Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Vegas Vacation

First and foremost, I do not believe in the saying "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." That said, I didn't do anything questionable enough to not be written. But my one night event in Vegas was just the ending to a crazy few days out in the desert.

Wednesday morning I was late for my plane, as usual. I had a 9:20 flight and left my house somewhere around 8:26. I made it down to the airport pretty fast, and as I was getting out of my car in Long Term A, a bus was about to stop nearby. I ran over to it and got on. A minute or two later I realized I didn't have my running shoes and that I may have left them on the trunk of my car. I emailed Arjun and asked if he could stop by (he works near the airport) and check if they were there. He texted back while I was on the plane and said they were not. My only hope was that they were in the trunk.

This leaves me without shoes now before our little work 5k on Thursday morning. In years past we've stayed at nice resorts that have been nowhere near any shops of any kind. The good news was that this year's resort was near a mall; the bad news was the resort was a shithole. I walked over to the mall and perused its numerous shoe stores with no luck. I finally settled on some crappy Mizunos from Sports Authority that were a half size too small.

Then I remembered I know someone who lives in Phoenix area and works at a running store nearby. I got in touch with him and he came by, dropping off some Brooks Glycerines. They would suffice. The next morning I wore them to race to a 4 minute victory on what was a deceptively hard and seemingly long 5k. I ran 19:17, and while I don't think I was running under 6s, I don't think I was running over them. Next finisher was 23:10. Afterwards you would have sworn I won the Olympics, with the people I work with gushing over my run.

Later that evening I then WOW'd the crowd with several songs at one of the sickest karaoke jams I've ever been to.

Friday evening we were all done with our work obligations, but since we weren't able to fly out til Saturday morning, a few of us made the most of our time and headed the 5 miles to downtown Tempe. Reminder: this is home to Arizona State. A couple things I know about ASU are that anyone can get in and that the girls are real hot. I was not let down on either count. Fast forward to the end of the night and I found myself in the hotel pool til 5am, and asleep around 6. Woke up at 7 and had to get ready real quick for my flight.

I arrived in Vegas and once I saw the sun beaming off Mandalay Bay I was revitalized. My buddy FranManDaLastDon picked me up and we checked into the Bellagio. Quick note: this is my first trip to Vegas. I have images in my head from all the TV shows and movies, and did not want to be disappointed. My original room at the Bellagio was supposed to be a "deluxe lakeview room" - meaning I would get a little view of the crazy lake with the sick fountain show.

What really happened was Francis got a room upgrade through his connections (he used to be concierge at the Bellagio) so we got a tower suite, corner unit room of 1500 sq ft. It had three bathrooms, a huge living and a kitchen/bar. It was ridiculous. Unfortunately we would hardly even see the room.

For dinner we headed to The Country Club at Wynn. Amazing meal. Thanks to Francis' roommate, who is the manager of food operations at the Wynn, we received a significant discount for the meal. It was still really expensive. After that we headed downstairs to a bar where they hooked us up again. I'm starting to realize at this point in order to have a really awesome time in Vegas you need to either have a LOT of money or know somebody who is kind of a big deal.

Now it was time to start the going out portion of the evening. I'm still exhausted from last night, but have to suck it up. We drive over to the Palms and hit the Playboy Club and Moon. Francis knows someone so we don't have to wait in line OR pay the $40 cover. After we leave there, we headed over to Pure at Caesar's Palace, and again went straight through the VIP line. Checked out the Pussycat Doll Lounge, which was actually pretty awesome, and stayed for a little at Pure before moving over to the Mirage.

At this point I'm barely able to keep my eyes open, but I wanted to see Old Town LV, so we headed down to Fremont St. Definitely the shadier part of town. Walked around there for a minute, then hit McDonald's for McFlurries and headed home. It was 4am and I crashed on the bed like a baby.

Needless to say, Sunday was a tired day. We kicked it for a little while, took in the rollercoaster at New York New York, and then took a 5pm flight home. As I returned to the airport parking lot around 12:45, I popped the trunk and was woken up with excitement.

My running shoes were there!

Ultimately it was a totally sick weekend, felt awesome to ball like a VIP on Saturday but I think that ruins any other trip I may ever take out there. My boy FranMan is headed back to the east coast soon, and this may be the only trip to Vegas for me while he's out there. It makes me wish I had stayed longer, or gone out at some other point in the last four years.

3 comments:

a said...

And the winning streak stretches to two!

BG said...

"One of the sickest karaoke jams" ever? Please expound on this thesis.

Also, congrats on the win, and banging that Pussycat Doll Lounge Waitress.

RM said...

Well, BG, if you must know, it was a sick karaoke jam because of the raw energy for 2 hours. While I would still count anytime you, me and Jake did karaoke as "better", this was pretty sick because it was a bunch of people from work that I would never have expected to sing songs, and some of the songs were pretty amazing.

And I hesitate to call my Thursday morning 5k a win, but there was a start line, a finish line and other competitors, so I'll accept it.