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This is what Bryan looks like after working 23 hours straight and then battling 40 minutes of traffic to get back home |
Don't judge a book by its cover.
Now this one really is an old one. And it's not like I never believed it before. But it was just reiterated for me yesterday. I had to go to the DMV to order a new license. I renewed mine a couple months ago, but it was sent to my parents house, and my mom lost it before I ever got it. So I had to get a new one.
The line at the DMV was long. I ended up in line for about two hours. Anyway, when I was about halfway through the line, this guy walked in. He was a hispanic auto mechanic, still wearing his uniform from whatever garage he worked at. He was still dirty from work. He had long, grungy hair, and he was fuming mad after he saw just how long the line was. He, like many other people in that line, needed to be, or would rather have been, somewhere else besides that line at the DMV. His bulging muscles on his tatoo covered arm were pulsing with anger and frustration as he huffed and puffed, wondering what to do, pacing back and forth. He walked out the front door.
Now this is a guy you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. He's big, he's buff, and he's scary looking... and he's angry. So when he walked back into the lobby, I was afraid of what he might do. I thought he might blow up and just start attacking people or something. As it turned out, he just got into line. He started talking to the guy next to him, asking about bus lines. He mentioned that he'd never ridden on the bus before in his whole life and didn't know where any of them went. As it turned out, this guy was the friendliest guy in the world. He wanted everyone in line to get to know each other since we were going to be there for so long. He even talked to the 86 year old man that was standing near him, just talking about their kids, and how his father died when he was 75 and whatnot. I mean, here I had stereotyped this man as a poor, macho musclehead, when really he was well-off enough to have never ridden the bus before (and even I've ridden the bus), humble enough to ask for directions without a hint of machismo, and friendly enough to make conversation with strangers, even an old man.
"Just this one time" and "Just for a second" are often not as harmless as you might think.
The way my bathroom is set up, there a tiny separate room with just the shower and the toilet in in. The outside section includes the sinks, and is open to the rest of my room. Well, about 30 minutes ago, I was in the little shower room, getting ready to take a shower. The water was already on and I was just about ready to step into the shower, when I remembered that last night I had moved my tube of facial cleanser to the counter by the sink. I knew that this tube was right next to my razor on the counter next to the sink, less than 18 inches away from the door... but on the outside of the door.
Given the proximity of the tube of cleanser to the door, and the fact that I had just seen Cami involved in a deep phone conversation while sitting in her little box in the dining room just moments before, I figured that the chances would be very low that Cami would walk in. I mean, I'd only be out there just for a second and besides, she was busy in the next room.
I opened the door just in time to see Cami rounding the corner into the area with the sinks.
Ooops.
She was still on the phone but ran out of the room. I wasn't sure if she had seen anything or not because I thought I was standing right in front of the crack in the door. Anyway, I quickly closed the door as she ran out. I grabbed my towel, put it around me, opened the door, and grabbed that tube, and I could hear her in the other room saying that she didn't see anything.
Well I kinda figured that something like this would happen sooner or later, kinda like how I figured that sooner or later I was gonna get a ticket driving down Sorrento Valley Blvd... which I did yesterday. Grrr. Anyway. Don't ever think that you can do something "just this one time" or that it will be OK to do it because it will "only be for a second" because sometimes those seconds really count.
Now, these kinds of life lessons are ones that everyone knows and hears about. But these are also the kinds of things that people don't learn until they make the mistake for themselves, no matter how many times they've heard it before. The saying goes that you should learn from other people's mistakes, and although history has proven that people rarely do, I have put forth these little anecdotes from my life, with the hopes that you would take them to heart and maybe even learn from my mistakes.
By the way, I got a nice letter today from Kevin. Keven was the guy in the clown suit in 8 West, the 50 minute video that was co-written by Cami. I just thought I'd mention that here.
VEGAS BABY!
This update was written at 10pm on Sunday, but I am including it on this page because the events described herein happened between Wednesday and Friday.| F |
I ended up doing a lot of things that I never did before, starting with flying there. I hadn't ridden in a plane for years, so it was pretty fun, and the flight was very short. Before I knew it, I arrived in Vegas, around
Bye bye, San Diego! |
Earlier in the day, I read on an internet message board that there was a company that does an airport shuttle service (you know, where you share one van with a bunch of people and make a few stops, but for less money than taking a taxi cab), except it's not a van, it's a limo. And it's only $4. So I decided to try it out. The company is called Las Vegas Limo for any of you readers who want to try it. When you go out the baggage claim door, turn right and go through the temporary construction walkway and they are right there. And true to the word, it was only a $4 ride to the strip. I shared it with only 2 other people, and I was the last one to be dropped off. So I got dropped off at the Sahara in a limo. People were kind of checking me out (especially non-locals that don't know about the $4 limo rides), probably wondering who I was, so young yet rolling up in a limo. Heh. That was pretty cool, and much, much cheaper than taking a cab.
So I arrived at the Sahara, my hotel, and checked in. The guy told me my room number was 1234. I thought he was kidding, but yup, it really was 1234. Around 7pm I met up with Scott from CAPE who had arrived in Vegas with his friends the night before. We took a cab to the Bellagio and had the buffet there. I never ate at the Bellagio buffet before. I'll talk about it later in the buffet review section which will come later.
After dinner, I a long walk back to the Sahara. I stopped into all the casinos I knew had decent blackjack games and played about one to two hours at each one, and of course, having a couple free drinks with those.
"Hey man, you wanna buy a Rolex?"
Leaving the Flamingo Hilton and walking north, I was approached by a very depressed looking man. He tapped me on the arm and our exchange went like this:
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"Hey man, you wanna buy a Rolex?"
[thinking it was probably a RolOx] "No thanks."
"How about a gold chain? It's a nice 14 karat gold chain.
"No thanks man."
"I just lost all my money."
I noticed that his watch probably actually was a real Rolex, and responded, "Man that really sucks, but I gotta make sure I leave here with some money in my pocket too."
"I'll give you a good price. $400 for both of them."
Now, $400 for a $3000 watch and a gold chain really would have been a good deal. But I couldn't take it. I mean, for one thing, it might still be fake and this guy could just be a scam artist. And on the other hand, if it was real... well I couldn't take advantage of another man's misfortune, even if it was only the result of his own lack of judgement and self control. Besides, there are some 24 hour pawn shops on and near the strip that would probably give him a much better price than that. Anyway. I hope I'm never that guy.
Thursday
Well, it was 6am by the time I made it back to my hotel, and I wasn't feeling too good. In fact, I was already feeling hungover.
A Vegas casino? Nope, just the airport. |
I did have the Mirage buffet for dinner. I never had that before either. We wanted to go when we went last month but the line was too long. No such line this time. And I'll talk about that in the buffet section too.
"14 minutes!"
After dinner, I found myself once again, starting that long walk back to the hotel. I didn't stop off at so many places this time though. But I did go to the Flamingo again. It's actually not a Hilton anymore, they were sold. Anyway... before this trip, I'd never actually gone inside. But something drew me back to it, maybe it was that famous pink neon, or its mob roots (complete with pictures of Bugsy Siegel on the chips)... or whatever.
While playing blackjack, these two women sat down. They were older (more than 60 years old) black women, and they were twins. Anyway, they were so cute. One of them was 14 minutes older than the other one, and you can tell that she has been using those 14 minutes to terrorize her younger sister their whole lives. I mean, by the time you are 60 years old, 14 minutes is such a small percentage of your total lifetime that it shouldn't matter... but it does.
The older one would keep telling the younger one what to do. The younger one would keep complaining about how she doesn't like playing with her sister there because she always tells her what to do. The older one criticizes the younger one for always being so negative. The younger one gets some bad cards and the older one says "See, that's what you get for being so negative all the time." At one point, the older one leaned over to me and said, "My mother used to always tell me that I was the older one so I should always take responsibility".
They were like little kids fighting over toys. But they were grandmas. I guess that's why it was cute. That, and you could see that after all these years, they still had such a tight family relationship.
Mission Objective #2
I didn't spend so much time playing blackjack or drinking this time, so I got back to my hotel around 10 or 11. I decided it
Pimpin' in the limo |
So I decided to go to The Beach. That's the club that Mary and Cami went to last time. They said it was pretty rockin' and that it was pretty much a meat market. So I thought I would give it a go. This is a pretty unusual decision for me to be making because for one thing, I never really liked clubbing or dancing before, and secondly, I've never really taken a proactive stance as far as trying to pick up chicks goes... I guess it never really mattered to me that much.
If I had a chance, I'd ask a woman to dance, and not be dancing with myself, or, It's not easy being Yellow
For a while, I was just my "watch from above" self, and hung out on the balcony and watched people. This place was pretty rockin' for sure. And you know what, amazingly enough, I did go down to the dance floor and start dancing. But I had no luck as far as hooking up goes. Each time I spotted a girl that I found somewhat attractive, I would watch her for a while to see what their deal was. Did they come with a guy? Were they a local? Anyway. I guess my real point is that I couldn't even get any of the girls I thought were attractive to even make eye contact with me, even if I was right next to them. So I figured that the chances of me successfully getting a girl to dance with me or let me buy them a drink were pretty slim if she was avoiding eye contact with me, so I didn't even talk to those people. And the whole night, the only girl that showed any interest in me was this really ugly asian girl. Maybe I would have gone for her if I was super drunk, and even though it may have been a really long time since I've hooked up with a girl, I wasn't desperate (or drunk) enough to lower my standards that far. So I returned to my hotel. The club was a bust. But at least I had more fun than I was expecting to have.
One person did talk to me though. This really drunk Australian guy just came up to me and hi-fived me and said, "Hey man, I'm from Australia. This place is great! I can tell you're just here to have a good time, and so am I. Woooohooooo!!!!", and then he just drunkenly stumbled off.
Family Reunion
It was late, but I cruised around the casino just one last time just to see if there were any cute girls left at any of the table games. Nope. But against my best judgement, I sat down at a Let It Ride table anyways. I figured, hey, the chick thing was a bust, I might as well have some fun doing some real gambling.
I quickly noticed that everyone at this table (which was full) seemed to know each other. They knew the names of each other's kids, and their occupations and all kinds of other stuff. I'd never sat at a table where so many people knew each other like that. So I asked them how they all knew each other. As it turned out, they were in town for a family reunion. They were all playing Let It Ride as a family... well I mean, there were more family members besides them, but those people were all together as a family. That was weird. I don't even think that was worth putting under its own heading but whatever.
Let's do the time warp dance
Flying back from Vegas was like steping into a Star Trek transporter. I mean, the flight is so short that it's like one minute I step into a big metal cylinder, and the next minute, I'm in San Diego. This effect is heightened by just how different the two places are. I stepped off the plane in San Diego, and immediately I was hit by humidity. And then the "no smoking" signs. But there was Cami, waiting for me. Yay. I was home. We went to Mimi's Cafe before we actually went home though. She was hungry and I wanted to thank her for going out of her way to drop me off and pick me up from the airport. And besides, I was still in total Vegas mode, and not caring about spending money. I guess that's when I started feeling like it was a time warp. I mean, there I was, back home, in boring San Diego (which is interesting because people who come to san diego as tourists go back to their homes and are depressed because San Diego is more exciting than where they are from... even if they are from Vegas)... but I still felt like I was in vegas. I still thought I could just walk outside and find a blackjack game or something. Oh well, whatever. And that was the end of the trip. And now...
The "Things I Did for the First Time in Vegas This Trip" Review Section
Bellagio Buffet
I went there for dinner with Scott and his friends. It cost $22.95 and I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed. The buffet is large, with a very large selection of food. They had an excellent seafood section, with fresh Alaskan king crab legs, that were already cut open so you could just reach in and get the meat, and they had a ton of good shrip. This section of the buffet was definitely excellent. And their desserts were good. They even had real lychee fruits. Also they had a guy making sushi rolls, like california rolls, and salmon rolls. Those were good too. The part that disappointed me though was the "big slabs of beef" section. Their prime rib was hardly "prime". In fact, it was even worse than the stuff you get at Viejas casino in San Diego. Now, mind you, the Viejas buffet is actually pretty good... but it only costs $8.95; the beef served at the Bellagio buffet was the same, wimpy, half-cut prime rib that they have at Viejas but prepared worse. And, well, the "big slab of beef" section of buffets are the most important to me, since they are my favorite parts. Also, they had some more "exotic" selections of meat, like venison, which were OK, but really I would have preferred better beef.
Overall, I did like the seafood selection, and if seafood is what you want, the highest quality stuff is at the Bellagio. But I still like the Caesars buffet better when it comes to meat. They have slabs of prime rib floating around in the au jus pot. No slabs of beef in the pot at Bellagio. On the other hand, Caesars has a much smaller selection, but they seem to offer quality over quantity.
Mirage Buffet
Last month when we stayed at the Mirage we wanted to eat here but the line was too long. This time it was short. But I have a warning for you... when You get to the part where you can choose going to the left line or the right one, take the one on the left. Because right after the cash register, the two lines make a 90 degree left turn, and thus, the section of the line after the cash register but before you get to the host or hostess, is about twice as long on the right side as it is on
the left because of that 90 degree turn.
Now on to the buffet. You'd think that a lot of the stuff would be similar to the Bellagio stuff, seeing as how it's all the same hotel management, but that wasn't really the case. This buffet is also large, with a large selection, and even a pasta bar with a real live guy putting whatever you want into your own pasta sauce. This section was good. The seafood section was also good, but not as high quality as Bellagio, with crab legs, but not huge Alaskan king crab legs that are already cut open for you. Nope, you gotta crack 'em open yourself here.
The big slab of beef section was much better here than at the Bellagio. The sizes of the slabs (and the corresponding sizes of the slices) were larger. No slabs of meat in the au jus though. Having the pasta bar, in my opinion, was better than having the venison and lychee at the Bellagio. The overall experience was better at the Mirage buffet, and it was also much cheaper at $14.95 (i think. At any rate, i was less than $20). The dessert bar was good, and was better than the Viejas dessert bar (which is actually excellent, one of the best I've ever been to, with great pastries, and even a real live guy scooping real ice cream, not soft serve). But no live guy scooping ice cream at Mirage.
Circus Circus Buffet
I got tricked by their "All New Buffet" sign in the front into eating lunch here. It was only $6.99. But the buffet was bad. The food was horrible, the selection was terrible (and even smaller than the pretty pittiful Sahara buffet), and the food was worse than the Sahara buffet too. The Sahara is pretty well known for being a very mediocre (but cheap) buffet. But at least the food at Sahara is edible. Even I eat brunch there almost every trip to Vegas. But Circus Circus' food was only barely allowed to be called "food". But I ate it anyway and I was talking to this guy next to me that was from England. Then I went to the dessert bar, and I actually turned around because everything at the dessert bar looked so unappetizing that I didn't want anything to do with it.
To add insult to injury, when I returned to San Diego, Cami informed me that it wasn't even my first time going to the Circus Circus buffet. In our trip to Vegas way back in the spring, we went to the "All New" buffet at Circus Circus. Man, I knew I should have told the cab driver to go to Stardust instead. Not only was the buffet horrible, but as it turned out, it wasn't even really my first time. The last time I went there must have been so bad that I didn't want to remember it.
Speed: The Ride
This is the new roller coaster at the Sahara. It launches you forward with electromagnets (like Superman at Magic Mountain). You get launched outside to the sidewalk along the strip, turn left, go upside down around a loop, then go slightly uphill (but accellerating again because there's more magnets out here), to another banked turn, then straight up a really tall tower. Then you free-fall back down and do it all backwards.
This ride costs $6 and is very short. For $6, the Desperado is a much bigger thrill. However, the Desperado is in the middle of the desert. This ride is cool because it's right along the strip. The accellerating again while going uphill thing was pretty cool, along with the initial launch. And you get a good 1 or 2 seconds of free fall on the way back down from the tower. It's a fun ride, as short as it is. And it is a very smooth ride, this is the smoothest rollercoaster I've ever ridden on. I did not bang my head in between the shoulder harness thingy. Overall, a better value than the (more expensive) New York, New York roller coaster, in my opinion. Even if it is much shorter.