Sunday, October 17, 2004

Poker and 911

First of all, the 911 part. I'm driving home on the 405 tonight and all of a sudden the cars start slowing down. Then I have to maneuver around a stray bumper panel. Probably not a good sign. Then I see the source of said bumper panel: a flipped-over car on the side of the freeway. The driver appears to be okay and has made it out of the car on his own, and two other cars are pulled over near him, so I figure the situation is probably under control but I decide to call 911 to make sure it gets reported. I dial 911 on my cell phone. It rings. It rings again. It rings five or six more times. Then I hear, "You have reached the 911 emergency line. All operators are busy. Please wait." Then some recorded loop message that I can barely make out about how the lines are always busier when there's been an accident, etc., etc. Then, every minute or so, "All operators are still busy." After at least five minutes I hang up, figuring the accident has been called in. But I'm not exactly left with a whole lot of confidence in the whole 911 setup. I mean, thank god I wasn't calling because I'd been shot or stabbed or something. When 911 keeps you on hold longer than IBM tech support, something is not right.

Anyway. I also lost $10 in poker. Here's how it went down.

9:00 - leave with Eti and Randy to drive up to house in Valley where poker is being played
9:30 - arrive at said house, meet other players; we are told that the current game will be over soon and we can get in the next one.
10:00 - still waiting.
10:30 - still waiting.
11:00 - game finally ends and we all buy in to the new game for $10
11:10 - and, I'm out. went all-in before the flop on a pair of queens, beaten by a pair of kings. (miraculously, I was not the first to go out)
11:10 - 1:45 - watch everyone else play until the game is over.

That's my night.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

My mom is a dispatcher for 911 in las vegas...and..basically it comes down to not enough people. The job is high stress..people are always calling in SUPER amped up either angry or upset..sobbing or hurt or whatever. Or, you get crazy people with insane stories or just angry people mad because of something stupid..not to mention a good % of calls are domestic abuse. It's not fun, and people dont want to do it..they get into training and then quit. It's scary how little people they have.

Karri Bowman said...

the poker part was equally depressing. that's why i'm not a gamblin' girl.