The Sweatshop of Love Blog

After an unexpected 24 hour delay, yesterday morning my grandparents and I were off to the Little River Casino Resort in Manistee, Michigan.

Well, not before we stopped to the doctor. Because apparently after you get to a certain age you can’t leave the house without it involving a stop to the doctor or picking up a prescription.

Multitasking!

So, eventually we were off. It’s about an hour and a half drive up to Manistee, and after two restroom breaks, a Perry Como greatest hits tape, and two and a half hours, we arrived.

First things first: We hit the all you can eat buffet. Papa is a hard core buffet enthusiast, and buffet eaters everywhere can learn a thing or two about how to eat an exorbitant amount of food from this man.

First course? Some kind of cream of asparagus soup, we were guessing, which was good, if not a little stringy. And a ‘salad’. Papa’s version of a salad?

Pile shredded cheese on a plate. Top with hard boiled egg crumbles, bacon bits, croutons, and thousand island dressing. Enjoy.

Second course: Lots of meat and potatoes, everything covered in gravy.

‘They had corn beef hash,’ he said upon returning from the meat station. ‘I was surprised because it is usually a breakfast food.’

Grandma and I were distracted by the dessert bar so we weren’t concerned about his corn beef hash. When we got back to the table, though:

‘So that corn beef hash turned out to be apple crisp,’ he said nonchalantly. Grandma and I laughed into our sundaes, but then I looked at his clean plate.

‘Papa, you still ate all that apple crisp with gravy over it?’

‘Oh yeah it was great! I might go back for more.’

Instead we got him to pick out a piece of cake that he didn’t like. So I should have just let him eat the apple crisp with gravy. It just seems like no person should consume that.

My grandma found herself a piece of caramely cheese cake that she really liked.

What did I eat at this buffet? I made myself a bean and rice burrito, a big salad, some of that soup, I made myself an oreo caramel sundae and like 6 cookies. I’m eating more cookies that my grandma stole for me right now!

You are not supposed to take pictures of the gaming floor, so I just took this one quick, mainly to illustrate exactly how many old people were there. I would turn my back for one second and lose my grandparents in a sea of 70+ white people. All the women had the same white hair cut and all the men were bald! I had no chance.

I have never gambled before. Well, at a casino. I like playing poker and betting on sports, because that kind of gambling involves doing something. Either you are watching a game for three hours hoping that your team does well, or you are playing a game and have a little control of your money. Slot machines? You put in the money and 2 minutes of pushing buttons later you have no money. I’m too cheep and when $20 can get you two weeks of groceries, you like when it disappears in 2 minutes.

So I sat in the lounge area with the sleeping people and shuttle drivers and knit my Vogue Cropped Jacket, which is coming along really nicely! It is knitting up really fast; I finished the body a while ago and am working on the sleeves right now. I love the Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool! It is so pretty and nice to work with. I’m almost done with the sleeves, so then I can put it all together and work on the yoke.

Besides me hating to gamble, my grandma losing her phone (recovered), my grandma losing her cane (recovered), and my grandparents both losing all of their money (not recovered), we had a great time! It’s nice to get them out of the house, and they love to gamble, and they got a lot of exercise running around that huge casino, and I got a lot of work done on my sweater. I’d call that a successful afternoon.

And after the two and a half hour drive back home I was passed out in front of the Tigers game where I belong, and I’m sure my grandparents were, too.