It's Vegas, Baby

I got home from physical therapy early this evening, and CoolGuy was lying on the couch, napping after his dentist visit. He was watching a food show on television, and called me to the living room to look at a sandwich being served. I love this show. It always makes me need to get in the car and take a road trip to the place being featured and order that fabulous, yummy feast being served to the drooling host.

Then, the next episode featured the most succulent lobster roll we'd seen. We sat there watching these deliciously filled plates leaving a food truck in Minneapolis, and realized how hungry we were. I got up and looked in the freezer, to see if there was something quick and delicious to heat up in the microwave. I mean, I was really hungry, but I was also quite fatigued. "Quick" was the operative word here.

Then, CoolGuy looked across the living room and stated, "Well, we could drive down to Planet Hollywood and eat at Lobster ME."  What? A place, a few miles away, where we could show up and gobble down some lobster? And we live in the desert? Not on the Atlantic coast? Or anywhere near the Atlantic Coast?

That is right. And it was delicious!! We were sated. And then we sat there and laughed about our crazy city. I mean, one could have a food craving, and, without a doubt, that craving could be indulged somewhere along that 3.5 miles of pavement called "The Strip" or somewhere in this bizarre city. It is something I've come to love. We rarely go to Glitter Gulch, but we've learned to enjoy it, now and then. I've talked before about how much I really loathed Las Vegas during all those trips over the twenty years we lived in Southern Cali and drove through here on the annual visit to the Grandmas in Wyoming each summer. But, living here is different.

I would have never have chosen a trip to Las Vegas, for a fun time, up to this point in my life. But, now that I can go down there for a few hours, enjoy a show, or eat at a nice restaurant, or even just watch the Dancing Waters show at Bellagio, and then go home where life is normal again, I'm liking some Las Vegas-y things. It reminds me of the time I realized that people go on vacation to the beach. They rent a condo, and they spend a week. They want restaurants, arcades, bars, a near-by amusement park and other amenities. And various seaside locations advertise all their wonderful thrills to entice people to come and stay. It was only odd to me because the beach was a place where we'd go after lunch and spend a few hours, then go home, shower, eat dinner and go to bed. It wasn't a vacation destination because we lived in a beach town. We could go anytime we wanted.

And, we wanted to all the time. I rode my bike to the beach early every morning, on a neighborhood trail, for years and years. I'd just stand there and admire the surf and listen to the seagulls, then go home to start up the family daily routine. Sometimes, CoolGuy accompanied me and we'd even jump in the ocean for a brief, painfully cold swim. But, I didn't realize until I'd moved far from the beach, that living in a beach town gives you a different relationship with the whole scene than the vacationer. And living in Las Vegas has given me a different relationship with the many entertainment options here.

I'd still never, ever go to a club here to dance. (Well, that's not that weird...I have terrible feet.) But I also wouldn't go even if I had decent feet. I've just never been a club dancing sort of person. But, I no longer loathe the whole Vegas scene, as I previously did. Now, I read about a new restaurant, or I hear about a show, so I hunt around and get myself a "local's discount" and we go on a date.  That's what tonight was all about. CoolGuy asked me out on an impromptu date, and I felt my exhaustion fade away in the excitement of something fun popping up out of nowhere, and so we jumped in the truck and drove down to join the hoards of people who'd planned for months to come here and HAVE FUN, OR ELSE. It's a lot nicer for me to get my fun in smaller doses.

PS:  Just a comment:  When I see the billboard that features a bemused looking man with his shirt partly open, a large bottle of champagne in one hand, and his other hand clasping the long, naked leg of a partially clad woman, with the name of the establishment characterized as a "Gentleman's Club"....I don't think that the fellows who will be influenced by that photo to go to said club would actually be gentlemen. Know what I mean?