Oh craps!

Ah, Vegas. It's the land of fast money and broken dreams and we were there for a couple days last week.

It was a fun trip hanging out w/ Brian, Jurij, and Mike who all flew out from Boston. We drove up on Thursday evening and got to the Luxor around 1130. Conveniently, the boys arrived from the airport a few minutes after us. We spent the first night drinkin' and gamblin'. I ended up going down for a bit until I was drunk enough to play a game that always intimidated me.....craps.

Everyone always seems to be having so much fun playing craps with all the yelling and the clapping, but every time I would walk over to a table I'd see people throwing chips everywhere and yelling "five on the yo!" and "double my hard eights" and "give me odds on my ten!" But a few complimentary coronas to the wind and down to my last forty bucks that I allowed myself to spend on our first night I hit the table. The minimum was $10, so at worst I'd be there for four rolls.

The worst didn't happen.

I saw everyone was betting the pass line so I went ahead and put down $10. The dice were rolled and next thing I know I doubled my money. OK, this was easy. I let it ride. Doubled again. Let it ride. Doubled again. By this point I was noticing where others were betting money so I started placing other bets with my up money. It seemed like every person on the table had a bet on hard eights so I threw a five over there...next roll....44. Chip guy give me $45 and my $5 stays on the hard eights. The roller is hot. No craps. Bets are gettin' big. Before she rolls craps again hard eights hit a second time. Nice! The table cooled off later but I went to bed making up all that I had lost plus adding another $220.

The next day we walked the strip. The boys wanted to hit fatburger so we stopped there on the way to the new Wynn hotel. (which is VERY far from the Luxor). After she saw that I won, Liz wanted to try craps so we found a table there and started playing. We lucked out finding a $10 table. The Wynn is one of the nicest hotels on the strip so most of the people were throwing down $50 or $100 every bet. This dude next to us got a marker for $3K....within 30 minutes he lost it and got a marker for another $1K. Must be nice. By the time we left, Liz was up about $200. And I was up another $175.

We like craps.

After Wynn it took us forever to get back to Luxor. The strip was closed b/c of a horrible accident involving ten cars--one of which plowed onto a crowded sidewalk killing three pedestrians. Those people were probably on vacation just like us...makes you feel lucky to be alive...and feeling lucky is always good in Vegas.

Back at Luxor we all went to the horrible buffet b/c we had a 2 for 1 deal w/ the room. Not worth it even with the discount. We decided to hit some bars and clubs and first went to Mix at Mandalay Bay. It's on the 64th Floor and overlooks the entire city with what might be one of the best night time views in Vegas outside of the otherwise lame Stratasphere. Mixed drinks were $15, but we paid no cover so it was worth getting one drink for the view.

From there we tried to get into Tabu at MGM. I arranged for us to be on a guestlist in advance our group--4 dudes w/ one chick--is considered poison to any doorman. Even though we were early, on the guestlist, and no one else was waiting to get in, the dick at the door looked for an excuse to stop us. He said that Brian's shoes were workboots, which aren't allowed. Truth be told, Brian's shoes were perfectly fine, but whatever. If they don't want you in, you won't get in.

So we headed over to Teatro where the doorguy was cool and drank way too many vodka redbulls. At the exact time we left a coldplay concert was getting out so there was this massive army of people wearing coldplay t-shirts walking through the place. We got ourselves out of there and found a cab to head to the next destination.

Jurij knew a girl doing a casting at ICE for a show on A&E called "Inked". Apparently by telling the doorguy we were there for the casting, we'd all get in. I was skeptical. If there's anyone that looks like they shouldn't belong on a show about tatoos it's me. But...we got there...and it worked! Went in, had more drinks, and after a few hours headed back to the Luxor for more gambling.

Liz and I headed for craps again. At first we were doing fine. The table was hot. There was this guy we dubbed "white coat" who was rolling like a magician. Eventually he left and the cooler showed up because it just got bad. And this is where the alcohol works itself in. Had it been any other time, we would have walked away...but after an entire day of drinking we kept playing. I lost all my winnings. Liz ended up a little up but much less than she had been. Oh well. Craps is still fun.

At that point 14 hours of drinking--something I didn't even do in college--began to take it's toll. Liz and I went to the diner to get some food before bed. I recall deciding to get it to go and after that the last thing I remember is seeing the waitress walking to our table with our bag of food. I don't recall her actually reaching the table.

Next thing I know it's the next morning and I find myself laying on top of the bed covers wearing all my clothes including shoes. Apparently I hit liz with the pickle from my food when she tried to get me to take off my shoes. I guess that was payback for when she threw a chicken nugget at my eye during Christmas in Scituate. That said, I think our marriage is safe if the extent of violence we have experienced is playful assault with bite sized foods.

The drinking gods must have been on my side because I woke up with absolutely no hang over. I was a little tired though and concerned about staying awake for the four hour drive back. We grabbed some lunch with the boys and said goodbye. They went the UFC match and we headed back to Hermosa. Dropped the top for the sunset drive through the desert which was really nice...between the air, the conversation, and the spectacular scenery, I didn't feel at all tired once we hit the road.

All told, I ended up down a bit and Liz ended up a bit. But it was a really fun two days and worth the expense.

"enough with the burgers, lets find some craps"