Company Trip to Vegas – First Day
My company, some time ago, decided that, in celebration of our hard work and stuff, we should all go to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Today was the big day. I was among the group leaving at 9 in the morning from SFO. Another group of us was leaving from San José. I got up at 7:00, got showered, packed, and heading out to the train station, two blocks from my house. I rounded a set of office buildings there, when I noticed the train pulling up to the station. I pulled all of my energy together, tucked my duffel under my arm, football-style, and started sprinting. I was closing on the train when this girl came zipping by. I thought I was moving along at a pretty good clip, but the girl, in a skirt and a pair of birkenstocks left me behind like I was sitting on a bench.
I conveyed my amazement aboard the train (yes, we caught it) and she smiled and said, “I was on track scholarship in college.” “Next time we race,” I replied, “I’ll make a concerted effort to be in the shape required to give you a challenge, then.” She laughed.
I noticed on my itinerary, on arrival at sfo, that I was scheduled to fly United. Fuck. United has a beautiful track record of delaying every flight in every airport on every route. Of course, the SFO to Las Vegas flight was no exception. We boarded the plane and were informed that we were going to be delayed for 30 to 45 minutes, but we should remain in our seats and ready for takeoff. We were 40 minutes late taking off, but we all arrived safely in Las Vegas.
The entire group was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, just off the Las Vegas strip. We got all checked in about noon and had a little bite to eat. Everyone was anxious to hit the casino floor and do some gambling. I was just tired, due to the fact that I’m unaccustomed to waking up before about ten. So, I went up to my room to take a nap.
At six, we all convened in the lobby to take twelve cabs or so to some Moroccan place nearby, which featured belly dancer and the most uncomfortable benches I’ve had the severe displeasure of experiencing. I had a huge headache and was just feeling very uncomfortable and not wanting to be there, particularly given the jabbering of the conversants on either side of me. I was in the middle of a big chatterfest, which did nothing for my headache, so I moved.
They brought me out special food, because I’m the surly vegetarian, and I ended up chatting about music and life with the wife of a co-worker, Mary, who is really cool. I was very happy to be leaving the Moroccan place, although the couscous vegetarian wasn’t bad.
I got back to my room about nine, changed into my nightlife-wear and starting stretching out. I called the room of my colleague and her roommate to see what they were doing. Everybody had decided to go to Ra at the Luxor. We hit Paris first, this large group of us, but we didn’t stay long, because a few members of the group were really lit up and were being really, really loud and making all the people in the bar at the top of the Tour Eiffel pretty annoyed. We headed to Luxor, where a large percentage of my co-workers objected to the Ra nightclub because they were playing “this crappy techno stuff.” We decided to go to Studio 54 at MGM Grand (per my original suggestion, anyway) instead.
54 was very cool. Alot of disco, funk, soul, a smidge of “Top 40 house” and some trance. Pretty mainstream mixing, really, but it was the whole company being there, drunk, bouncing on the dancefloor that was really fun. Even our CEO was on the dancefloor until well after three in the morning.
After everyone wore out (including, sadly, me), we all headed back to the Hard Rock. I ate breakfast with a co-worker, blew five bucks on video poker, and headed upstairs to crash. Whee!