Gearing Up for Vegas

Above: They're holding our room...

In 45 hours, we will depart from Logan. In 51 hours, or thereabouts, we will arrive at Mandalay Bay (pictured above). In 51.5 hours, I will have blown my first $20 in a slot machine.

Of course it just figures that I’d wake up this morning fending off sniffles. I get one cold each year, and I hope this isn’t it…

The strange thing about this trip is that we won it more than six months ago, and spent most of our excitement and glee in the two weeks that followed. On top of that, Normal Girl has never been there, so she doesn’t even know what to expect. I was nagging her yesterday to blog about her expectations, but she informed me, plainly, that she wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Vegas does not lend itself easily to planning. Let’s say you decide you’re going to visit the Forum Shops at Caesar’s and then stroll down to watch the ship sink in front of Treasure Island. Not a bad plan, but next thing you know, you’ve been playing video poker for an hour.

We have to find some discipline, though, since we have two pre-planned evenings. Sunday night brings us to Mamma Mia, which describes itself as follows: “Timeless songs such as Dancing Queen, I Have a Dream, Voulez-Vous, and Take a Chance on Me, are ingeniously woven into an enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship.” I have to tell you that the website sucked a bit of the life out of me. Not the best promo I’ve ever seen. In any event, the tickets are free, the show is in our hotel, and I’m sure we’ll have a good time. I just hope that I escape without getting any of ABBA’s songs stuck in my head…

Monday night we’re going to get all dressed up for the Miss America Pageant. Yup.

That leaves us plenty of time to plan. Since I’ve been to Vegas seven or eight times and Normal Girl is a Vegas Virgin, defining our Trip Goals falls to me… Remember the formula: for any given trip, no matter the destination, you must define a set of goals that do not exceed twice the number of days you’ll be in the place (as defined here…) Eight goals…

1. Mamma Mia!
2. Watch A.C. Slater (Dancing with the Stars loser Mario Lopez) crown Miss America
3. Bellagio Water Show, like in that Ocean’s Eleven movie
4. Walk away from a gaming table with more money than I arrived with (I’m praying to the Craps Gods the whole flight)
5. Take a dip in the Mandalay Bay pool. I don’t care if it’s only going to be in the high 50s, it’s the principle of the thing.
6. Visit the Wynn
7. Stroll Piazza San Marco inside the Venetian
8. Go to bed at a reasonable hour at least once...

This trip marks the first I’ve made in YEARS where I will not have my laptop. Or at least that’s the plan. I reserve the right to change my mind at the last minute… Don’t know that I can make it that long without checking my email!

- Normal Guy (aka Jason Shaffner)