Back in June I started as a valet at Cameron Mitchell’s Steakhouse. A steakhouse. In a mall.

That had prices totally out of everyone’s market. I saw just as nice places in Vegas that were cheaper. In VEGAS.

So of course nobody ever showed up to eat… and since it is Milwaukee few people ever valet in the first place.

And the place was run by idiots. One night they had a ‘preview night’ and decided that they needed 4 valets. Fine. It was going to be a busy night for once… well… no. It wasn’t. Almost nobody used the valet and after splitting the tips it ended up being an especially low night.

The food was free and nobody wanted to valet… which was free that night (with tip.)

So there I stand… over and over again… making next to nothing and bored out of my fucking mind

I posted about this back in June. I didn’t say anything BAD, but I did recite a review by the local paper blasting the place. I did say that they charged for steak sauce, but they did not… although it seemed plausible enough to leave in the entry until I was told otherwise.

Evidently in their spare time not serving anyone their extremely overpriced steaks they found the blog entry and when I went back for a second try at the valet they got on my case there was a… confrontation. with the head cook.

“Slow night?”
“Yeah”
“Well, that review didn’t help…”
“Well your blog didn’t help”
(oh, so now it is my fault)
“Well I didn’t get the review, and obviously you guys don’t know how to price things otherwise both you and I would be getting actual customers”

And who was right? That’s right, I was! It is now a closed shop and the space is up for lease.

I don’t know how other places in the mall are doing. When I am home I just go to a bar in the place, and that seems pretty busy most of the time. I always go with a few friends, who all go there regularly. It is still a mall, and you don’t put expensive as fuck steakhouses in a mall. In Milwaukee

I want to take a Walt Disney World Backstage Tour (Official Disney Page).

The cost of the tour is $199, is 7 hours long and shows you the entire park ‘behind the scenes.’ It includes everything you would need during the day (lunch, bottled water, etc) and takes you around The Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

I can get May middle-of-week plane tickets and hotel for 2 nights in Orlando for $313 out of Midway using Hotwire or $313.82 out of Midway using Southwest.com and the hotel that Hotwire says costs the least those nights.

$263 out of Milwaukee though, including flight and hotel. And taxes. And Hotwire is a Midwest Airlines partner, so I could end up on one of their flights (it doesn’t tell you the airline.) Or I could pay $15 extra and know that it is Delta and goes through Atlanta. So lets just figure $278 if I know the flight I want.

Add on the $200 and I am up to $478. Figure $50 in food (this is abnormally low, but if breakfast is offered free at the hotel and I get a free lunch as part of the tour) and it ends up being a $528 trip out of Milwaukee or $563 out of Chicago-Midway

For a 7 hour tour.

Meh, Disney World isn’t going anywhere. Lets go back to Vegas! (which is also probably not going anywhere, if you don’t count the yearly hotel implosion)

I have two friends who have two schools of thought when it comes to gambling.

One enjoys it, the other one thinks doing it more than once is an addiction and a waste of money.

Now I’m not going to go out and say it is not something of a ‘waste of money’, but I am hardly an addict.

This all came up because I told my ‘addiction and waste of money’ friend that I was thinking of going to the local indian casino to play some poker. I enjoy playing poker, I am somewhat good at it (which means I usually come out with what I came in with) and I think playing in a casino is more fun than playing online.

My ‘enjoys it’ friend thinks that it is fine to go to the casino to play poker when you have off. Or even when not. It is entertainment.

Maybe tomorrow evening

I am typing this on the train. It is 8:59 PM and I don’t have any internet access, nor any programs on my laptop that are any fun without internet access. I will post it later, when I have the time.

It has given me a moment to think about everything that has been happening to me recently, and what there is still up ahead.
With Mock Trial over all of a sudden I have Sunday afternoons and Monday/Wednesday evenings open. Not like I ever showed up on time to any of those (I hope I am invited back next year, I did have fun) or got along with everyone. But it was something to do, and I enjoyed the time that I spent.

I signed up for that eharmony.com site they advertise on TV. The one where you take the 500 question test and it gives you a free ‘personality profile’; only to turn around later and ask you to pay them a small fortune each month if you want to actually speak with anyone of the opposite sex on the site. My free ‘personality profile’ was off the mark, and I have no desire to meet anyone who isn’t in college, but I had some fun with the test.

Well it appears that I can not attend the tournament in Minneapolis, if for no reason other than I won’t know until I would get there if I would have any place to sleep.

Which means I can focus my attention on my other duty that weekend: The State Convention of the Illinois Federation of College Democrats.
It is going to be held in Evanston, with a bar-night on the 4th (Friday) where I have every intention of introducing myself to everyone else who attends.

Why would I introduce myself, you may ask? Well, I have made the decision that I am running for President of the Federation. And then if I don’t win that Vice President. Then I’m just going to keep running for stuff until I get a position. At this point I don’t see there being much competition in all, and if there is I don’t know what they are running for yet. I have a feeling that there is going to be at least one wide open position there.

As for mock trial, I have an amusing quote from a post on a mock trial forum. This is the closing argument you would give if you flat-out lost in the first three rounds and knew you were going to come in last at the competition:

“May it please the court:

This case…is…fake.

The witnesses you’re going to hear from today are not real people, the crimes you’re going to hear about never happened, and the facts stipulated to by both sides are entirely fictional.

You see, judge, you are ‘presiding’ today over a ‘MOCK trial.’ This means that, unlike typical sentencing hearings, the people arguing before you are not licensed practitioners before the bar, and the defendant has not actually been charged with a crime, because the defendant does not exist. In fact, this entire proceeding is an elaborate hoax, without any grounding in actual jurisprudence.

Your honor, none of this is real. None of it. And that’s why, at the end of this mock trial, my co-counsel will come before you and remind you that the stakes couldn’t be lower, the facts couldn’t be more fictional, and the outcome of your decision is completely irrelevant. Thank you.”

I’ll be following the scores from the tournament, and if I get wind that they may be in the final tournament I’ll go to O’Hare, wait for a text message saying they are going and hop on a flight the day of. Or hell, pay $1600 and charter a small plane to take me there

Time to go take a shower then get some breakfast