TR SNIPPET MEETUPS

Meeting up with board friends is not an easy task for me.  Although I go for long periods of time, I go for a slow and unscheduled pace and I like to be away from schedules.

My sleeping is an issue. I never know when I can sleep and when I can’t.  Vegas is grand for that lifestyle.  I can always look for a poker game or an early morning VP session.  Shows alone seem hard to keep in focus.  I have to concentrate on check out days and often get them confused.  At the beginning of this trip I was totally confused on time.

I can also just take a day and do nothing but sleep.  My pace it like that.  Whenever I can sleep, I sleep and am pleased with the privilege.

 

At home when I am awake at odd hours, I write on discussion boards.  The boards are here when I am fresh and awake at whatever hour.  When I write I have time to consider, to edit, to check the elusive details.

In Vegas I am often over tired.  Sometimes in conversation I can’t remember words or details of anything I’d like to say. 

Lack of sleep retards my functions.

 Lately I have been drinking almost no alcohol so I don’t lose whole days as I once did, but I am still too tired too often.

Then too I like the solo experience in Vegas, like the serendipitous meetings with strangers from all over the world at poker games, on buses, at bus stops.  I played poker with people from Costa Rica, Australia, Great Briton, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands.  I used my limited Spanish to help three women who had little English find the right bus. 

I met a British couple at the bar at the Clarion waiting to see the most underrated show in Vegas, Shades of Sinatra.  We hit it off easily and talked a good bit about music.

At the Flamingo poker game I met Kristi, a very friendly woman who I had played with on my last trip. She had bought a silver strike, Kennedy half card protector from me and remembered me from that exchange.  It was good to meet her again and actually, I will share some of the Vegas connections with her when I am caught up in this trip report writing.

I met Bob and his wife in the Gold Coast pool.  He is an old 60's guy, a hard worker in Veterans for Peace, a lover of Bob Dylan concerts, of Joan Baez, and also a fellow with an encyclopedic memory for names and dates, for old jazz musicians, for Doo Whoop but not Motown and he told stories with a high paced intensity.  His wife had worked as an editor and knew books and authors.  We talked NPR and shared email addresses.

 

I met a woman from Minnesota, the first from that state who actually listens to Prairie Home Companion and she wrote down a great resource for a guide for catching walleyes off deserted islands in Minnesota, Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

 

In spite of my distaste for schedule, I usually manage to see my Vegas relatives: nieces and nephews who live in outer Vegas.  They don’t all talk to each other, so meetups require separate times and places.  This trip I just did not feel well enough to call them and arrange all that.  The pollen got to me.  The foot blisters slowed down my mobility.

However, I did not do Vegas totally solo.

Three local poker buddies went for the first part of my trip.  Most went their own ways, but Wild Bill and I seem to manage to arrange to play together and share 2 for 1 coupons for shows and food.  We did a good job coordinating this time even if he is frustrated that I don’t have a smart phone, and I  won’t add texting to my repertoire of phone skills.  I’m happy to have finally added an ability to hear the phone ringing and find missed calls.

I sought out one  in-Vegas poker buddy, Kevin , at the Palms where he plays almost daily.  I like him.  He has helped me with my game.  I used up matchplays.

 

I ran into Bob Reynolds, one of the old El Cortez poker guys.  He scooted into the Sam’s Town poker game and we talked horses a bit and he told me a few stories before he scooted out.  He is a fine fellow for local information on poker.

And I had a really magical  time with board friends Ella Cappa from the Netherlands, and Scio5153 .

Ella totally celebrates everyone and everything.  She seems to never have a complaint.  She even celebrated the long 202 bus ride to the Eastside Cannery.  And she handled well the Sicilian fellow trying to hit on her.

I found Elsa and Sarah, along with Ross, Martan ,  Ross, travelfiend, vegasnut, Lady Fortuna and Steve-o-rama  although I've mixed up real names with pennames and I'm confused just as I was at the meetup.  I thought they were going to the Peppermill afterwards, but they had flipped that schedule. The other thing I don’t have in Vegas, or want really, is much  internet, so I missed that change memo.
But Maartan was also from the Netherlands and we had some good banter about "frugal" versus " practical."  Ross was delightfully full of stories or all sorts of places around the world. 

 

We had a good session of telling stories and sharing adventures and I firmed up plans for the following day with Elsa (Lady Fortuna) and Sarah( Scio5153). 

The next day was a real adventure.  We ate lunch  at the Spice Market buffet where Sahra's American Casino Guide coupon saved a whopping $22 off the bill.  We had a fine supper and I went off my meatless diet to endulge in skewered lamb, one of my Vegas favorites. 

We then walked over to Flamingo to introduce Elsa to live limit poker.  Sahra was content to watch.

She could not go Latin dancing with us as she had a ticket for a Thunder from Down Under that night. 

Too bad.  For us. 

Elsa was a great player at a very tough and tight game. 
I was not.  Or perhaps I just missed the cards and had to constantly fold invested pots.
Instead of trying to teach Elsa the game, I should have had her teach me.  Still, it was very difficult to walk away with money at that game.  The pots I won were very small.  I no where near got paid for my good hands and my second best hands drained me.

Sarah watched, but did not put her money at risk, so she was perhaps the wisest of all.

From there Elsa and I rode the 202 Flamingo bus to see Claudine Castro at the Eastside Cannery.  This was a risky suggestion on my part.  I am not objective on Latin music and certainly not on this particular lounge show.  I love it!  And the casino is a long way from the strip, a locals place that perhaps would not appeal to Elsa.  I worried the whole thing would be a bust.

Well, Lady Fortuna loved it. But then she is perhaps one of the most positive women I ever met, full of passion for celebrating life and especially Vegas.

She liked all of it.  And we did do our own bit of fake salsa and Cuban motion on the dance floor.  In fact at one point we were called into the center of a circle of dancers to take our turn and achieve our three minutes in the limelight.

I have seen this show many times, but usually solo and without dancing.  It was great to have a date.  The idea of an old Anglo guy dancing in a completely Latino setting with a woman from Amsterdam...well... that is Cosmopolitan!

Added to the delight of the whole day was short meetups with my wife’s brother who I rarely see as he lives in California.  He was in Vegas for a short working trip that included some poker playing.  This one day that I had booked fairly tightly with Elsa was his only chance to see me, and I did not think it could happen. 
My wife sent him our itinerary and so he popped over to the buffet in between poker rounds to visit for a while, and again later at the Flamingo where we had a drink at the bar.  Then he waited for the bus with us. 

There is always an added delight when I can bring together people I enjoy from very different parts of my life and have them meet and enjoy each other.  This day goes down as one of the most delicious days I’ve had in Vegas.

Or in life.

And I love this fellow.  He is such good fun and so personable.

 

It is not often, after all, that I get to go out to supper, play poker and go dancing with two delightful and attractive young women.  Then to add one of my favorite people in the world into the mix and have it all be in Vegas.  Well, life as an old man just doesn’t get any better.  Pura Vida!!

 

I also met up with board friend  and legendary trip report writer,The Bucket, also a good friend of Lady Fortuna.

The Bucket moves fast in Vegas. I met for lunch with Matt at Sam’s Town and we had a good talk.  He and his old high school chum were dressed up almost like casino employees. .  What a contrast with my grubby old washed out jeans!  He told stories about being mistaken for casino management and playing along with the mistakes He is a funny guy!

Once again he clarified those slot machines at the El Cortez right near the elevator.  Basically they do not run using a computer.  There is no random number generator.  They are actual “slot” machines with a pin that falls into a slot when it reaches the place it is going.  They are just one step up from the really old slot machines where all energy for the spin was initiated by the pulling of a handle.  They have electric motors that allow a button to turn the spinning drum, but what is on the drum is what shows up when the spin is over.  No computer sends a coded message and produces an image of a spinning cylinder. 

I was happy to finally get that right.

His old friend traveling with him this time was educated to facilitate the teaching of children who had difficulty learning because of deficiencies in hearing.  However, recent cuts eliminated his job, so he was back in college studying for work in the field of in aviation.  I did not get details on what exactly. 

We engaged our elderly waitress in conversation and she talked about the old days when she worked at the Mint under Sam Boyd.  She had quite a history in working in casino business.  Matt could keep up with those days as if he had lived back in them.

She thought we had all left when Matt and his friend had to push off for their next adventure or encounter.  I was just up for a final bite of desert and came back to find my spot gone.  She was fine to reconstruct it.  I told her that she would know when I left because there would be money on the table. “Well, not everyone tips,” she said.

I missed one board meetup by getting settled in my first room too late, but I was exhausted anyway. In fact, I was very disoriented into the next day and three hours off on check out and check in

Link??

I tried for one that was supposed to be in the H2O bar at the Golden Nugget only to find that the bar is inside the pool area and requires a room key.

In that meetup group was  Ella’s Netherland Met up with travelfiend, vegasnut, Lady Fortuna and Scio5123.  We had a good visit.  the next day Scio5153, Lady Fortuna and I ate lunch at Planet Hollywood, did a bit of 2-4 limit poker at the Flamingo and then Lady Fortuna and I went dancing at the Latin show at Eastside Cannery.

I met JerseyBill on the street just as I arrived for my first night.  He thought that was a very funny coincidence to be in Vegas and see the face of a guy he sees on board posts when planning.

In the same serendipitous manner I met another board member from Philly at the Orleans shuttle bus and we told shared experiences for a while.