Well, there's going to be 2 versions of this "Reflection" -- the public one and the private one. For reasons I've discussed before, I don't want to discuss some fairly important details about my trip to Vegas. I mainly don't want other people to get in trouble because of the way some people handle their information. But suffice it to say, I had a great time in Vegas!!
Last summer, as part of a purchasing incentive, I won plane tickets for 2, and 3 free night's hotel stay, to anywhere in the country. They all had to be redeemed by the end of August, and despite my still-existing anxiety for flying, I was not going to miss out on this opportunity!
I had sort of waited to make any definitive plans about this trip because I didn't want to promise the trip to anyone, and then have a girlfriend or someone similar appear, wondering why she wasn't invited. I didn't even mention the trip to some people because I didn't want them to be offended if I didn't ask them to go with me. Well, needless to say, all of that thinking was for naught, and I ended up not having that girlfriend to even consider. I could have been realistic, but for once, I was optimistic. Didn't really matter, though. The person I decided to take with me was just as fun
(probably more fun, actually) as any girlfriend would have been. I will simply publicly state, that I had plenty of new experiences, and most of them were positive!!
Let me just start by saying that when we landed, the temperature that day had reached 119 degrees! Don't give me that dry heat bullshit! 119 degrees is hot even if it is dry. We quickly learned to party at night, and sleep during the day.
So, what did we do in Vegas? TONS!!!
We gambled for a little bit. It seems as if the dealer's personality has everything to do with how much you win! We set down at a blackjack table with a really nice dealer. We were having fun just chatting with the dealer, but it seemed that since she was nice, that we were winning! I'm not exaggerating, but I really won the first 6 to 8 hands of blackjack. Well, after she left, we got another really cool dealer. We spent her whole hour chatting and winning (well, at least not losing). We literally spent like an hour and a half on 80 bucks. And then.... the third dealer came along... She wasn't as pleasant, and neither were the cards! Eighty bucks gone -- and then another 100 gone... It was then time for the 25 cent slot machines!!
So, after a little of that, we had to make it to the Bellagio for "O, by Cirque du Soleil". I paid $125 per seat for this show, and was not going to miss it for anything! Well, my date had dressed up in a gorgeous red strapless dress that showed tons of leg -- like I told her, "She made me look good!" But after just a little bit of walking, she realized that her heels were hurting her feet, and we still had blocks to go to get to the Bellagio. So, we caught a bike-pulled-cart ride!
The show, "O," was amazing! Imagine all of those circus-stunts (minus the animals) done on a stage, over a huge tank of water!! The show was nearly "opera"-ish in its presentation, but just seeing all of those swimming, diving, balancing, etc. acts that close-up was simply incredible! The show even had clowns!! Amazing, even though I already used that word, is the only word I can even fathom describing this show!
Well, I had 3 free nights at the Courtyard by Marriot. But that was around a mile from the strip. Since we were there 2 more nights, we had to switch hotels -- we had to be on the strip. So, we went to the MGM Grand!!! The MGM Grand is a gorgeous hotel/casino. It has tons of restaurants, a lion habitat, and one of the top pool areas in Vegas (at least according to the Travel Channel). And the rooms themselves were extravagant and inexpensive!! I cannot imagine my next trip to Vegas not involving the MGM Grand!
So, we hit the pool for about an hour. We would have stayed longer, but we had to go and pick up tickets for Howie Mandel just as the pools were going to close down. So, we had to cut that short by a little bit. When we got to the pool area, they had already started whittling down everyone to the close-up pool. So, we didn't get to try them all out, and we couldn't go down the lazy river through the waterfalls. But we did have some strong frozen drinks while lounging in the main pool. Close enough to my pool plan!!!
So, as I mentioned, we also saw Howie Mandel in concert. He was hilarious! I'm fairly certain that the show would have been funnier if a couple of people in the audience didn't keep fucking with Howie. From what I hear, he's renowned for picking on the audience, so it must have been his turn. It was still a very funny show. While at this show, we were seated by a couple celebrating their 11th anniversary. I went ahead and bought a bottle of champagne for all of us. Hell, they deserved it, and I had plans of drinking champagne with my date anyway.
We spent the rest of that night checking out the scenes on the strip. The Bellagio has a wonderful fountain & lights show that takes place every fifteen minutes from dusk till midnight. They played some kind of Tony Bennett song and had the fountains dancing at different heights and in different patterns, while the lights chased them around! Wonderful show! We also spent a little bit of time looking for the "Volcano" in front of the Mirage. We couldn't really locate it, until the Volcano erupted -- directly behind us! We ended up with front row seats!!! We also went around the Venetian, but it was too late for a gondola ride. Again, my date's feet were bothering her, so we headed back to the MGM to get her changed into some more comfortable shoes (and a total outfit change, really). And we were going to head right back out onto the strip.
But we got side-tracked in the bar downstairs at the MGM. We ended up hanging out there and chatting and drinking, until that bar closed. That bar NEVER closes, they say, but since it was rather slow that night, they closed down to clean up. So we went to another close-by bar in the same casino, and had a few drinks before sending the bartender around the entire casino trying to find a bottle of champagne. When they finally located it, we took the bottle and 2 flutes up to the room for a romantic bath!! More about that in the private post -- you CAN access it if you're on my "friends" list!
The next afternoon, I get a call on my cell phone which totally ruined the rest of my vacation -- the loan officer for the house I was buying called to say that the loan had fallen through -- more about that in a separate post!! But anyway, that situation stressed me out to the point where I had to battle some minor anxiety problems while attending the final show of my vacation -- Blue Man Group!!!
I had some minor problems dealing with the strobe lighting and NOT wanting to get singled out in the crowd, but once I had finally relaxed, that show completely RULED!!! Blue Man Group was extremely funny and percussive and amazing. The "finale" to the show involved basically "toilet-papering" the whole auditorium and everyone in it!!! I won't describe it any further, but you just have to see the show. Their original instruments, and making music out of Captain Crunch are very entertaining. And the whole audience participation thing is sooooo fun! If only I had no anxiety about the loan thing, this would have been the best show I went to!
Anyways, we flew back the next day. And I had no major anxiety problems with flying or riding or getting along with my date. This Vegas trip will go down as one of my best 3 vacations ever.
Friends, make sure to check out the private post, as there are many more details!!
