No Soup For Me!

About six years ago, my car was broken into at Riverwind Casino. The perp snatched a few personal effects, the change I kept in the ashtray, and a company laptop belonging to the Lawton Constitution (sorry boss!).
Two years ago, I had some Beats headphones stolen from the food court at Riverwind Casino.
I had accidentally left them there for about 5 minutes after eating and someone grabbed them before I could return. I figured it was mostly my fault and bought some smaller, more easily transportable and cheaper headphones. Life goes on.
These events, while mildly disturbing, were not surprising. A casino full of degenerate gamblers is probably not the safest place to keep things you don't want stolen. And when you go to said casino multiple times per week for seven years, you're bound to have something stolen from time to time.
More perplexing, however, is that I've now had my stuff thrown in the trash can by casino employees the same amount of times I've had my stuff stolen.

I got a small bag as a giveaway at a Thunder game a couple years ago. It looks like a small Thunder jersey but the shoulder straps are the handles. Basically, it's a purse. I carry snacks, gum, headphones, a phone charger and the occasional miscellaneous item in there. I usually keep it under my seat or on the bottom of one of the food trays.
Shortly after the Beats theft, I was playing at Riverwind and decided that a stick of Winterfresh gum would surely hit the spot. But when I looked down to grab my bag, it was gone. I looked all over the surrounding floor area, to no avail. I was quite stymied.
The only person I remembered even being in the area was one of the dealers. So I saw him walking by a second later and asked if he had seen my bag.
"Yes," he said. "I threw it in the trash."
"Why would you do that?"
"Looked like trash to me, just sitting on the bottom of the food tray." This message was conveyed with less than zero percent remorse. Not that I was expecting a teary-eyed apology, but...
"I have quite a bit of stuff in there. It weighs a lot more than a couple of Burger King wrappers. Could you please remove it from the trash can and give it back to me?"
It was right on the top of the trash, much like the eclair that George Costanza ate out of the trash on Seinfeld. The dealer probably wasn't happy about retrieving it from the trash, but then again I also wasn't happy about him retrieving it from the trash. Fortunately the bag saved any of the items within from touching other garbage.

On Tuesday I was playing at Riverwind, losing pot after pot while Rychy made fun of me as usual while he stacked his chips up to the ceiling. I had hoped that a chicken tortilla soup from Taco Bueno would cure my hunger pangs and fuel me on to a comeback. As I ordered the soup, I felt an equally primal urge, an urge to urinate. However, there were already a couple of guys up from the table so I decided I could hold it til they came back.
They were gone for about 15 minutes, and then my food arrived. I was pretty hungry so I went ahead and ate half the soup, but when the other players returned I decided to make a quick trip to the can. I might have been gone for a total of 90 seconds, returning to find the food table completely empty. I assumed this was some sort of hilarious prank so I asked where my soup was and everyone burst out laughing. I didn't understand the fifth-grade humor (plus when you're losing even things that are kind of funny become un-funny), so I asked again.
Obviously, it was in the trash can.
Turns out, legendary poker professional Tony Lay had ordered two beverages. Although these beverages had not yet arrived, he wanted to secure room on the food table sitting between us. This food table would probably hold 20 such beverages, and my bowl of soup was occupying roughly three beverages worth of space. He assumed that since I got up from the table I must be done eating so he asked one of the dealers to throw it away, which the dealer did. The fact that it was half full, still hot, and that I had taken a bite five seconds earlier and made no mention that I was done was evidently of no concern.
It really wasn't a big deal, but it was funny that when Tony got his drinks, he had both of them in the very corner of the tray, nowhere near where my soup was, while the rest of the tray was completely empty and my soup was in the trash.

A couple hours later, I took a break and talked to Missy. Before I could start complaining, she told me that while the two girls were playing outside, Addison decided to dump dirt all over herself and our foster child. So Missy has to drag them into the bath. While in the bath, our foster child decided to poop, and Addie decides to pick up the poop with her hand and show it to Missy.
Kinda made me glad to be at a poker table getting half a bowl of Taco Bueno soup thrown in the trash,