Oh, wait, no, thats just an advertisement.
The music here is seriously the strangest mix ever.
I feel like any moment the circus is going to crash through the doors.
Or some random person will start break dancing.
The two different types of music struggle for dominance, it smells like cigarettes in here.
As I look around myself in utter paranoia I notice a man walking past... smoking.
Oh, that makes much more sense, wait, I'm INSIDE.
That's just wrong.
"NOW SERVING NUMBER 34."
I turn my head simultaneously trying to keep an eye on my surroundings and navigate through the maze of tables crowded into a tile space of ten square feet.
Where am I?
Valley View Casino.
Why?
It was right up the street from the poll that I volunteered at and I was on my "dinner break" (at four o'clock)
The Poll Inspector, (a seventy-nine year old woman who apparently has been working at the polls since '93 but somehow is still careless with the procedures) had said they had a new restaurant there that was "very good."
So I decided to check it out, besides, there was pretty much nowhere else to go in Valley Center.
Sidenote, Valley Center is about twenty minutes from where I live.
It is in the hills/mountains.
It is also a "small town" everyone knows everyone else and they all go to church regardless of whether or not they are really saved.
The place where a semi truck full of chickens overturned on the treacherously windy road that one has to travel in order to get to the town. (by the way, the driver died. The chickens survived, the road was closed all night as they moved the truck and chased chickens.)
The place where a pig was seen just trotting down the road.
They have a road named "The yellow brick road" (I kid you not.)
Their favorite pastime is to reminisce about the fires that swept through the area and talk about their elderly neighbors who passed away but "Weren't they just so sweet?"
But I digress, the point is this, I pretty much had nowhere else to go.
So, I drive to Valley View Casino not one minute away from the polls.
It's less than impressive, big parking structure, one building.
So crowded, like they took five different ideas and shoved them into one building.
Like a zoo.
So I walk in, so many people, my head whips around as I try and assess my surroundings and spot the food spot.
Mission; get the food, get out.
After what seemed like much too long (but was probably only about five minutes) I figured out where it was and made my way over carefully avoiding the tables filled with ... people.
I ordered a meatball sandwich. They had Asian food there and I would have loved to get me some Asian deliciousness but I really didn't want to take the time to read the menu, I just wanted to go.
I also failed to think about the fact that the meatballs were probably beef, something which my stomach despises.
And so I sit, and wait, my eyes randomly wander as the thought occurs to me, this is a wonderful place to observe people.
My eye falls on a man, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. He looks sulky, "Damnit" he mutters.
I guess he lost.
Then I start to think, "I wonder how many of these people are victims of the economy's fall... trying to "win big" to end their troubles. I wonder how many of them keep losing but don't stop as they just HAVE to keep going because any moment they'll finally clear the hurdle of multiple losses. I wonder how many of these people are frittering away their retirement monies as they search for some form of excitement in their lives. How many of them have nothing better to do because their kids are off separated from them not giving a rip about dear old mum and dad."
The thought is depressing, I just want to go.
But my food arrives and I eat it there as I failed to request it "to go."
Brilliant.
The sandwich is okay, tainted with the utter insanity of that place...
It could use some more sauce.
I think its beef.
Oops.
Oh well. I eat my food and leave.
Back at the polling place I smile and wish people a "good day." I'm improving at being a nice face to come in to; they smile back at me.
That's something isn't it?
But I am never working at the polls again.
Nothing would induce me to that kind of "volunteer-ism" again.
Not the point...
Also, we don't want to drive home at night on Valley Center again. We almost drove into the side of the hill cuz it was so dark.
I know, I know, turn on the brights. Which I did. But, I had just turned it off, because I was being polite to the driver on the other side. When I turned them back on... YIKES.
Anyways.... just something thats jamming itself in my head.
Slot Machines
Empty people
Empty lives
Come to watch
The screens fly by
Push of a button
It falls into place
Bow their heads
They've lost the race
Shake it off
Feed the metal more
Start it again
Lose more and more
Waste of time
As they try and find
The way out
Of their financial bind
Empty pockets
Empty eyes
The smiling poster
Tells only lies
-Finis-
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