We left for Las Vegas on Thursday, Bethie, her parents and myself. The occasion was the 21st birthday of Bethie’s brother Michael. Rounding out the trip was Bethie’s other brother Brian, and his wife Kim, along with Mike’s friend Arcadius.

We stayed at the fabulous Mirage resort. Right when we got there and I got to my room I turned the TV on and Cash Cab was on and the answer to the question was “The Mirage.” Weeeird.

I was super-excited to get a proper mini-vacation in after a stressful last weekend traveling for the reunion, and stress at work, and being stressed with our global financial crisis. So we did a fine meal Thursday night, and a bit of gaming. Bethie and I went to bed early-ish, as this was to be a low-key trip for me… I didn’t need to stay up all night.

Friday Bethie and I went to the pool, where it was only kind of warm. We drank expensive pool drinks and she bought me some sunglasses because she cares about me. That night we had a big dinner at the Mesa Grill at Caesar’s. I proclaimed it to be a top ten meal, but Arcadius went so far as to say “best meal ever.” He also told us that Rush Hour 2 is his second favorite movie, and that Kobe Bryant is his favorite basketball player. Speaking of which, all the Lakers were staying at our hotel that night. We spent the rest of the evening feeding $20’s into slot machines trying desperately to get the free “Wheel of Fortune” spins. That is a white-knuckle rush!

Saturday, I woke up to the start of a cold, so I decided to go hang out in the smoke-filled sports book and bet on horses. I did real well when I stuck to place-bets, but then I’d put together $20 worth of exotic bets on a race, and those horses wouldn’t run right.

After that Bethie and I walked all the way down to the Stratosphere. As you head in that direction, the strip gets a lot weirder and more desperate, a welcome break back into reality. We got all the way there, and had intended to go to the top to do thrill rides, but I wasn’t feeling it so we took a cab back.

That night, we went to the Beatles Cirque Du Soleil show. I really wanted to not like it. I really wanted to be all “What is the big deal with the arty French circus?! When are we just going to get back to regular old American circuses with men getting shot out of cannons and freakshows and mistreated elephants? What is all this BS with dudes carrying umbrellas inside and stumbling around the stage looking confused?” And that attitude held up for the first five minutes but then, holy shit it got proper weird and there was no story to follow, and it was beyond comprehension… two hours of psychedelic live-action music videos. It would have been sly of them to have doused the ticket stubs with acid - that whole show was begging for it.

After that we had a late night buffet, followed by bed.

Sunday morning I invested in a form and a champagne brunch. I had prime rib, biscuits & gravy and a donut. I felt kind of bad about it, but it’s not like I really tried to do it. Just that, before I knew it, I was walking back to the table, and that’s all I had picked out, so I just went with it.

I followed that with some more horse-bets that didn’t pay, then we went downtown so Bethie’s brothers and dad could play in a poker tournament. Her dad spotted us $70, half of which I promptly lost trying to follow him in craps. I couldn’t even get comfortable with the role of dice-thrower… you gotta throw them all the way down to the other end of the table?! But after that, Bethie and I invested in some $5 blackjack and increased our stack to $140. We went out to dinner that night for some authentic Chicago Spanish tapas at a Cafe Babareeba. Which was real fine and all, but I was so stuffed up I couldn’t taste a thing.

Las Vegas was fantastic despite my cold. If anything, being sick tempered my desire to go out and try too hard. I hope these dire financial times end soon, as I’d love to go back there and willingly give those casino people all my extra money.