Thursday Afternoon 2:30-7:00pm

We arrived to Vegas pretty late. I told early bloggers I'd be there about noon or so, and meet them in the Plaza's poker room or bar near the sportsbook.

I usually pack for Glenn, but have been unable to do as many things for him as usual, so he had to pack his own bag. Unfortunately, we had to go back to the house three times as he remembered things he'd forgotten to pack.

We arrived in Vegas much later than noon. More like 2:30pm.

I didn't think I'd ever find anyone I knew, just some of the old, crusty, desperate rocks at the Plaza. It was dead in their poker room, so I see they still aren't getting in right.

Bill Rini ambled up about 3pm. Still recovering from a big hangover.

Glenn left for Laughlin about 3:30pm. I stuck with Bill. Just as we were about to leave the Plaza and run an errand, Chris Halverson and his wife walked in. A moment later Bad Blood and his wife.

We all decided to go get some grub and I suggested the Carson Street Cafe at the Nugget. My meals had always been excellent there, for a "cafe." Boy, did I pick the wrong joint this time. Things change so quickly in Vegas. Not only was our service poor, but the food wasn't much better. Oops. Next time I hope to do better.

The conversation was easy and fun. At first I wondered how BB scored so well with his wife. Maybe she is blind, deaf and dumb? Then I realized that BB is somewhat like me, a lot of hot air, but basically trying to always do the right thing. Chris and his wife were like those regular, hokey midwest people who don't realize how icky the midwest is, so they stay. Good people, but they should just get the heck out of dodge. Then again, I got out, and I still caught cancer, didn't I? LOL ;)

Bill is Bill. This was my 3rd time meeting him, and he is the greatest guy in the world, but doesn't say four words put together. Ever. That would change somewhat as the party rolled on.

After a late lunch at the Nugget, we all went outside onto Freemont.

BB had this $5 Binion's chip that he wanted to cash in. Pretty soon Maudie walked up and a group of them decided to go into the Horseshoe to cash in the chip with BB. Only Chris, his wife and I were left outside. Chris & wife decided I was poor company and took off to the Bellagio.

While waiting for BB & crew to come out of Binion's, Kent walked up and said my name. Looking at him in the sunlight, I realized he's not really all that great looking, and definitely not gay. So my gay jokes went out the window, as I tried to think up some new way to put him off balance.

He told me that Human Head had just called him, and was staying at the Nugget. Since we were right outside the Nugget, I told him he should call HH, and tell him to meet us outside.

In a few minutes, the BB crew and HH & wife came outside. That dude has one frigging huge head. No joke! I think the baldness makes it stand out more. He looks like Neanderthal man or something. Then I met his wife, and I knew there was some money exchanging hands. He tried to say that he married well, but I think that he probably had to bribe her with his trust fund or something. Then he told me he was from Kansas, and she was from Idaho, and I figured it out. They're both retarded, they can't help it.

Just joking, they are both amazingly intelligent. I'm jealous. I'm just intelligent enough to know that I can't compete. Dangit! I have to resort to fake cut-downs just to try to get even.

A couple of minutes later, up walks Scott. I saw him first, it's not like he "blends in" or anything. He came over to our little group after I shouted his name. He looks just like his online pics. He's not fat, he just has a beer gut. He is exactly what you'd expect, no pretense at all. What you read online, is what you get in person. I love that in a person. I wish everyone was straight up like that.

Scott wanted to walk Freemont. He hadn't been downtown since they cleaned it up and built the Experience. I offered to walk with him. The others were whiny and lagging behind.

Once we saw the Western sign, Scott was hooked. He was utterly determined to get to the Western. I didn't think I could walk a mile and back, but I ended up doing it relatively easily.

The street crowd got worse and worse after we left the canopy. Scott seemed totally enthralled that we were entering the "real" Vegas, and not the shiny, happy, fake Vegas. We got to see some real lowlifes, and I'm sure some crackwhores hanging around. It's hard to tell sometimes who is really on crack, and who is just some kind of ultra-thin, nervous junkie maybe on Heroin or something. Is there really a difference? I don't know.

At any rate, Scott got to see the street people, and we noticed that Barrick had bought the Western and was trying to clean it up. It was still sufficiently disgusting enough to be the worst casino in Vegas, so Scott got his bragging rights.

Scott said he needed a nap before sushi. So we split up at the Plaza and I started heading back towards the poker room, trying to hitch a ride to Yama Sushi.

Kent, HH & wife flagged me down at the bar outside of the poker room. Kent claimed he needed a shower before he could leave, but I didn't smell any BO, so I think he was just being prissy and gay. I smelled worse than him, by far, and have the grossest smelling armpits in the world.

When Kent came back downstairs, sure enough, he had some gay, feminine shirt on, and was back to his "too goodlooking to be straight" self that I remembered from Commerce.

He begged us not to take his car, to catch a cab instead. He kept saying he would pay for it, he didn't want his car out in Vegas, even though I'd offered to drive, stone cold sober. Go figure.

I knew it was a bad idea, because Yama is way off the strip and we'd never be able to get back easily, but he said the magic words about paying, and I'm one cheap SOB, so I finally went for it.

We hopped in a cab and got to the restaurant under $20. Not bad. I'd predicted $30.

Next to come: Sushi, but no karaoke? Rednecks from South Carolina. Gracie does Fabio.

Felicia :)

We're Home!

We are home and slowly recovering. Oy, was that one heck of a party or what?

You know, I have a reputation (cough) of being a little bit harsh and perhaps even pessimistic in my writing. I tend to see the rough side of life, of the world, and don't censor my thoughts on those issues.

Rarely will I post that something was so phenomenal there really WAS no disappointment. I'm not one of those drippy saps who will say something just to say it, whether it exists or not.

So, without any hesitation whatsoever, I have to say that the Poker Blogger get together was a huge, monster success. I mean overwhelmingly so.

I'm sitting here racking my brain to try to think of something negative to say, because not everything can be shiny, happy, Kumbaya, right? Well, wrong. From my own perspective, everything was fantastic. Not even one event, one comment, came along to scar my three-day party.

Sure, I was weak, not as able to party 24/7 like some of the other bloggers, but I have had diabetes forever, so I'm used to having to slow down. The cancer and subsequent mastectomy hasn't changed me much in that sense. Maybe I'm a little more weak, but it didn't even come close to marring my time in Vegas with the bloggers.

I did everything in my power to make everyone feel as uncomfortable as possible. None of my taunting hit the bloggers in the wrong way. I think they know what's up by now with me, that I'm totally just FOS and trying to get them to relax by giving them a hard time.

I did have some early success with Helixx, who looks like some butt-ugly guy on the Internet, and turned out to be some Eddie Bauer model. He seemed embarrassed that I kept telling everyone how gorgeous he was, and showing him off, and trying to get him to take off his wedding ring for the night (lol). Unfortunately, he got used to my torment and kind of started to roll with it by Saturday night.

I tried the alcohol enema shtick on quite a few bloggers, but I think they were either too drunk to respond in an outraged manner, or either they are simply used to my personality by now.

As I recover from the trip, I'll post little tidbits here and there. Somehow our digital camera stopped working, so we didn't get any pics. I'll have to steal them from some other site. Jeez, you pay $17 for a nice digital camera at Walmart and it quits after six months!

Talk to you soon,

Felicia :)