Getting Lucky

I don't gamble.

Why should I? I might as well dump the contents of my wallet out the window for all the good it does me. I have terrible luck not just with slot machines and blackjack tables but with any kind of raffle, lottery, contest or game.

And I am okay with that.

Boyfriend and I both believe that while we have bad luck at games, we have very good luck in life. And honestly, which would you rather have? So we are happy with what fate has given us, or what it hasn't.

That's one reason why gambling was the last thing on our list of To-Do's on our trip to Vegas. This was my first time meeting The Family and I was very relieved when we all got along amazingly well. Fortune was holding up its end of the bargain and overall we were having a blast.

We even found a dollar on the floor while wandering around The Strip. I kicked something and Boyfriend said, "Wait! There's money pick it up!" It was a folded-up dollar bill.

"It must be lucky," I joked, "We'll have to play it at the casino."

It wasn't until we were killing time before heading to the airport that we had a chance to test our dollar's luck. We were running a little late because we lost track of time (and margaritas) at happy hour. We decided to just walk through the casino on our way to grab a cab and put it in the first machine we found.

"Maybe it will at least pay for our drinks," I teased. Neither of us thought anything would really happen.

I turned to my right and there was a dollar slot machine. "This one," I said, "I stopped in front of it so it has to be the one."

Boyfriend had to show me where to put the bill into the machine (that's how long it had been since I attempted gambling) and I hit the big button. "You won a dollar, do it again."

I hit the button with slight touch of aggression for fun.

"You won five."

Slap.

"That's ten! Keep going!"

Slap.

"Twenty!"

Okay, one more time and I'm done. I'll feel stupid losing it all, I thought.

Slap.

And then the little number on the screen started spinning -- and spinning.

"Hey, this was a good one... Oh crap!"

I didn't quite believe what I was seeing but all of a sudden the machine was ringing and it blinked nonchalantly on the screen "$461."

"Cash out! Cash out!" Boyfriend cried. I didn't know how so this time he slapped the button.

With uncontrollable giggles, we headed frantically to the cashier (or whatever the person who sits behind those bars is called.) Next thing I knew, there was $461 in my hands and Boyfriend was practically jumping up and down from excitement. We went straight from there to the front of the hotel, grabbed our bags, hopped in a cab and were on our way to the airport, with gigantic grins on our faces.

Our cab driver was a friendly guy and as he was chatting away he noticed our extremely happy moods. "So how was your trip?" he asked.

"Well, it's funny you should ask..."Boyfriend started, and we began giggling all over again.