areyoulistening

Is there a more lonely feeling than being alone in an airport after a long weekend in Las Vegas? If there is, I don’t want my worst enemy to feel it…okay, yes I do but still…I sat at a bar in the McCarren Airport at 10:15 on Sunday evening sipping a beer that was going down like microwaved thumb tacs while reading the New York Times. I am not mentioning the fact that I was reading the Times to impress anyone (God knows if you’re reading this, I’m beyond impressing you), I mention it because when you are in the soul fucking “city” of Las Vegas for any stretch of time you forget that things still go on in the rest of the world. It is similar to what happends to you when you go to Disney World, only you replace magic journey rides, fireworks and candy with bottles of impossible to finish vodka, flashing lights and thumping speakers.

I arrived in Vegas late Thursday night and left late Sunday night. You drink at night, “sleep” for a few hours, wake up four hours later, go to the pool or play cards for a few hours while having a few drinks, try to eat something (which is virtually impossible and a waste of money) and go back out at night. You go to places to have some food or a drink or because someone suggests you go there and a few hours later you’re not sure when that happend. The days coagulate like vomit on a window pane and you get these jolts of reality that make your speech skip like a record player on a city bus.

There are 99 cent margaritas, 50 cent yard dog beers and 4 dollar steaks but I’ve never had any of them. We drink 9 dollar Miami Vices, 375 dollar bottles of vodka and burgers from a place called “The Burger Bar.” I’m not bragging, I’m just saying part of the guilt one feels weighing down on them when one leaves is the amount of money spent.  

In New York, you go to a place because they have 3 dollar drafts like you just found a legitmate finanical boondoogle. Out there, it is a shit show. I’m fighting a cold that I’m sure I caught because of the way I carried myself out there. Will I go next year? If guys are going…