The first show back after the break is in Atlantic City--Las Vegas on Sea. Fortunately, the casino we’re playing in is the nicest in town so it’s the only place I’d want to be in Atlantic City. The first night I stay up until 6AM catching up with everyone, well, as much as you can catch up with everyone in a casino. I pay for this for the whole weekend.

The next day is overcast. I’m feeling strangely comforted sitting looking out of the 31st floor into a fog. That‘s not right. I remember the feeling from tours past; the sense of only being settled somewhere on tour.

After the show I play blackjack for a while – mostly as a way of hanging out with my friends. I hate losing so much that I’m not a good gambler. (A good friend of mine last year looked at me like I was crazy when I was explaining that I was ready to gamble $400 of an evening and that was my limit. I told her I was going to win enough to go shopping – she looked at me and said “Why don’t you just go shopping in the first place?”) After I go to bed one of my friends plays $1000 and gets Blackjack--spawny get.

I was glad to leave everyone to it. New Jersey is in the house and drunk downstairs. However nice this Casino is—and at least it doesn’t pretend to be anything but a casino, unlike the Hard Rock in Vegas—it’s still a Casino and I find myself mildly resentful when I have to hand over any money, even for a coffee in Starbucks. To compensate I eat four meals in the employees canteen (to which we were given access as part of our stay) just to be sure I take away more than I came with. Pathetic really, especially when this casino has been very accommodating towards us. I have a small, black heart. There’s no denying it.