(And the day is half over in the Eastern time zone??)
So, yesterday. Gene was supposed to have lunch and dinner with various people from the conference he’s here to attend. I decided to take the monorail to the stop for the Venetian, the Mirage and (I think) Treasure Island, see what there was to be seen and absolutely! not! walk! a lot! again! today! (Seriously, every day I have thought, ‘OK, I’m going to go out for an hour or two, have some lunch and then come back to read by the pool or maybe write a little’ and every damn day I have failed and returned, limping, to the hotel room about 6 pm).
Anyway, the Venetian – okay, I actually mean the Shops at the Venetian because if I don’t get to walk through a super fancy mall at least once per day the terrorists win. The Venetian shops are very nice (better than Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood, not as nice as the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, and still better than going to my job). The gondola rides looked cool but I didn’t feel like it. Other than that, you had your typical high end shops (is it a bad thing that I was no longer impressed by Louis Vuitton, etc? I really feel like it was becoming a drinking game – “Every time you see a store selling $500 sunglasses, take a drink from your 3 foot tall glass of margarita!”).
Anyway, I was in front of one of the stores when my phone beeped (I never hear it ring, but I always hear the voicemail beep). Gene was calling to see what I was doing for lunch and dinner. I called him back and he asked me to meet him at Mandalay at Noon. At that time it was 10:45. Only in Las Vegas is it completely possible to need nearly 90 minutes to make it a mile down the road. Gene called back at 11:45 and I was still 15 minutes away “Order a Diet Pepsi for me!”. (Mmmm, this entire town is a Pepsi town. Love it).
Lunch was sushi, which was good but not necessarily better than the sushi we get at the restaurant next to our house. Afterwards, we made reservations for dinner at 6. “What are you going to do until then?” Gene asked. “I think I’ll go back to the room and relax,” I said. “But first, I want gelato.” (There are more gelato places here than fancy sunglasses shops). I passed tons of ice cream places but no gelato places, so I ended up at Caesars, where I knew there was gelato.
The gelato was bad (it was just ice cream after all, and expensive too!), but I ate it sitting in front of the Michael Kors store there. I realized midway through that that I should use my money from the focus group on a bottle of the perfume I’ve wanted (Michael Kors Very Hollywood), so I did just that.
Did I mention that when I signed up for my Harrah’s Total Rewards card that they gave me $5 in free slot play? Did I mention that $5 in the slots does not last long? (Did I mention that I don’t like gambling? Yes, I think I did). So I did end up gambling, just a little. I didn’t realize that they’ve done away with the little tokens, which is a bummer. Ended up breaking even at Caesar’s (Being me, I played the quarter slots and the penny slots – what, did you think I was a high roller? I am not even a low roller!) after winning “big” at the “Dean Martin’s House Party” slots. (Thanks Grandma). I also managed to lose my Total Rewards card (sigh) but got it replaced. Tried (and failed) to get a pedicure at Harrah’s, so I continued my (slow, slooooooow) voyage back to Mandalay.
Also ended up playing a little bit at MGM, but ran like hell when I managed to end up ahead a little bit (I probably am the first person to gleefully cash out when I was up $10). By this point, my dogs were barking (did I mention that I wore my “cute” shoes yesterday? did I mention that my feet hurt before I boarded my first monorail yesterday?) so if I say that I limped all the way to dinner, I am not kidding. I took the tram to Mandalay and had one thought: “Socks – and will I get kicked out for walking around in socks with no shoes?”
I couldn’t find socks but I found Nirvana in the form of the “Flip Flop Shop”. Gene couldn’t believe I shelled out money for flip flops but if he’d seen how swollen my feet were…I literally had to be helped into them which says a lot.
Oh, and immediately afterwards I gambled a little bit more at Mandalay (still had time before Gene’s class let out) and ended up $62. Woohoo. While I waited for Gene (because, yes, I did run like hell after winning!) I talked to my sister in law, who is 5 days past due w/ my niece. No progress, but hopefully soon!
Today’s plans are…well, it’s nearly noon and I am still in the room, so I think I really will get that relaxing day here. Finally. (Plus, my monorail pass expired, I think, so I may just have room service).