Vegas Baby!

So I just got back from a 4-day/4-night trip to Vegas. By a full day, this was the longest time I had ever spent in Vegas, and man did I feel the consequences as I was about to take off on the red-eye Sunday night. Enough pain/lack of sleep/alcohol withdrawal that I took Monday off to recover. Unfortunately this didn't quite work as I feel like I have bronchitis right now from all the secondhand smoke (thanks Terence and Gaurav).

The trip was AMAZING. As any guy reading this surely knows, Thursday-Sunday was opening weekend of March Madness. 48 games in 4 days. I probably watched some or all of about 3/4 of the games, missing the remainder only due to the requisite naps. Yes I know what you're saying - who naps in Vegas? Normally I never do, but they become absolutely necessary when you're partying/drinking/gambling until 830am and then heading straight to a Sportsbook on no sleep.

I won't waste people's "valuable" times with all the details, so here are a few highlights. Aashish/Gaurav/Terence, please add comments with anything that I missed - my memory is understandably hazy:

- 2 strippers in a row thinking me and Terence were brothers (we've gotten this plenty of times before, but never by strippers). The best part was one of the strippers not believing me when I said we weren't related and demanding that we do a genealogical study. The second best part was Terence shouting "incest" when one of the strippers gave me a lap dance right after giving him one (emphasis on "after" - not "during" - for any smart-asses out there).

- An asshole USC alum, who had bet against Cal, while we were watching the Cal game asking me "What's your team for college football?". To which I responded, "I went to the same college for both football and basketball." Yup Shashank, these are your classmates.

- Coming straight from the blackjack tables at around 830am, back to the room, to start drinking Grey Goose before heading out to watch basketball. I think I took like 4 showers a day to offset the lack of sleep.

- I must be spoiled by New York steaks. We went to Delmonico's, which is supposedly one of the best steakhouses in Vegas. Comparable prices to some of the best steaks in NY. Quality, in my opinion, did not even come close. I am gonna miss New York. My arteries will not.

- Great ego boost being carded pretty much everywhere I drank/played cards. I understand it's Vegas and they're just being extra careful, but after turning the depressing age of 26, it was still nice. Plus some fat girl that one of my friends (to remain nameless for his sake) was trying to pick up on guessing that I was 22. Good times!

- Went to a great, relatively new club called Tao, in The Venetian. Of course, since we were 4 dudes strolling up to a club with a line that was at least an hour long, we had to pay the bouncer $50 each to get in, but it was well worth it. Great club, definitely recommended to anyone going to Vegas anytime soon. Be careful though - it's a huge club and in my state of non-sobriety I got lost and separated from my friends on more than 1 occasion. Thank God for text messaging.

- Slight tangent from Vegas. But one of my friends I met up with there has a Treo phone. Did you know you can download porn onto those things? Again, good times!

- Terence de-virginizing one of my friends from LA. A guy friend no less. Ok that sounded pretty bad. All I meant was that T generously paid for the guy's first-ever lap dance.

- Gaurav running around the Luxor casino at 10am (after another night of no sleep) going up to any random person he saw - male, female; old, young, it didn't matter - asking to take a picture with them. Gaurav, you have no shame, but I loved it. I haven't laughed that hard in ages. I'm not technologically savvy enough to know how to put pics up on my blog, but check out Terence's as I'm sure he'll have some up soon.

Like I said, those were just some highlights. Outside of that, it was pretty much 96 hours of watching basketball, playing blackjack (broke even, which is a win in my book), partying, getting lap dances, and drinking Grey Goose, Patron, Jager and Miller Lite. Now, back to the NYC for 19 more days of the same before I head out of here.

Good times!

P.S. Check out Gaurav and Terence's blogs (links on the right). G's has got some great stories and I'm sure T's will as well.

Tao:



Grey Goose at 830am: