Apparently Sunday, about twenty tremors rumbled through Reno, shaking high-rises right and left. Yet, I didn’t feel them.

“Are you kidding?” Addie, one of our instructors asked us in class. She said she felt one of the quakes while she was dining at a Hawaiian restaurant not far from where we were. Then two minutes later another shook the place. Yet none of us felt a thing.

Maybe it was drowned out by all of the mimosas in our systems. Six of us went to the brunch buffet at the Atlantis Sunday morning. The food was plentiful and palatable, but the mimosas were bottomless and delish. I’m not quite sure how many I had; my glass was rarely empty long enough for me to count.

Following brunch, after I’d eaten and drank enough to feel like a small child was all snuggled up in my belly, a few of us hit the black jack tables. During this time, Reno was probably still being jolted my earthquakes, yet I continued to feel nothing but fullness and a warm champagne buzz.

Plus, I was concentrating, taking it all in—the tacky color schemes, busy carpet patterns, flashing lights and arcadelike sounds from the slot machines. And the people. There were so many different kinds of people walking around this place, each one with a unique story, I’d bet. It all made me think of a short film I wrote (I need to start working on again).

And I intently watched the game. While a big part of me wanted to be curled up in my bed back at the apartment, another part of me was feeling the peer pressure to blow some money. When in Reno, I suppose.

So I gambled a bit and won a bit more than I thought possible (the few times I’ve been to a casino, I’ve lost everything). Two dollars and some change came from black jack table and $9 was won at penny slots (and I played only a dollar). 

While I never felt the earth move under my feet, I do believe the tables were turned in my favor. And things will only be shaken up more in the next five weeks. I can feel that.