I made upstairs to the executive offices so fast I don't know if I took the stairs or the elevator. I may have floated. I almost bumped into my manager. He took one look at my face and the papers in my hand, and said, "You found it. Didn't You? Hey, what were you doing prowling around my desk?" That was it. Milf went downstairs, made several copies of the memo, and left, walked out, abandoned my job. So, what was it that set me off? The memo was asking for me to be disciplined, demoted, and placed in another department at entry level. The reason(s):
1) I had made a sarcastic remark to a superior (my old partner/buddy, sure I'll type you a new resume so you can get promoted buddy).
2) I had not called management to report the employee shortage/problem (There was a blizzard, the lines were down).
3) I had allowed night people to work the day shift, leaving no night crew. (This was prearranged between individual crew members and the key manager on duty). 

So I made it in to Cripple Creek up Hwy 67 through THE blizzard of the year for our Rocky Mountain region. Arriving on the casino floor I was surprised to see several employees who usually worked the night shift. Rather than drive home and come back several had chosen to spend the night and work the day shift, with authorization from the Key Manager on duty the night before.

It was a strange day, but then, every day has peculiarities in a casino–so I guess you could say it was an average casino day. The few players in the building had also stayed over from the night before. They were extremely over served, almost to the point of being irritated by casino employees walking around with hands in pockets, ready to jump at the slightest indication of an unfulfilled desire.

Employee after employee called off the night shift. I tried making calls to our department head, but, I could not get through (we were in the middle of a blizzard). The staff would definitely be skeleton crew for that night. Between making rounds on the casino floor Milf worked on a couple of projects. One, I had developed myself, and it was fun.

The promotion centered around Friday the 13th. I dreaded Friday the 13th because I visualized a virtually empty casino. When Milf worked, I like to be very busy. I really had a good night if several of "my" favorite players visited on an overnight.

So I began calling players from this group and just chatting. Some people felt like they were luckier on Friday the 13th, some wouldn't step foot outside their homes, and some felt Friday the 13th made no difference. I didn't have a special package to offer, just the usual comped meal and lodging for my players who reached a certain dollar level of play.

By the end of the blizzard day, I had booked all but a couple of hotel rooms with key players for Friday the 13th. All but one Vip Host, and the Night Manager had called off for that night. When the Night Manager (my old buddy-work partner from the players club desk)came in, late, there were no employees coming in on this blizzard night. ...All of us dreaded working the doors. That's when you stand or sit close to an entrance and greet patrons, direct new visitors, and, keep an eye out for minors. It could be boring. So, I told my old buddy, "Have fun working the door and left. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought he wanted me to work double shift blizzard duty, it didn't occur to me to offer. We always seemed to manage when short staffed. Usually, a key manager would let us borrow staff from another department if we were really in a bind. 

One time I worked front desk in a busy casino in Cripple Creek, CO. I had a pleasant working relationship with the guy who often sat next to me. We were fairly good partners. Seemlessly trading strengths and weaknesses, picking up where the other left off. It wasn't a romantic relationship, we weren't really friends, just decent working partners. Being from Texas we shared a dry humor type of banter that seemed to keep "players" in front of us amused. This was helpful in its own way when lines of anxious players stretched as far as we could see. One day, after having "one of those days", still with a line of people in front of me, Milf started laughing and couldn't stop. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. My partner looked at me in disbelief and horror. He told me to leave and take a break. Any other time I would have refused out of principle and the never ending line. This time I went, I did as he said, I laughed all the way out the casino door. Milf was grateful at that time for this parnter. Sometime later we had both gotten promotions, inspite of our dry Texas humor, that had at times gotten me written up in a couple of other jobs. My partner was promoted a little over me, mainly because I didn't want the job he took. A blizzard came towards the end of April. It was a bad one. Blowing snow, white outs, hard to see the road, hard to get out of the subdivision I lived in. Still, I insisted on going to work. (Now, I do not understand why I went to work, I should have stayed home). Later my neighbors remarked that they were concerned about my safety, and, my sanity when they saw me swirling and doing donuts as I determinedly made my way to Cripple Creek. 

I moved to Crested Butte, CO around the winter of 1989. I worked a Night Auditor position with Crested Butte Accomodations. I was still drinking heavily. I remarried and had filed for divorce by the end of the summer season. It seemed the only thing we had in common was alcohol. When we drank together we would argue. I moved back to Borger, TX to help my mother with a new restaurant she had just opened. I made time to think.

I saw a correlation between alcohol and a lot of heart break in my life. I knew the only way my life could turn around would be to quit drinking. I had doubts that I could, as I had tried so many times before, and failed. Milf called my soon to be ex husband and told him my understanding of how the abuse of alcohol had robbed us of any chance we had. I also told him that I believed it had to be all or none, there was no middle of the road for us, no moderate drinking, no drinking. I asked if he was interested in trying.

We stopped the divorce with a day to spare. Both of us started attending A.A. meetings. He was still in Crested Butte. We vowed if we could stay sober until the end of the current winter Season we would get back together. We are now on our 17th year together and almost to our 18th year of sobriety.

My husband tried Texas for two years, he missed the mountains a lot. In 1991 we moved to Colorado Springs. The economy was in a slump then, so we both took whatever jobs we could find. My first jobs in the Springs were in Telemarketing (my least favorite of jobs). I then took a position with the Gazette Telegraph, Inside Sales. After about a year and a half I changed to Insurance, I became fully licensed in Life, Health, Property, Casualty. I spent about 2 years in insurance. We were in Colorado Springs for about seven years.

We bought property in Divide, CO., eager to move out of the Springs traffic, and to give our children a safer environment and better quality of life. The closest work I could find was in Cripple Creek, Milf spent a cumulative 4 + years working various positions in casinos. I never felt good about working in casinos because I witnessed first hand serious gambling problems. Rather than making the world a better place, I felt I was a direct contributor to the demise of some people.

In November of 2003 my husband and I accomplished a long term dream. We opened our own cafe. We worked hard, probably too hard. We had times when we were packed, and some very slow times. Opening in the Winter we looked forward to our first Summer. We planned to put funds from Summer back to cover next Winter's slow times. Just as winter ended, the land around our property was bulldozed, including much of the parking lot. The bull dozing was necessary to prepare for cdot road construction, so we were told. We watched out our windows as every day the dirt pile in front of our building grew higher and higher until we were literally obscured from view of highway 24. Rumors went around that we were closed. Even though we advertised, we lost a lot of our local business. It was July before you could actually see us from the highway again. We had about two months of insanely busy tourist season. Then winter hit hard and without the funds we had planned on putting away, on top of that our lease had doubled. We closed the business mid December. We moved to Glenwood Springs on the encouragement of friends and family living here. 

Long before I began using the computer and Internet I was an avid newspaper reader. As a teenager living in a small Texas town I would rush to get the "paper" before anyone else in the family could snag it.
The classified section was and still is my favorite section. When I travel, I don't feel that I have truly visited a town until I have looked through the local paper and the free weeklies that are always around, anywhere you go. I feel that the local classifieds are like taking someone's pulse, or meeting someone and shaking hands. You know more about an area from reading classifieds. Tied up in a neat package, you get an idea of the town's main industries from the jobs advertised. You get an idea of the economic status of a town by the price level homes are selling or renting for. Classifieds are like a boutique. It gives you a chance to try on jobs for that initial "fit", you may discover that "item" you have been looking for, or discover something that would enhance your life that you weren't aware you wanted or needed. A lot of huge changes to my life have been initiated from a small classified ad. Once while living in Oklahoma City Milf visited my mother in Crested Butte, CO. After a quick hug from my mom and brother I picked up the local paper. I saw a job opening that could be a potential match. I applied for the position and returned to the city, forgetting the application I had turned in. The application was a long shot; I would not be able to return for an interview. About a week later I received an unbelievable phone call. They wanted to hire me! That era of my life was difficult. I was almost broke and had no car by that time. I gave notice at work, and bought a bus ticket to Gunnison. Then, I part walked part hitched from Gunnison to Mt. Crested Butte. I remember feeling like I was at Heaven's Gate as I walked up the highway from Crested Butte to Mount Crested Butte. Holy cow (s), my journey up the mountain was delayed by a cattle drive coming down the mountain.