Melanie and I have known each other for nearly 20 years. It all started when I moved to Roseburg halfway through 4th grade and she 'took me under her wing' as our teacher told my parents. We actually only went to school together for 3 months. Besides her family sending her to a different grade school after 4th grade, we were in different districts for junior high and then I moved to Montana before high school. We made an effort to visit each other for the next three years and then after graduation, we both moved to Portland together.
It's hard to say why we've been able to stay friends, but I'm guessing compromise has a lot to do with it. Melanie agreed to pretend we were mermaids needing to search for shell bikinis and I agreed to let her beat me at every possible card game imaginable.
Man, did I hate playing cards with her. And yet, I did it anyway. It was until much later that I realized Melanie wasn't just good at cards, she had stradegy. And that stradegy would later turn out to benefit her in many ways.
She would drop out of college one semester before graduation to take a job at a casino. Working her way up the ranks, she now supervises a security division where she catches cheaters in the act. Her dream job. And it's that dream job that had a contest a few months back. A contest to see who could count cards the fastest. When Melanie won, she was awarded 2 tickets to Las Vegas. And so it was practically fate when she entered the Card Counting Competition at the Bellagio and won. Breaking the record with 7.8 seconds, Melanie won 2 tickets to Vegas for next year's competition, a trophy, digital camcorder and her picture in a major gambling magazine.
Way to go Mel! You can send me a thank you card when you finish signing autographs.
No comments:
Post a Comment