The Rest of the Weekend
Ahh, good times. Vegas brings good times.
Sharon had an absolute blast all weekend. She’s got some incredible friends. Her girlfriends are all great. One guy that came along, Will, works with a vendor her company works with in England and he lives in London. I talked his ear off all weekend about British television. I think he rather enjoyed that an American was familiar with British media.
Saturday day I woke up late and spent some time working. Around 1:00 I went downstairs to get lunch and do some gambling. By 2:30 I was up $700 at Blackjack and pushed myself away from the table. My bet had finally got up to $150 and I just didn’t have the stomach for it. I had a great run and was done.
What was I to do with the rest of the afternoon now if the gambling was off limits? Spend money, naturally.
See, in Vegas it’s all about how they can take your money. In the casino. At the restaurant. The bell man. The cabbie. Everyone has his or her hand out. That’s how that city works. You really don’t have to try hard to give your money away. Everything I wanted to do with my money, though, I just couldn’t.
First thing I checked on was a helicopter tour of the city. I’ve never been in a helicopter and I figured, what the fuck, I got free money, let’s go have that experience. Problem being that the city tours only take place at night, when I was supposed to be at dinner. The other option was a 3 hour trip to the Grand Canyon, which I would have done, but nope, all booked up. Mother Fuckers. Next time.
So I got in my car and decided to go shopping. I drove down to the outlet stores at Primm, Nevada, on the border with California (later I found out that they have new outlet stores in North Las Vegas, much closer. Dammit!). Lemme tell you, the outlet stores on the border are useless. Don’t go there. Avoid it. Flip it off when you drive by it next. I WANTED to spend my hard earned winnings and found only a $30 pair of sandals to buy. Lame.
On the way back I drove around a bit, took some pictures of some weird ass buildings that I’ll post later. It was back to the hotel for dinner over at the Border Grill at Mandalay Bay at 8:00. I’ve never been to the Mandalay Bay, so it was nice to check that place out. It’s fucking HUGE and a really nice hotel. I was expecting shlock and didn’t get that.
Dinner at the Border Grill was good. The best had to be when the latin trio came over to sing “Guntanamera.” Apparently it’s one of Sharon’s favorite songs. I wasn’t aware of that, but they had the entire table, about 20 people, singing along and gave five of us instruments to play along with. Good stuff. Then they asked if anyone had any requests. Carrie reminded me earlier in the evening of a tradition Sharon and I have.
So, for about the past 20 years now every Christmas season my sister and I have this little thing we do. While listening to the radio if either one of us should hear “Feliz Navidad” by Jose Feliciano, we are to immediately call the other and sing it to them. Rather, yell “I wanna wish you a Merrrry Christmas …” Christmas Day we ALWAYS play that song and scream along during “I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas.” Trust me, it’s awesome. Next Christmas when you hear that song, scream along with Jose. It’ll make you feel good.
So, back to Saturday night. Our Latin trio was looking for requests and I mentioned “Feliz Navidad” to my sister and they IMMEDIATELY, without missing a beat, launched into the song. The entire table was cracking up. Most of them had no idea about the joke, about four or five did, but everyone was having a blast. We were singing a freaking Christmas song at a restaurant in Las Vegas on April 24th! What the hell? Great moment.
After dinner I decided, well, I’ve got some winnings, so let’s spend them. I hired a limo to transport us over to the Venus Bar at the Venetian. I figured it would be a lot nicer to cram everyone inside of a limo together than to take multiple taxis. Was loads of fun and we made three peoples night who had never been in a limo before. Good times.
Venus Bar was interesting. It’s a hip-hop club, so not exactly my “scene,” but it had a nice set-up and there were actually two bars in one – the club and associated bar and then a lil’ tiki type bar on the other side. It’s one of those bars where the bar tenders do tricks and breathe fire. Dude, just make me my fucking drink already. Was slightly amusing. I got my drunk on, mellowed out, and left around 1:30 or so. I decided I’d allow myself $100 to gamble with. I played until 3:30 and left up $50. Not too shabby!
Sunday was pretty mellow. I met with Steven Grant (he’s a veteran comics creator who writes a column at CBR) for lunch at 11:30. He recommended the buffet at the Green Valley Resort, about 15 minutes east of Vegas. I was skeptical as I was always told that off strip hotels and buffets are not so much in the good arena. I was proven wrong. Apparently the Green Valley Resort is a pretty popular off-strip, outside Vegas casino with travelers and locals alike. Oh, and movie stars. Keanu Reeves was spotted there this week. George Clooney has been seen there. Oh, remember when Michael Jackson was fleeing the police in a slow speed white lear jet chase? When he arrived in Vegas they took him to the Green Valley Resort. Lunch was great. Steven and I chatted till almost 1:30. It would have gone longer, but I REALLY needed to hit the road. The 15 freeway back to LA can get shit fucked easily.
The drive home was pretty decent. Took exactly as much time to get home as it took to get to Vegas, 4 hours and 40 minutes. That’s about 40 minutes longer than the average trip, but I’ll take that. Apparently about an hour after I got off the 15 there was an accident that required them to shut down the freeway for 20 minutes or so. SO fucking glad I didn’t get caught in that crap storm.
So, I’m home. My sister’s flight was delay over an hour and a half, which sucked for her. It actually took me less time to get home driving than it took her.
For the weekend I paid for all my expenses with the winnings and even brought home about $50 plus the $200 Southwest voucher. Not only was it a profitable weekend, but extremely enjoyable
Happy Birthday my sistah! I loves ya!
