I had not been to Vegas for some 5 years and my oh my, the place has sure evolved. I used to view Vegas as a place that catered to older folk who would spend their days at nickel slots and nights at cabarets, but all this has since changed. Hotels are no longer hotels on the Vegas strip. Instead, they are theme parks slash casinos slash shopping mall within a resort. Coupled with the wave of ‘cool’ shows flooding the box offices, Vegas definitely draws a much younger crowd to its shores than before. The good thing about all this is that, even as Vegas continues to grow younger with age, it continues to do so while maintaining its maturity.

This trip to Vegas actually came together in a hurry. It all started on the tennis court when Herb told me that Howie and Kat had an extra room at the Imperial Palace and if I would like to split the room four ways between Hui Chin, Jessie, he and I. I said i’d ask Hui Chin. She said okay. I told Herb she said okay. He asked Jessie. She said okay. Herb told me she said okay. And before we knew it we were all in Jesse’s BMW, snacking on travel goodies (two bags of fresh cherries and melty chocolate Goobers), our hearts laced with a tinge of anxious excitement, as we headed to the city with 9 of the 10 world’s largest resorts.

Within half an hour of landing on the strip, we found ourselves at the buffet table at the Luxor. I tried tiramisu for the first time and I’m kinda bummed out that I discovered such a treasure so late in life.

After dinner, we headed over to the Imperial Palace to meet up with Howie and Kat. Herb introduced me to Pai Gow and we managed to sneak in a quick set before meeting up with Howie and Kat and getting to our room at midnight. Soon after dumping our bags in the room, we dashed across the street to Harrah’s to lengthen the losing streak I initiated earlier in the night. We turned in at 2.

Because we saw and did so much in such a short period of time, it all just seems like a blur now that I’m back in LA, trying to recall the events that went on in the past couple days. All I recall are snippets of hopping from hotel to hotel, gambling, eating, cashing chips, buying chips, tipping waitresses for free drinks. I think I remember buying chips more than I remember cashing them. Our trip to Vegas really rocked but it was also nice to return to LA, to return to normalcy. Unfortunately, that’s also when it hits you that you are a pretty effed up individual, when the life you live while you live in LA, is described from your very lips… as normal.