And Another Weekly Update

Week three of working at the WSOP is done and I have about two and a half more weeks to go.  Here's what happened this week:

• Hubby's cousin gets free comped rooms at the Rio (where the WSOP is being held) and when she found out I was working there, she gave us a room, free, for the past week.  This meant I just had to roll out of bed and go downstairs to work!  Add to that hubby's meal comps at local casinos and we had a basically free week and saved a lot on gas since we didn't have to go back and forth from work to home for four days!
• I was shocked to receive my monthly royalties payment for my book that I wrote a couple years ago...it was $250!!  It usually averages around $30 to $50 a month so this was a giant jump.  Needless to say, this book is getting updated and republished ASAP.
• Since I have been working 40 hours a week I have had exactly no time to shop.  What a great way to save money!  All I do is work, eat, relax for a couple of hours, sleep and repeat.
• I got my first big paycheck from my job and it was just under $1000 for two weeks.  On the one hand, it was a nice chunk of change to add to my bank account, on the other hand, that's a whole lot of work for such a small amount of money.  Eeeekkk
• I found out that while I am an official employee of the casino, there are a lot of discounts I am entitled to (which I will be sure to use before I am no longer an employee in a few weeks).  Discounts include half off at the buffet (which we really like), highly discounted rides on the new Linq, free or discounts rides on the new Rio zipline (need to find out which it is), and discounts in other restaurants and shows at the various casinos in the chain which we also want to take advantage of.  Yippee!
• My tiny garden is growing slowly but surely.  There has been a bit more chard and the tomatoes are finally turning red (see photo above).
• On a serious note, my sister texted me a few days ago and said...and I quote..."our brother is in the hospital and might not make it."  So after a some furious texts back and forth, I found out he had a ruptured spleen and was in surgery, and, well, this type of serious injury coupled with a rapid detox from alcohol doesn't bode well for the patient.  Fortunately he pulled through and sounded OK when I talked to him.  Unfortunately our family isn't very close--between my siblings and other assorted family members, they have enough drama for a complete season of Jerry Springer so I basically choose to keep my distance from all of them aside from a once a year get together which pleases my elderly aunts.  Fortunately, I am still kept in the loop...via texts.  Unfortunately, after some pondering of this situation, it dawned on me that #1...me and my siblings are growing older with the assorted problems that come with aging, and #2...collectively my siblings and their adult children couldn't put together $500 in a crisis.  Which made me realize that if one of them were to pass away, which hopeful won't be for a very long time, this expense would probably fall on me.  Note to self, add more to my emergency fund.  Oddly enough, while I plan for literally everything, planning for this expense, never even crossed my mind until now.  Another eeekkkk.

So that was my week.  Onward!