I get to Las Vegas about an hour late because the airplane is late getting started. I go to the California Casino (in old Las Vegas) and wander around the casino because Person G is not in the room. After about 15 minutes of wandering around I recognize Person G and head over toward him. He recognizes me about 15 feet away and we give each other a huge and long hug in the middle of the casino. Though we've known each other for about 5 months this is the first time that we've met. (Remember that the G in Person G stands for geographically undersireable.) But we hit it off well - just as we both expected and feared. There is an instant chemistry between us even if Person G has already been drinking quite a bit.
During dinner on Sunday I break my approximately 100 days of sobriety with a glass and a half of wine. (And I subsequently have one other drink during the few day trip.)
On Monday Person G and I grab a public bus to the strip. We hit, in turn, Circus Circus, the Stardust, Treasure Island, the Venetian, Paris, and Monte Carlo (along with a few other casinos also). At each and every casino we stop as Person G plays blackjack and I play a few slot machines. Usually Person G will finish the blackjack and we'll sit together and play adjacent slot machines. And Person G keeps winning and I keep losing. It doesn't matter who chooses the machines to take, Person G keeps winning and I keep losing. We have a late dinner and now it's time to head back for the home hotel.
After 12 hours of casino hopping and dinner we catch the public bus near midnight towards downtown Las Vegas. At one stop there is a bit of a struggle as three guys who get on the bus seem to be having a three-way type of argument. But they sit in separate sections of the bus and only the occasional yell back and forth lets us know that something is up. But as each one gets off the bus (fortunately at separate stops) the yelling starts back up again as threats and counterthreats are made. Near the end of the trip a guy gets on the bus and starts an argument with the driver. "I've been waiting here for almost an hour and all of the other buses have just driven past me." The argument continues for about a minute. Finally the new passenger sits down near me and a look in his eyes shows that he has been partying non-stop for about 6 weeks. But he says nothing else and we make it to downtown Las Vegas safely.
As we exit the bus Person G says that he has seen the new passenger before. He searches his memory for a few more moments and comes up with, "I saw that guy on a California edition of Cops or America's ten most wanted. It was a couple years ago." I'm glad to be off the bus.
Person G tends to be forgetfull. At almost every stop Person G has to be reminded to pick up his digital camera or wallet or other personal belonging as we are walking off to find another casino. I tell Person G that this trait in a person sometimes bugs me because I don't want to be regularly returning to places just to pick up that was forgotten. So it is a bit embarassing when I go to the ATM machine and find that I don't have my ATM card. I have left it in another pair of pants that I was wearing in Long Beach when I went for a long walk to get cash prior to the trip. I tell Person G of my embarassment and we have a good laugh and I make a point to be more tolerant of people who always forget their personal belongings. But as a result of not having an ATM card I have to get a cash advance on a credit card and end up paying $15 for something that should have been free. This sums up my luck during this trip in Las Vegas.
As I'm sitting in our home casino watching Person G play blackjack I see a sight that brings me to tears. There is an ~80 year old lady pushing her ~80 year old husband around the casino in a wheelchair. I'm driven to tears not by the inability of the man to get around but by the devotion of the couple as they stick by each other through good health and bad, good times and bad. I wonder who that will be for me in 40 years. I re-compose myself before Person G is able to see my emotional state - not that it really matters.
I finish Monday night, actually Tuesday morning, at 4am. And I'm awake at 7 am to go find Person G playing more blackjack. During breakfast I take a number of pictures including an unflattering one of Person G. Person G insists that I erase that single picture. And, because I have not read the manual for my digital camera, I end up erasing every f&#$*&@ picture that I took in Las Vegas.
As I leave Person G reinforces that he is mad at me because he had so much fun and laughed and smiled so much that his "crow's feet" will start showing up. But we both also have tears as I leave.
I return to Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon and I have never been so happy to be back in the clean air of Los Angeles - everybody in Las Vegas smokes. I know that I have returned to Los Angeles when I try to enter the freeway. I am almost run off the entrance ramp by a lady driving her car as she uses the rearview mirror to pluck the hair off her chin with a pair of tweezers.
On Wednesay I return to work and find 81 emails in my Inbox and a large number of voicemails. It takes a fair amount of time to work through these communications. By the end of the day I am getting restless with Person G being on my mind. I go home and flip on the television to catch the news and see what is on. And, of course, the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is playing - the movie about wild and rampant drug/liquor use during a weekend trip to Las Vegas by a journalist to cover a motorcycle race.