Atlantic City, baby!

Yeah, so this post is coming a bit late. I've already gone and come back from Atlantic City, and only ended up $40 down (shocking, I know), but I figured I'd treat our readers to some storytellin' love...

So we left work at about 3pm, and walked over to 45th and 9th to hop on the bus. We had a solid 70-person squad, I believe, so they split us into two different buses. Needless to say ours was the fun one:

Each bus had a cooler of cerveza (and some cider and soda, for those so-inclined), and Roman even brought a bottle of Vox Green Apple vodka, that went really well with the cans of Red Bull that we bought at the deli. Ashley baked some chocolate banana bread, and while it was making the rounds it fell on the floor, so I never got to sample it (I'm sure if Liz had made some it would've been much yummier anyway, ;-)).

Once we got to the Borgata we each got our room-keys (yep, no room sharing!) and had about an hour of free time until happy hour and dinner in one of the hotel's conference rooms. I went to my room, vegged out on the bed while watching some TV, and eventually got changed and headed down. At the happy hour I met a bunch of new people from the firm (this trip is for FinOp [Financial Operations], of which Compliance is technically a part of, but I had never met most of the traders, bigwigs and such), had me some Grey Goose tonics, and eventually sat down for dinner. I focused mainly on the parmesan-crusted filet mignon, but everything else was good, too, as were the dessert cannolis, cheesecake and eclairs!

Around 9:30pm is when our free time began. I decided to hit the blackjack tables, and after finding the $10 tables I started waiting for a seat (there were only two left by this time, and the other were all $15, $25 and $50 minimums). I ended up playing for about two hours, and despite being up around $70, I ended up down $40, which ain't so bad. My goal was to make it to +$100 and call it quits, but I hit a bad streak and lost like 6 or 7 hands in a row (and when you're upping your bet when you lose, as you're supposed to, those losses start adding up!), so I decided to quit and cut my losses. In retrospect I should've kept playing, I think, since I had decided that I was perfectly willing to lose $200, so I should've tried to get my money back. Oh well, fortunately A.C. is only about 2-2.5 hours from the NYC, so I think Liz and I will be going back sometime soon.

After calling it quits at the blackjack table it was time to hit the dancefloor. The Borgata has its own nightclub, called Mixx, right in the middle of the casino floor. We had a VIP area specially designated for us, and we all got a stamp on our wrists that says "SMOOTH", hehe. We had a self-service bar that kept being restocked with Grey Goose and tons of mixers, which wasn't so bad:

I was there with Inacio, Roman and company until about 3:30am, when they closed up the place. I enjoyed a bit of clubbing, since it had been a while since I got to "shake my skeleton" for a few hours, as a friend's mom used to say. I think I wondered back up to my room around 4am, and hit the hay.

In the morning most people were getting their massages/facials/spa treatments, since we were allowed to charge $100 to our rooms. After brunch I still had about an hour to kill before our bus back to the city, so on the fly I decided to get a haircut at their salon, and it looks pretty nice! I also picked up some Art of Shaving products and some nice shampoo/conditioner, to hit my $100 mark.

The busride back was pretty uneventful, since most everyone were exhausted, so I just put my headphones on and zoned out for a few hours. I got home around 4pm, which was earlier than expected, and my pup greeted me with kisses and hugs, which is exactly what I had been wanting! So all in all it was a great trip, and lots of company-paid fun. God I love my new job, :-)!
Hugs,
Luis

P.S.- here's another funny pic from A.C. (don't ask):