TR SNIPPET ADVENTURES WITH MY OLDEST SON FRANK

One of the great ironies of going away to Vegas for 24 days is I have encounters with friends and family who I don't otherwise see, and I have them without interruption.

It was grand to see my oldest son Frank in just this sort of context. We were very close when he was a young man, and Vegas held good memories for each of us.

We got to process family business, update each other on events and feelings, plan for the future.

We laughed to be planning my death.

What should I do with all my tshotchkes? I am not like intelligent older people. I am still collecting LP records and odd cups for tea. I like all the old bits and pieces of my past, but what a chore for my kids to have to sort through when I'm gone.

So at least he wants me to write family history, to record photos of all the bits and pieces of my junk and write up the story of each. It will help them know what to keep. It will help them get rid of things and still have a record of them.

Vegas is such a strange context for this conversation.

We got to plan for my next modern purchase, a Smart phone. Seeing what he and my wife have I lean now to a Galaxy, perhaps the newest that number 5, that advertised the best sort of camera.

But frank says I need to at least see a Fablet.

My wonderful new cargo pants change the entire sense of carrying a phone.

Big is quite possible.

Frank is very encouraging. He wants me to write more. He wants a Vegas book to come out of all my experience and perspective of frugal approaches.

He lost $350 in three days, but he knew that he was getting the best advice on VP and going very cheap for the rest of the trip. His wife will be pleased enough because his budget for loss was $600. We stretched it.

He did not lose anything here because they no longer deal limit poker efficiently.  We waited awhile on a list of just our names.  NO interest.

 

And there were other processed bits that I can't write here.

It was all good.

He had a ticket to Chris Angel from playing a bit of MyVegas. I bought one for $87 to go along with him. I think he was a bit disappointed in the show. There is too much self aggrandizement in the show now, less magic and more memoir. And it was not perhaps what Frank expected in a Cirque show.

Still, it was something to see. I was not disappointed. The tickets at rack rate were $130 and the seats were great. When Angel disappeared off stage and appeared in the audience, he came hooded into a seat right in front of us.

My favorite trick was for him to make an entire motorcycle appear, one from his collection chosen at random by an audience member.

I liked that he wanted random folks and developed a system for getting them, but it too took too long from the show.

I like MacKing better, but that could be because I like his personality better.

Frank and I paid $26 each on a 2 for 1 to see 40 is the new 20 at the Riviera.

http://www.rivierahotel.com/las-vegas-entertainment/40-is-not-the-new-20.aspx

I thought this was not going to say much about being 68, but I was wrong. The comic was not focused on 40 but on after 40.

This was my favorite comedy of my trip. Matt Kazam layered the jokes, one punch line on top of another and his pace was fast and his timing perfect. He was very likeable. He was raw in spots but not the kind of raw that just depends on bad language and gross comments for a laugh. I taught inner city for 30 years. Bad language and gross comments were an everyday joke, and while I'm not often offended, I just don't think today's comics are anywhere near as creative as my tough mouthed students in that area.

We played poker tournaments at The Plaza and some video poker there, JOB at the bar with comped Guinness for Frank. The tournaments are so cheap that I can't believe they will last, but are just there to entice folks to set up cash games on the Poker Pro machines. And right across the casino was a three piece jazz group playing the sort of music I like.

What was very different from our visit years back was that Frank was not interested in playing the horses on the Sigma Derby. I remember when we walked the strip with very little money to gamble, we always stopped at the Stardust for some time with quarters in the Sigma Derby.

I was surprised that Frank had never been to the Bellagio to see the blown glass in the lobby ceiling or a display in the garden area.  He was delighted.

 

Sharing a room with Frank was fine and that was a bit of surprise to me.

I used to advertise that I had rooms and an extra bed and different friends or family might take advantage of those, but these days I sleep so poorly that I did not want to share much room space. But I shared with him and we seemed to do well.

Of course, there was very little sleep. We got perhaps 3-4 hours at most at night and were on the go when normally I might be in for a nap.

Once there was a malfunction in his room key. I was happy to have added his name to the room because it was late at night and he managed to solve it without my getting dressed. He was locked out. Security helped. I was too sleepy, so I don't remember the details.

After he left on the WAX for the plane, I planned to sleep the day away.

That was when the D owned new city block venue for loud obnoxious noise rehearsed and then performed some heavy metal grinding awfulness right behind my room.

So there was no sleep, but I was just too tired to go play poker.

I watched some mindless TV, but the noise was so loud even that was a challenge.

There are no quiet rooms at the Four Queens any longer.

It may change how I arrange my trip more than any changes in comp formulas.

Fortunately, it is not every night, just some selected weekends. However, it is the weekend nights I like to cover at the Four Queens.

Frank lives in Chicago, and he loves beer, but he missed this one.




Guess he will have to come back.