By Crystal Starlight
Three Days in the (Night) Life: A wild tour de Las Vegas
(Part 1 of 4)
It’s an undisputed truth that Vegas is an adult’s playground.
A seemingly harmless car ride down Las Vegas Boulevard is liable to leave any out-of-towner with Bambi eyes while glorious music simultaneously heightens to an audible pitch behind them. Red and orange and gold and white neon lights are blinking them into oblivion as the smell of Bellagio foundations and Margaritaville mix to a delectable fragrance in their head. Being sandwiched in traffic between bright yellow taxi cabs is only an annoyance in so much as it obstructs viewpoints of the mesmerizing faux sceneries that border the street. Honking, yelling, profanities and drunk murmur blend into a seducing dream of Paris and discovering this so-called, Planet Hollywood. Ahhh…this is it. Let the weekend debauchery begin.
Thursday, May 10th
The actual birthday of Brad Galletes; one of four out-of-towners that will be joining us for a weekend to be (barely) remembered.
6:20 PM
Airport pickup for Peter Leigh. This responsible nine-to-fiver from San Jose possesses a charismatic demeanor with an all-too-with-it way of doing things that you’d only think existed in “other” people’s lives. Managing a supplement store, Pete stands 5-feet-6 and a solid 180 pounds of pure togetherness. Sans his new girlfriend and new best friend, Mike Williams – Pete stepped off the plane with an agenda. (Did I mention Mike Williams is his Chihuahua?)
7:30 PM
The MGM Signature, Tower one.
If they had any idea what they were getting into, MGM would have denied us the room.
We say our hellos as Brad is beginning to get ready for the night we have set up at Tryst. Brad’s the regional distribution manager for Asia with Nike; the epitome of a hard worker. When we all used to live in Oregon we never saw him much since he has to work 12-hour days to accommodate the time difference in Asia. In fact, at that point, I had no idea “fun” was in this guy’s vocabulary. Now I know it’s in there twice: probably in English and in Cantonese.
8:30 PM
The Wynn
Since Brad’s already about $2,000 deep in bad bets and it’s only Thursday, his girlfriend, Jen, and the rest of the group try to persuasively divert his attention from the craps tables to another great investment -- a small bar in the center of the casino floor.
“Mind erasers!” yells Brad as I look around skeptically.
Did I mention tonight is supposed to be the “light night”? I was under the impression we were taking Thursday easy since my boyfriend has to carry and install commercial doors in the morning.
“Brad, the very connotation of a drink called a ‘Mind Eraser’ leads me to believe this may be a bad start.” Like anyone ever listens to me anyway.
4:30 AM
Tryst at The Wynn
“Wait, wait -- we’re getting kicked out?”
“No, YOU’RE not getting kicked out…THEY’RE getting kicked out.”
I’m away from the group for five seconds and Brad and Chad make a lovely exit.
“What happened?” I try to get the whole story from security.
“The guy in black is too drunk and the guy in white is harassing girls.” (Brief pause while I try to figure out if there’s any sort of consolation in the fact my boyfriend wasn’t the one harassing girls.)
Whatever. We were over this place anyway.
Friday, May 11th
3:00 PM
My House
After our “light night” I can barely move enough to pack my stuff into a bag. Chad’s in so much pain he’s already text-messaged me how worthless he is at work. People that don’t drink consistently really get the crap end of the party stick. See, I think I’m doing a great thing by not dumping toxins into my body every Saturday, yet on the rare occasion I do join the nightlife scene I feel like someone hit me with a Greyhound.
After four hours of sluggish packing and painstaking unavoidable emails (it is a week day) I’m finally ready to meet up with the rest of our crew again. I’d say I wonder how they’re doing, but once I got inside the MGM I just followed the noise from the unruly mob.
“I’m on fire baby! We love fours, come on baby I need fours!” Apparently Jen let Brad back on the craps table. He earned it though, since yesterday before Tryst he won his $2,000 back and another grand on top of it. “Gotta work to get paid … gotta work to get … PAID! Come on baby!”
He must be doing well because Jen’s got a whole stack of his black chips hidden under her hand. I have a feeling they’ll be working their way toward her purse to avoid being played back on the table. By this point our friend Moyer has made it into town to join the excitement, and is whispering to Pete who’s giggling uncontrollably.
“I am freaking DRUNK!” confesses Pete as he falls back into a fit of laughter. Luckily for him Brad’s yelling has attracted so much attention there’s not a lot that could be out of the ordinary. Twenty people are surrounding our table and I think Brad may be the highlight of their day. Not sure if it’s because he’s making them so much money or because he’s so drunk that there’s just one big continuous uproar of laughter.
“The weekend is on me!”
Either way Brad came away with nearly 10 grand so why they’re laughing isn’t much our concern.
Precocious entrepreneur, workaholic and a rabid perfectionist Crystal Starlight knows a thing or two about getting ahead at a young age. Email her at [email protected]