The summer of 1997 was an interesting, transitional time for me. The year before I had discovered the world of on-line dating, and found it mostly disappointing. On the other hand, the previous nine years found me with absolutely zero social life, which was no picnic either. A few months earlier in April I had ended a very self-destructive relationship that at times made me consider my sanity! By August, I was rebounding, repairing, and healing. I still didn't like being alone, so I cautiously was sticking my toe back into the online pool again... I wasn't going to blame the bad relationship on the fact that it started on the computer; I'd met a couple of perfectly normal women that way as well! Anyway, if you've read the title of this entry, you know it has a happy ending. I had been corresponding with this woman (we'll call her Dara) for a couple of weeks, starting with online chat sessions, moving into the phone call phase, and things were progressing nicely.
There was a spin-off group from THE VEGA$ CLUB headed by Leung's brother Wayland, and made up of several of his friends. They were always nice enough to invite me along during their trips, and I went a few times, although the seven hour drive from San Luis Obispo and the fact that I was (and still am) working for a non-profit organization, and living on my own, kept these trips to a minimum. One of these guys was a big enough gambler to warrant comped rooms at Caesars Palace, so the enticement of free room at "The Palace" was enough to get me to drive out there in late August of '97. I was still recovering from my previous bad relationship, and not quite ready to meet Dara in person yet, so a trip to The City seemed like just the thing! We had a standard meeting place for when I arrived, which was directly under the voluminous breasts of Cleopatra at the front of "
Cleopatra's Barge" within Caesars Palace. I arrived at the appointed time, and met up with the boys. We played a little Blackjack, which at Caesars is generally too rich for my blood, then went up to the room. I'd never seen a room quite like it. It was a pretty standard size for a hotel room, but I'd say that a full 30% of it was bathroom! As you walked into the room, there were swinging glass doors to your right, and inside those doors was a full-size Jacuzzi, big enough for 2-3 people and a large marble counter with two sinks. Being all straight guys, we used it one at a time! In a separate room there was a stall shower, and in yet another little private room was the toilet (with telephone, of course). In the non-bathroom part of the room, two queen beds were kind of crammed into the remaining space. It was a bathroom lover's dream! Since I had most recently taken the 400 mile drive across the desert, the boys offered me the use of the Jacuzzi, while the rest of them watched TV and prepared for dinner.
I should take a moment now to let you know that some of these guys are quite competitive. On another trip once, one of them managed to eat 144 shrimp at The Mirage buffet, just so he could say that he ate a gross! We decided to dine that night at Battista's Hole in the Wall (see my glowing review, below)
My motivation for drinking a lot of the cheap wine that they serve, is that it's free, and I generally enjoy the effects of alcohol. The motivation of
ShrimpEater was to drink more glasses of wine than me! Faithful readers of this POJ have probably gotten the idea that I'm not a small man. It's true. Sadly, ShrimpEater weighs at least 100 pounds less than me, and had no business trying to keep up with me on something like alcohol volume. I wasn't counting, because I didn't care, but was informed later that I drank 22 glasses of wine, and S.E. had to outdo me by drinking 23. Okay, so at this point it sounds like he beat me, but at the end of the meal, he threw up in the bathroom, and walked back to Caesars, while I gambled for the rest of the evening. Yes, I WAS hung-over the next day, but there was no puking, and in fact, that was the most profitable night of my entire gambling career! Immediately after dinner, we walked next door to Maxim's where they had a low limit craps game going on. I was too drunk to really know what I was doing, but I had a guardian angel with me named Mikey. He would patiently make sure that I wasn't behaving too stupidly, and adjust my bets accordingly. He told me the next day that I was continually attempting to put $20 behind my $2 pass-line bet (10 x odds) when Maxim's only offered 2 x odds. In the course of a couple of hours, I had sobered up enough to know what I was doing, but not sober enough to get stingy with my betting. We went to the Desert Inn, which is where we found the hottest craps table I've ever seen! It wasn't just one hot shooter, we were all hot! People were throwing hard-ways left and right, holding the dice for 10-20 minutes each hand, it was magical. I've never been a hard-way bettor, and I'm sure I could have made a lot more money if I had been, but I did increase the size of my bets the way you're supposed to. At one point I tried to count all of the money that I had out there and got really scared when it was over $200! But the numbers just kept rolling. Things finally cooled off about 2 hours later, but I'd turned $80 into about $800, and was briefly in possession of that beautiful pastel yellow $500 DI chip.
We had another good run the next night at the Frontier, where Mikey held the dice for at least 25 minutes. During that run, some poor sap at the next table, seeing the excitement at our table actually offered Ken (another of Leung and Wayland's brothers) $100 to take his place at the table. Ken declined, and started counting his winnings from that point on, to see if he'd made the right decision. When Mikey finally sevened out, Ken had pocketed about $150 additional dollars, so he was happy. At last, a profitable trip to VEGA$!!!
I drove home the next day, knowing that in just a few days I would be coming back, this time with my boss and his elderly father.
Over the course of working where I do for almost 17 years now, I've developed a close friendship with the General Manager of the station, Frank. On several occaisions we have had the pleasure of attending the National Association of Broadcasters convention in VEGA$ together, and we are both very fond of the tasty meats offered in Las Vegas' stew. Free booze, cheap food, gambling! You get the idea. We have fun there. In late August, 1997 Frank's elderly father Frank Sr. decided he wanted to go to VEGA$. He was in his eighties, not in great health, and pretty much confined to a wheelchair. Initially Frank balked at the idea; then Frank Sr. suggested that I go along to help out. He went so far as to pay for my plane ticket as well as my own room at The Mirage. How could I turn it down? The flight went well, and I instantly felt like I was earning my keep by being the wheelchair pusher during the LONG walk from the tarmac to the taxi stand when we arrived at McCarren, and then again when we got to The Mirage.
Meanwhile back on the Central Coast, things were going well with my correspondence with Dara. We had discovered that her manicurist (and good friend) lived right across from me in the condo complex. Dara had quizzed her about me, and luckily her response was along the lines of, "Hank is the greatest guy ever!" Now,
I could have told her that, but in the world of online dating, independent verification is often necessary. We were ALMOST ready to meet in person, but first there was the required "exchanging of the photos". We had been putting it off, both of us afraid of the other's reaction.
I had brought my laptop computer to VEGA$ so that I would be able to continue 'IM'ing and emailing Dara during the trip. We got checked into our rooms at The Mirage, agreeing to meet up in about a half- hour for lunch in the coffee shop. I got the laptop booted up, looked up the local access phone number for AOL, and signed on. The little man told me that I had mail, and I saw that there was an email from Dara, AND it had a photo attached! It was about time to head downstairs, but I couldn't put it off any longer, I started downloading the photo and it seemed to take forever! Finally it arrived, and I eagerly clicked on it. She looked exactly the way that she had described herself, which is rare in the world of online relationships. Beautiful green eyes, dark red hair, and a kind, gentle smile greeted me on the laptop screen. I stared at it for a few minutes, trying to burn the details into my mind, then signed off and went down to the coffee shop to meet up with Frank and Frank.
After lunch, Frank Sr. decided to try his luck at video poker. To my surprise The Mirage had a large selection of brand new nickel poker machines (Frank Sr. happily shelled out the money for 3 round trip airline tickets, and 3 rooms at The Mirage for 3 nights, but never played anything other than nickels!). We got him all set up at a machine, then sat on either side of him to play for a bit. The first thing he did was ask me to go get a change girl. I pointed out that these machines would take paper money and give him credits, and that change girls were getting pretty hard to find. He slid a twenty into the bill slot, and I pointed out the 400 credits that showed up, and showed him how to bet however many nickels he wanted to by pressing the appropriate button. Instead of pressing the appropriate button, he pressed the "Cash Out" button and watched as 400 nickels began to spill into the tray. Frank shouted, "Dad, what the hell are you doing? You haven't even played yet!" Frank Sr. didn't care for playing on the credit system. He liked to physically drop the nickels into the machine, and after each winning hand he would "cash out". Of course about 150 nickels into that initial cash out, the machine ran out of coins and we had to wait for an attendant to come and refill it. I soon got bored with the nickels and walked over to the craps pit, where I quickly won about 80 bucks! It seems that my luck from the previous trip was still with me!
The next day was spent searching for nickel video poker machines, within walking/pushing distance of The Mirage, that didn't have currency slots, and didn't "hold on to your money" after a winning hand. We finally found success deep within the bowels of the Imperial Palace, WAY in the back. That worked out well for me too, since the IP had several $2 craps tables going, unlike most of its other, ritzier neighbors. We dined that night at the wonderful William B's Steakhouse within the Stardust casino (see my restaurant review section) After dinner, we were wandering around the sprawling casino floor of the Stardust when Frank Sr. spotted a row of nickel slot machines that were calling his name. We got him settled in, then found a carousel of quarter video poker nearby. Frank and I were having a good time, drinking free cocktails, chatting, comparing video poker strategies, and generally enjoying ourselves, when he glanced over to where we had parked his dad. "Uh, Hank. Either my Dad has just won a jackpot, or there's trouble!" I looked in that direction and saw a small circle of people standing at the machine where Frank Sr. had been, and no sign of Frank Sr! I cashed out our quarters while Frank trotted over there. For whatever reason, Frank Sr. had fainted. There was a heavyset woman playing next to him, who explained that he had just sort of slumped into her, then down onto the floor. I think most people would have stopped to summon assistance, but her response to an old man keeling over next to her, was to keep on playing that nickel slot! She CONTINUED to play as the paramedics arrived and administered oxygen to him! The patrons of Las Vegas can be amazing! He regained consciousness about 3 minutes later, and seemed fine. The paramedics helped us get him back into his wheelchair, let him breathe the oxygen for another few minutes, took a report, and were on their way. We never found out exactly what happened, but some combination of the big dinner, the smoky casino, and the general excitement caused him to conk out for a moment. Frank and I were both quite shaken up, and as we wheeled him onto the sidewalk, he clapped his hands once and said, "All right boys, where to next?" We looked at each other, "To bed!" Frank quickly demanded.
Frank Sr. died about a year later, and I am
so glad that I got to accompany him on this trip. It would be the last "pleasure trip" that he ever took, and I'm honored to have been there to share it with him.
The following weekend was Labor Day weekend, and Dara was going to be out of town... so I was again at loose ends and decided to drive down to Orange to visit Charley and his wife Pam. We spent the Saturday doing one of their favorite things, visiting a microbrewery! I have never met two people that love microbreweries as much as Charley and Pam; they are truly connoisseurs. That afternoon was spent drinking lots of beer, eating lots of food, and reliving lots of memories. The next day we were sitting around in the living room, watching old Simpsons episodes from Charley's large collection, and talking about VEGA$. As often happens, when 3 fans start talking about things they are passionate about, the excitement level tends to rise. I regaled them with the exploits of my two recent trips, and that was it! We made a hasty hotel reservation (not an easy task, given the fact that it was Labor Day weekend.) at a hotel that we'd never heard of, in a section of the city that we didn't know existed, we piled into Charley and Pam's Neon and we were on the road again! Shortly past Baker, the cell phone rang and who should it be but Roger! He was living in Scottsdale, Arizona at the time and he knew of my plans to visit Charley and Pam, so I figured he was just checking in, but unfortunately he was the bearer of bad news; there were preliminary reports on CNN that Princess Diana had been involved in a very serious car accident. We talked for a bit as he updated us on the news. He called back in a half-hour or so with the news that she had died. This put the occupants of the Neon into a bit of a somber mood, as you can imagine. We managed to locate our hotel, the
Texas Station without too much trouble. It was in a nice part of town that I'd never been to before. At the time, it was one of the newest properties in The Station Casinos empire, next to another brand new place, called The Fiesta.
We got checked in, and tried our gambling skills at the T.S. without much luck. The news of Princess Di had hit Pam pretty hard, so she wasn't really in the gambling mood. Charley and I took the short drive over to the Frontier where I had had such recent good luck, and the craps dealers all greeted me enthusiastically (I'm a pretty good tipper when I'm winning). Sadly, lightning didn't strike twice so Charley and I nursed our wounds at the casino bar, enjoying free beer with our video poker. Dara was always in the back of my mind, and we had agreed to meet the following Saturday, so not even an international tragedy, or a losing trip to VEGA$ could get me too depressed. We drove back to Orange the next morning, with me continuing back up to the Central Coast that evening, exhausted!
I talked to Dara a couple of times that following week, discussing what we wanted to do, where to meet, etc. and we decided on her house. Since she had "checked me out" via her manicurist, and trusted her opinion, Dara's safety concerns were minimized.
Saturday, September 6, 1997 was the day of Princess Diana's memorial service, and my first date with Dara. She lived south of town, kind of out in the boonies, but she gave me excellent directions. I arrived at the agreed on time with a rented movie to watch, and a bottle of champagne (her drink of choice). There were the inevitable butterflies in my stomach as I pulled into the driveway. I took a few deep breaths and got out of the car. She had seen me pull up, and came out of the house to greet me. She looked just like the photo she'd emailed me, and was wearing a comfortable brown sweat shirt. We hugged, and went into the house. I can't say that the butterflies left completely, but I was as comfortable as was humanly possible considering I was spending the evening with a woman that I'd never seen before. We talked for a couple of hours, and never did watch the movie. We sipped champagne, and then I made the smoothest "move" of my brief romantic career. The topic of conversation had gotten around to Karen, the manicurist, so naturally I asked to see her freshly manicured nails. As she held up her hand for my inspection, I grasped it (as if examining the quality of the manicure) and voila! I was holding her hand! Pretty good, eh?
We continued seeing each other about once a week for about 3 weeks, then I began spending more and more time at her house, and shortly after Christmas that year, she moved into my condo!
This is a bit off the topic of VEGA$, but one of my fans wanted to hear the whole story, so there you are!
In the next installment: Where to get married? Do you even have to ask?
