Kenny and I embarked on a quick 5 day break to Vegas with his brother and sister-in-law and his mom. We left on NY Palm Sunday and got the red eye out of Sin City on Good Friday. I am not sure why that is important, there would have been a time, not too long ago that I would not have strayed too far from home during Holy Week. I am not sure how or why that changed or why that fact is even significant to my writing. Maybe it was just an irony that we spent that week in a place referred to Sin City? Who knows.
Upon arriving we were upgraded to the penthouse suite, a 3000 sq. ft. deal with 2 bedrooms, 3/5 baths a dining room, a butler and floor to ceiling windows with expansive views. We hung out at the "adult" pool by day and gambled by night. Kenny and I flew to Cali for lunch with Sandee ( a college friend) and Tim and their girls. We played at the aquarium and on the beach eventually flew back to Vegas in time for dinner downtown at Tony and Nick's steakhouse. It was interesting to travel sans luggage of any kind and to have a flight take less than 45 minutes or be less than 50. It felt like we were engrossed in this fantasy life of high rolling thrills. Strangely, this vacation was relaxing beyond belief.
We accomplished a great deal, I finished Blood, Bones and Butter, saw Santana in concert, got dressed up, played in nice hotels, ate breakfast at Hash House A Go-Go where the meal was 12- 14" in Dia and was as tall as it was round. We walked, and walked and walked...and walked. We also took a great deal of cabs, where Harriet's main question was "So where are you from?". My experience with the book I was reading had me wondering what these guys have seen in there time behind the wheel and for those who were from elsewhere, like a different country, what they did for a living before getting to this "land of in-opportunity and getting stuck here" My guess is that one was a doctor or maybe even a teacher because education and health care were things that he talked about. He was from Africa originally, very eloquent, very well spoken. There was the guy who dropped us at the airport when we headed to Cali who tried to tell us his meter was broken because his check engine light was on. Kenny and I were sure he was going to try to get more from us. The guy backed down when he saw me pull out a pen and paper and appear to write down his tag number. Then there was the PSYCHO guy who texted and drove just because it scared Kenny's mom. There was also this MALITIA from the South Bronx (Morrisania to be exact). He was just short of having me scared that we were going to be held captive if we didn't agree with him. He spoke of politics and the "new civil and very bloody war that was about to occur in this country". I really wish I had grabbed his tag number in case the authorities were looking to implicate a cab driver...
Our red-eye flight home boarded on time, but had mechanical issues as soon as we backed away from the gate. We had to sit in the dark on the tarmac for 2 hours while it was fixed. The flight itself was bumpy and HOT, CRAMPED, and STUFFY. We arrived home at noon or so after a few errands and I proceeded to sleep for the next 20 hours. THe sun got me on Thursday but because we had to vacate the hotel by noon I could not deal with the dizziness and blisters until I got home. The sad part is that I did protect myself with sunscreen, but it seemed to not work as well as it could have. Yes, I did toss it. I think it was old.
Easter was great, though a great deal of the work was done by Kenny. I was still feeling it this morning. I learned that grapefruit added to a mimosa takes the sweetness out of it (thank you Anna). I am not sure if you know how hard it was to be greeted by this first thing in the morning again.
I am left feeling like I needed a vacation from a vacation...I am so tired!
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