tightheadprop

Went there for the annual AAAI/IMSA fitness convention where I took classes to further my career as a personal trainer. It was a very good seminar but I spent it in a very tired state....

Friday night I worked as a a bartender and the convention for AAAI/IMSA started at 9AM Saturday morning. So I had to get home (about 3:30AM), shower and get ready to drive down to AC which was a 2 hour drive. Check-in was at 7:30 and I was tired already with having no sleep and Friday night being as busy as it was.

There were a lot of "peppy" people there and I wanted to shoot them all because I am sure they ALL slept... bastards. Nothing worse than being cranked up on Stacker 2's but they don't REALLY work that well because your body is so tired. My heartrate was insane and my body was trying to shut down.....very interesting feeling.

During the first three classes I was dozing off often but I would catch myself before I missed anything, it was not a fun time having to sit through lectures on Muscle Physiology, Periodization and fat utilization in exercise. But, it is for my career, so I learned it... But when the lecture is droning on and on, my head drops and drops. Good thing I didn't drool on myself, that would have sucked.

Lunchtime came, I slept in my car and missed the first lecture after lunch. Oh well, it wasn't necessary because the lecture was about something I already knew. But it felt good to sleep for two hours. After the classes were over, at 6PM, I walked around the exhibits. I wanted to buy 2 20 pound medicine balls for my clients but the bastards only had 6 pound balls available. Damn....

Now the fun part.. Stupid me didn't reserve a room for the night before I went so I had to go to the concierge and ask her if she could call around and get me one. One catch, I pay cash only so that was another obstacle because most places want a deposit on a CC. She found one at the Howard Johnson........for 275 dollars. I don't want to pay that kind of cash for a fucking room at the HoJo, but I needed to sleep so I told her to tell them to expect me in 10 minutes. So...

I called my mother up and got her boyfriend on the phone, vented to him about my lack of sleep and having to spend a small fortune for a bed. He said that his buddy "Joe" is down in AC at the Harrah's at a Blackjack tournament and since he is a high roller I should go there and get a room from his comps.... Excellent.....

I roll to Harrah's, run into Joe, and he is getting ready to start his tournament. He can't get another comped room, especially for a guy who doesn't gamble - me - but he does tell me I can stay in his suite and crash on the couch in the other room. I take him up on that offer. He left the other key in the room so I have to go up, get that one and bring him back his.

The suite is very nice. Two separate rooms which ensures my sleeping privacy. Two TV's which ensures that I can watch what I want while I fall asleep. I shower up and go back down and Joe is nowhere near the tournament. I walk to the club (Eden) and he is dancing with 4 women to some shitty cover band that really sounds like ass. Why do casinos get the worst bands to play? They have tons of money, get some good shit for fucks sake!

I give him his key and ask him what happened at the tourney? He bet all his lot on the first hand trying to get an edge up.....and lost. Typical Joe. LOL!!

We get dinner at the restaurant he gets comped at along with a couple drinks. I am still without sleep, but I am waking up. Before I stay up all night drinking like a freak, I go back to the room and start to study the day's material. I turn on TV and "Roadhouse" is on. Nothing like a cheesy movie in a fucking casino to make the night..... I could be down at the club boozing and having fun, but for ONCE I am being responsible. Sucks to have some direction in life doesn't it.

I am awake, Joe comes in, he is sober. Or at least as sober as he gets. He goes into his side, door closes.... 3:30 in the morning, I am trying to sleep, he walks in drunk as SHIT and talks my ear off for 30 minutes. I wanted to flip, but he was drunk so I just nodded my head a lot and paid attention to the movie. I'm just glad the motherfucker was clothed and didn't strip naked in his drunkenness, then I would have been a little pissed.... He has been known to do that before while blacked out, good thing I missed those days.

I got up at 7:30 and went back to the Convention Center for more rounds of classes, seminars and annoying aerobic sluts. Why the FUCK are they so chipper in the morning and can't they get that smile off their faces? Some people, moi, are not the best of people in the AM, and AM to me is anything before noon. Morning people are the epitome of what is wrong in the world. Forget the media, governments and anything else. If we got rid of morning people, everyone would be happy.

But I did get to see Janis Soffel and she is as good looking in the magazines and ESPN as she is in person. Cool girl, hot as FUCK... back to story....

Classes were until 4, then a test on what we learned. A 100 question test that is kind of like a college level Anatomy and Physiology test but crammed all into two days. Then we had a practical exam where we had to take one of the instructors and explain to them how to do certain exercises. A rather complete test. This Italian chick next to me at the testing area was cracking me up because she kept trying to cheat and write down answers from the book on the desk so she could do that during the test. It was kind of funny to see her erasing the answers off the desk as she copied them to her paper.

Handed my test in, left, went to the boardwalk and chilled for a couple hours in the air. Nothing like being cooped up all weekend to make you appreciate the fresh air of Atlantic City. Well, as fresh as AC air is going to get.

All in all, it was a good and slighty weird weekend. Now I am a certified trainer. Before I was just an asshole, now I'm an asshole with credentials.