Friday was a big day for us. After sleeping in just a bit, we headed over to Caesar's to eat an early lunch at (Bobby Flay's) Mesa Grill. After checking out the menu but while waiting for it to open, I stopped at a $1 slot machine...
Sidebar #1: When I was in the 1st grade, my dad won a trip to Las Vegas, and I believe it was from a rat poison promo. He and my mom brought me back a slot machine pencil sharpener that really spun! I loved that thing. I wish I knew what I did with it. Anyhoo, he told the story about the Aberdeen manager walking by a $1 slot machine on the way to the bathroom, stopping briefly to put in a $1 and winning $100. I've always loved that story.
Sidebar #2: On Thursday night, Michelle was kind enough to accompany me around Paris and Bally's playing my mom's $20 (with no luck). I kept getting confused about which kind of machine we were playing, and when I happened to win a few credits here and there I would always ask Michelle, "How much did I just win?" to which she usually replied, "$4."
...Michelle tried to talk me out of losing my $1 in one spin. But I just took out that crisp $1 and hit the button. And lo and behold, three 7s. And the credits started racking up, and Michelle started getting excited, and I again said, "How much did I just win?" To which Michelle yelled, "$100!" immediately followed by Holly, "CASH OUT!" Which I did with a huge grin on my face. It was an amazing 30-second high. But, I do have to say that I hate that you get a ticket and not money back out of the machine. I sauntered over to the bill exchanger, put in my ticket, took that wonderfully crisp $100 from the machine, held in it my hands for five seconds with the biggest, stupidest grin on my face...and then turned and handed it to Michelle to pay on my airfare and hotel bill that I owed her. I wish I had a picture of the look on her face. It was awesome. Complete disbelief. Now, I have to confess that I had been dreaming of winning big in Vegas for weeks. No, not $100 big, B-I-G. So I had daydreamed about how I was going to spend it. And then I had downgraded the daydream to a lesser amount, and in that daydream I realized that the first thing I needed to do was pay back Michelle. So I had contemplated this move in advance of winning. It was a complete no brainer. And boy it was fun.
After a delicious lunch at Mesa Grill and browsing around the high end shops at Cesar's, we headed back to our hotel to get gussied up to go see Cirque du Soleil's "O" at the Bellagio. We looked so good that we actually got offered free tickets to clubs multiple times! That show was FANTASTIC! Still kinda like being on drugs, but much more my drugs of choice, ha! On the way out, we heard what presumably was a pimp or at least a sleazy promoter ask the guys behind us if they wanted to go to a strip club. I heard them reply with a very refreshing nope. The others went on to tell me later that these same guys had been talking about algorithms. Tee hee. More to come on this.
We stopped back by the hotel to change (apparently we can only be divas for a short amount of time), but before we headed back upstairs I was bound and determined I was going to play roulette. All day, and maybe part of the day before, I had decided that Black 22 was a winner. And I also decided I had to play while dressed up because that was part of the magic. Go with it. So I nervously approached the table after some consideration, handed over my $20, got 4 chips, placed 2 on Black 22 and 2 on Red 21. The wheel spun, the little ball went around and around, and that little bugger landed on 0. BUT, let the record show that at least 3 tables in the vicinity had hit Black 22 within the last 3 spins. So my instinct about the day and the number were right. I just chose the wrong time and table. Total bummer.
Next we got on The Deuce, a double-decker bus, to head down to Freemont Street. The bus took FOREVER. I had reached a zone of bleh, so I wasn't chatting up my seatmate, a regular ole' guy of about mid 50. His female friend, who was sitting in front of Michelle and Erica, asked him what the name of the bus was on Harry Potter. Well, I couldn't resist piping up, which led us into conversation. When I obligingly asked him why he was in Vegas and he answered for a math conference, Michelle and Erica simultaneously shouted out, "AHA!" They now had an explanation for the dudes earlier talking about algorithms over strippers. As he and his homies were getting off the bus, we heard one woman say to another, "Oh, you must be one of us; you're wearing Pi earrings!" I must be cooler than I previously thought.
Freemont Street was a complete bust as far as I was concerned. It's like the white trash cousin of the Vegas' strip, and that ain't saying much since Vegas is in fact Sin City. But we did get a cheap midnight supper at the Golden Nugget's cafe before getting back on The Deuce. If we thought the first ride was bad, boy were we in for a rude awakening. The ride back had obnoxious, smelly drunk people. Ick.
During this time I was talking to Julianna on the phone hoping we could meet up since she was in Vegas to celebrate her birthday. I was disappointed that our timing was off, but I did feel good knowing she was so close :).
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