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February 02, 2005 - 4:08 p.m.

Scratching the Vegas Bug

I don't know if it's that I've been watching too much CSI or if my soul just needs a good dose of tacky and excessive. Whatever it is, I've been dying to go to Vegas. I was going to try to go the first weekend of my spring break, but prices were excessive. I just got a great package deal from Priceline with flights on Delta, my preferred airline, and hotel accomodations at Aladdin. So from the evening of February 17 through February 20, we'll be in Vegas. Rob has never been, and it's always fun to introduce someone to Vegas.

I've been reflecting on some of my previous trips to Sin City. Here's the rundown.

Fall 1996
My first trip to Vegas coincided with my first semester in college in SoCal. A high school friend, in college at another SoCal school, called me up and said he and his friends had room in a vehicle for me and one or two of my friends. So we piled into an SUV (two people illegally in the way back) and headed off to Vegas for two nights.

The first night we stayed with the parents of one of the kids. These people were loaded. Their neighbors were Andre Agassi and Brooke Shields. They had a slot machine in their living room. It was bizarre.

The trip just got more bizarre. We were underage, so technically we couldn't be in the casino parts of casinos. We certainly couldn't gamble or drink. So we just wandered around, looking at everything there is to see. The second night we were staying with some friends of friends. The scene deteriorated into a bunch of pot smoking, and we were there to see Vegas, not sit in some skanky apartment and watch other people get high. So we took the SUV and drove back to the Strip. It's crazy how many people are still up at 4:00 in Vegas. Honestly, it was some of the best people-watching I've ever done.

July 4 Weekend, 1999

I don't know if there was my next visit, but this was certainly a memorable one. A college friend had moved to Vegas to become a stripper at Olympic Gardens. I was still underage at this point, but I went with Laura and Bob, two roommates, who were legal to drink. We stayed with our stripper friend, although we hardly saw her. Again, our goal was to see lots of Vegas. Her goal was to go to work then go out until 8:00 AM, followed by sleeping all day. We did get free passes to Olympic Gardens, and our timing allowed us to see our stripper friend shaking her booty while men ogled her boobs and stuffed money in her g-string. I bet I could have gone my whole life without that image, but I'm probably a better woman for venturing into one of the largest strip clubs in Vegas and actually meeting some of the strippers.

January 2000

This was a trip with two French boys. Laura and Bob made up one couple, Christine and her French boyfriend Stephane made up another, and I was stuck rooming with the ultra shy David, another French boy. We stayed at the Tropicana. One of Laura's family friends took some of us out to eat at a fabulous Italian restaurant way off the Strip, supposedly frequented by gangsters in the old days. He also took ALL of us to one of Emeril's restaurants. We were poor college students, so it was a great treat. This was the first trip where it was legal for me to gamble and drink. I became enthralled with video poker (preferably nickel video poker) and video blackjack. I can still recall the video blackjack sounds vividly and with great fondness.

December 2000

This was probably the stupidest and most wonderfully spontaneous thing I've ever done. My friend Chris was going to be spending the spring of 2001 in Turkey, and he was lamenting that he wouldn't make it to Vegas before he left the country. It was about midnight on a Friday night, and I said, "Let's go!" So we did. He promised he would keep me company while driving, but he was asleep by the time we made it to the 15 (only about 20 minutes away). I had to stop and take a nap in an outlet mall parking lot somewhere around Victorville. Then I kept myself awake singing along to the all-carols-all-the-time station. It's amazing what a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells can do! It was just before dawn when I had to pull over again to sleep. About an hour later, I woke up, got back on Interstate 15, and overagain to sleep. About an hour later, I woke up, got back on Interstate 15, and over the next ridge was the glitter of Las Vegas. We went to a buffet breakfast at the Sahara, had a few drinks, checked out one of the brand new hotels (perhaps the Aladdin?) and then drove back to Southern California. In all, I think we spent 5 hours in Vegas, and it was all worth it just to have the memory and the fame among our friends.

There are four more trips to catalog, but I�m awaiting memory assistance from Christine on two of them. I�ll let those wait for a few days.

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