Vegas, baby

Before getting to my somewhat eventful weekend that involved sitting around in our new backyard as much as possible, I should throw down a few words about my set-up trip to Las Vegas.

Barret and I got out of Chicago on Sunday night pretty late, but because of the time change we landed in Vegas around 11:00 pm. After a snafu at the rental car company (no cars!), we proceeded to our hotel, The Golden Nugget, which is in the older part of the city (Sinatra-town) on Freemont Street. I guess this hotel used to be a bit run down, but a few years ago casino tycoon Steve Wynn (his new casino cost $2.8 billion and has something like 4000 rooms!) took over the Golden Nugget and revamped it. It's a nice blend of affordability and typical Vegas luxury-kitsch. desperate for a drink, Barret and I hit the casino and I immediately won $75 playing video poker. This was a curse in disguise because it fooled me into thinking my entire trip would be filled with gambling successes.

Vegas preys on fools like me.

Barret then pulled a Hunter S. Thompson and ordered us shrimp cocktail from room service and we passed out. In the morning (Monday), Barret headed over to Foothill High School in Henderson to work with some of the drummers in their jazz band. I adjourned to the casino and began a steady descent into gambling hell with Guiness as my Virgil. Barret joined me in the casino in the early afternoon, and we wandered the Freemont strip for a bit, checking out other casinos, grazing on a buffet, and just generally pumping $20 bills into various machines in the hope that we might hit it big. 

We didn't.

Suddenly, it was dinner time. We met Travis (the band director at Foothill) and his wife Pam for dinner near The Golden Nugget. Travis and Pam are really wonderful people and we had a great time talking music, eating wings, and consuming cocktails. After dinner, we hit Freemont Street just in time to witness the hourly laser light 'n' music presentation on the mile long canopy which hangs a hundred feet the street. Complete with Styx, gambling, cars, boobs, and American flags... unbelievable.

Barret said he thought I was going to fall down I was laughing so hard. It reminded me of yet another reason I don't get the current Republican Party: the constituency that votes national GOP candidates into office is made up of libertarians who want the "hoi polloi" to have what they want (gambling, boobs, drugs, etc.) unfettered by government regulation and also cultural conservatives who are consistently shocked and offended by what the "hoi polloi" want (gambling, boobs, drugs, etc.) and think the government should use the Christian religion to regulate these vices out of existence. Getting those two groups of people to vote the same way is truly something amazing, and by amazing I mean horrible.

Enough of that. Back to Vegas.

After Travis and Pam went home, Barret and I kicked it up a notch. We must have been a sight, two musician types, long hair, tattoos, beards, wandering the street howling like monkeys with fruity drinks in giant phallus shaped containers... Hunter would have been proud. People were actually parting like the Red Sea to let us through.

Needless to say, Tuesday morning was painful. We had to be at Foothill at 9:00 am to work with the jazz band, and then I was slated to perform the Odyssey at 10:00 am. Luckily, Barret had ordered room service, and they arrived around 7:30 am with eggs, pancakes, coffee, and all the fixings.

We made it out to Foothill in time. After the jazz band rehearsed, the auditorium began filling up with kids and I performed the Odyssey to an audience of about 250. It went really well. After that, it was back to The Golden Nugget. Barret napped, I hit the pool and the spa and tried to avoid gambling. 

Feeling refreshed, we headed back out to Henderson for the Foothill Spring Band Concert. It was really cool to see Travis in action. He conducted four different ensembles and the kids seemed completely locked in to what he was doing. Barret and I sat in on a funk tune with the jazz band, and it went really well. After the concert, we went out for dinner with Travis and came back into the city for a drink. We hit the Voodoo Lounge at The Rio which is a bar on the 51st story of the hotel that affords a beautiful view of the entire strip.

After that, I had to go to bed. I was beat. I knew I was hurting when the elevator man at The Golden Nugget (who looked like Martin Landau) eyed me up and down and said "Boy, you look tired." When a guy who works the overnight shift in a casino tells you you look tired, it's time to go to bed.

Barret and Travis stayed out late, and Travis won $250 playing video poker. Figures. Wednesday was a day of travel... returning the rental car, getting to the airport, etc. Not to mention that America Worst (er, West) airlines managed to screw up our flight on both ends, resulting in 2 hours of delay.

When you lose two hours with the time change, that sucks even more. So ended our Vegas trip. If "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas," then "What Happened in Vegas" was my money, because it sure as heck stayed there.

 jbg