birthday month.” Statements often heard during the appointed month are, “I want dessert for dinner. It’s my birthday month.” Or “I am going shopping again. It’s my birthday month.” You get the drift. It’s a time when we allow each other the freedom to be silly without any judgment.

I share my birthday month with my son-in-law, so I split it with him. I get the first half, and he gets the second. During my part of our birthday month, My daughters treated me to two spa days – one for manis and pedis and one for facials. Of course, they came with me for both, so it was even more fun.

Then the adults started discussing my birthday dinner. I suggested, since none of us had ever been there, going for the buffet at the Emerald Queen Casino. This was followed by a visit to their website to see the menus for all of their restaurants.

After a quick debate on whether we should go for the buffet or dinner, it was decided we should do both, which meant an overnight stay at their hotel.

None of us are big gamblers, and there was quite a bit of time between brunch and dinner, so I wasn’t too sure what we would do all that time. After more discussion, we decided on Bingo. It was something we all knew how to play. Of course, my son-in-law would play poker, so he was more excited than I was.

Reservations were made. We discovered there were two hotels connected with the casino, and another discussion was needed to decide which one to stay in. We finally decided on the older one in Fife because they had the best buffet menu and dinner looked very interesting also.

We also decided we would go to both locations just to see it all.

When the weekend came, after a quick stop at the bank, off we went with great expectations of good food, slot machines, bingo and poker chips.

We began our day with the buffet, which did not disappoint. The service was great, the food was beautifully displayed and delicious, and of course, we ate too much.

Next stop was the casino.

No bingo! That was a shock. In Tahoe, Reno and Las Vegas, which what we were used to, there is Bingo everywhere. That left the slots. And 90% of them were penny machines. Another shock!

Nor, for the life of me, could I figure out when I had won something. No straight lines here, folks. Characters hither and yon appeared and a number would appear at the top. Sometimes the number went up and sometimes it went down.

Sometimes the machine would appear to automatically roll itself without my help.

I finally decided I had won 47.50 and it was time to quit while I was ahead. It was about this time my son-in-law showed up to tell me he had moved our reservation to the new hotel.

After looking at my screen, he also informed me I had won 475.00, (math has never been my strong point.) so I knew it was time to walk away.

By the time we had checked into our rooms, it was my naptime. One of my daughters won around a thousand dollars bouncing from penny machine to penny machine and everyone had a good time.

Will I go back? Maybe for another trip to the buffet. I don’t see any comped rooms in my future. I know no one there would be greeting me with my name like the pit bosses had done with several other guests.

But it was great birthday fun for a gal who is almost 80.

Kathleen Anderson writes this column each week from her home in Olympia.  Contact her at  kathleen@theJOLTnews.com or post your comment below.