Las Vegas, NV
Whoa. It’s 2:00 (eastern). I’m sitting in the hotel room at Bally’s watching a little U.S. Open Golf. It’s Matt, Brandie, and Courtney from Charlotte in the room. Matt and Brandie are married. We are all friends from Charlotte who know the couple getting married (Mike and Krista).
I am glad I had a free ticket. Mom, I’m not broke, but yesterday was awful. I got to the Buffalo airport at 10:00, caught my 11:00 flight to Philly, and got on the plane from Philly to Vegas at 1:00. I got into Vegas at 9:45. It’s not an 8 hour and 45 minute flight. We sat on the runway for two hours, waiting for maintenance. After the guy signed off on it, we then were told we’d wait for ten minutes to re-route because of bad weather. Ten minutes turned into 50. We finally left and because of the weather went a different way. The way brought us to Albuquerque, NM to refuel. 20 minutes turned into 50. After much delay, I finally made it here. Lucky for me I requested exit row seats, so I had tons of leg room. Enough so that I could stand up and stretch without bending over. I had head and leg room.
It was one of those flights that really could have been a nightmare. But everyone acted great and the kids that were on the flight did not make too much noise. There was a set of twin girls who may have been 5 or 6. They were happy, smiling and saying hello to everyone, but they may have had Down’s Syndrome.
I sat next to a lady who worked for the government and did weapons testing. She was cool and actually a babe. During 9 hours your mind wanders about a lot of things. I thought about the older woman thing. That came and went and we just talked abut stuff.
I finally made it to Vegas. The bags took 30 minutes to get out, but mine arrived, so I was happy. I loaded up the way too heave bag with all of my shoes, my suit, my way too many clothes, and got onto a shuttle. I made it to Bally’s at 11:00/8:00 their time.
I unpacked, showered and got changed. I was the first here from our room, but most everyone else was already here. I left them (Mike, Krista and group) a couple of messages. They called me after getting out of the Celine Dion show. I am not a huge fan, but I bet it would be cool to see that. There is a girl form our high school who is a dancer in the show. She was out with them. What a cool job.
The energy in Vegas is powerful. I’m not sure if it’s because I was hanging out with a lot of people I rarely see or the oxygen being pumped in or the painted bright blue sky of Paris, but after being on a plane all day, I was ready to go. Not to bed, but to let loose a little. Tangueray and 7up was brought to me. And another. We hung out at the main bar in Paris for a while. This is the same bar where I saw Hugh Grant a couple trips back. There was about 12 of us. We hung out there, went upstairs for a bit, and then walked to NY NY. It was a gorgeous night of around 70 something and a slight breeze blew as we walked. Of course the lights of the strip hit the night sky like a nightlight that says don’t sleep and take things to excess. We did. As we walked we passed the guys handing out the magazines of the girls and what not. One guy tried to hand them back to them as we walked, but it didn’t work. NY NY was the first place where I gambled. I like to try my luck, but I hadn’t done anything from when I landed until about midnight. I sat at a single deck blackjack table. I won like my first 6 or seven hands (a much better way to start than the old cash to the dealer, ten minutes and then more cash to the dealer). I played for a while, the group came and it was decided we were going back to Paris. I left with $100 of NY NY’s money. My crooked smile came across as I cashed out.
We headed to Paris and met up with my roommates. We had some more cocktails. After much laughing and catching up, most of the crew dispersed to bed. They were wise. My room and Mike and Krista sat down at the Paris bar and talked about stuff which I don’t remember. I remember laughing a lot and feeling good.
My mom gave me $20 to take a shot at. We agreed that I would go to Roulette and try it on #3. I gave it 4 shots. No luck. Sorry Mom. I was mad because I really thought my mom’s luck would be good. I had it planned out what would happen once I hit. So much for that plan.
We hooted and hollered. I forgot about the taxi ride back from NY NY to Paris. Yits sat up front with the driver. 9 of us piled into the minivan. He cranked the radio to some rap song. We didn’t care. We were bouncing to it and the driver must have been in a good mood because she fed off of the crowd noise and sped through the streets of the Strip. Most of us yelled and didn’t think about what could happen as she weaved in and out of traffic. It’s a great feeling when you lose sense of reality. You get it sometimes when you dance and you don’t think about the eyes on you. You are free at that point. It might be me, but I don’t get that carefree too often. She kept on as she spun us in into the hotel. We all applauded her skills and more so her boldness. She broke many laws with us. We tipped her very well. Many of us tipped her after the cab was already paid for. I think we may have got her card.
I also forgot that when we first walked to NY NY we saw a fight. I was in a haze so I don’t recall too much, but there was a young guy and a guy that was maybe 40. We walked upon them as the battle was about to escalate. I was not carefree so I walked on. I didn’t get too far away because I could hear a bottle break over someone’s head.
OK, time to get moving. I broke even or made a little cash on day one. I stayed up until 5:30 (8:30 eastern) and am know talking about going to see the Hoover Dam with Matt. The girls are at the pool and have no desire to see the damn dam.