Money Doesn't Buy Happiness
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2007
1
10
Trip End
Aug 28, 2007
Las Vegas, Nevada
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
most visitors come with a very particular purpose in mind, a goal and benchmark by which to measure success or failure -- "i will spend no more than $300 this weekend." "i will cap my losses at $500." "only one lap dance this weekend." "i will not cheat on my wife." everyone holds three distinct conceptions of their existence post-las vegas -- different visions for where they can be, should be and likely will be. i can be a bit more wealthy, i should be a ton more wealthy, and likely will be slightly less wealthy. statistically speaking, anyway.
after an aggregate 36 hour flight i found myself leaving my shoddy little travelodge motel that i had rented for the night (i arrived a night early), hopping into tom's prius and heading into the las vegas night for the first time in my life. it was 2 am when he picked me up. we walked to hooters casino, right behind my motel, and played (see: lost) some hands of blackjack. the restaurant at hooters, contrary to what common sense might argue, is not hooters restaurant, but the riverdam restaurant. one thing i did realize was that i can now handle spicy food with some courage and even pleasure. thanks india!
we drove to the rio only to find that the minimums were too high for our wallets. instead we moved on to billy's casino, a cheaper but still not particularly local casino where i watched a game of craps for about an hour. there was screaming and excitement and, on my part, cluelessness. suddenly, it was 7 am. tom put it best -- at these casinos, it's 11am no matter what time of day the outside world believes it to be. it's always 11am. the sun had already reappeared, gazing at my early morning or late night or timeless trek. on my walk back, i was stopped three times by happy, heavyset women in suburbans and explorers offering me the best rides of my life. having been complimented on my sexiness and handsomeness, i reluctantly rejected their offers (after all, the casinos had already raped and pillaged me and that was more sexual interaction than i could handle). i finally found my way back and passed out in one of the two beds of my motel room. the next day i would move to one of the top hotels in las vegas, but that night i was an average newcomer to a city of lights, chaos and excess.
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i took a cab to the venetian in order to meet up with spoon and his parents. after passing by the entirety of new york city bundled into a single set of connecting buildings (empire state and all at "new york new york"), a replica of generic parisian attractions (eiffel tower, arc de triupmh and hot air balloon all within a quarter-mile radius), a jet black pyramid emitting a massive light into the sky (luxor), a happy, colorful replica of king arthur's castle (excalibur), i was greeted by the clean, clear, blue, picture-perfect plastic canals of venice. the real venice was certainly not this clean. it's funny to think that the real venice feels to be more natural -- but it is still a manmade landscape that has been aged and made more authentic by the passage of time. we laugh at the many las vegas venetian weddings, the american canals and gondolas, the US singers and shops and casinos. but they are home to a kind of authenticity of their own.
if you want to find a replica, then travel to the venetian that opens in macao this week: 3 times larger than any hotel and casino in las vegas, the venetian macao is part of a $12 to $14 billion project undertaken by las vegas sands that will add 2500 five-star rooms to macao's 4800 and an amazing 17500 four-star rooms to macao's 4,000. the venetian macao resort itself is a $2.4 billion project with a 15,000-seat sporting arena and three indoor venetian canals (compared to las vegas' one!). holy shit, and i thought las vegas was ridiculous.
we ate that evening at joe's seafood in the forums at caesar's palace with all the guys and spoon's family (delicious food, great service). we gambled (see: bankrupt) and headed to tao nightclub (see: seriously bankrupt) to celebrate. the club is outdoors around a poolside and dancing area with an incredible view of massive wealth-generating and -destroying structures. at midnight we toasted to las vegas, to being and turning 21, to jon and spoon. personally, i toasted to being in a place, at a time, with a group of people that my parents never even thought imaginable. i toasted to the world of possibilities that my parents have provided me and to the friends neither they nor i ever thought i'd have. i toasted to las vegas and new york and immigrants and travel and freedom; i toasted to the entirety of the united states, overconfidence and materialism and happiness and all.
we spent the next day in and out of casinos, pools and restaurants. we watched the belagio fountain show, an aquatic dance with well-lit fountains erupting to modern music every 15 minutes. we watched -- or gazed, stared with eyes and mouths wide open -- "O" at the belagio theatre, a cirque de soliel show with no discernible plot or real characters. we witnessed such creative and unimaginable acts of human capability, from contortion to coordination, that we left speechless. throughout the performance, in my exhaustion i floated in and out of sleep. every few minutes i would doze off and take the stage with the cast, interacting directly with the actors, hosts and contortionists in a combination of reality and surreal dreaming. i would find myself wandering on stage with the two trapeze artists, paternally creeping up from behind and gently pushing them as though they were children on a swing. i would suddenly meet the ghoul-like creature who effectively narrates the story and have a few laughs with him over a drink. i would join the two clown-comedians on their sunken houseboat in the on-stage waters and join their jittery tango. and then i would suddenly awake as ro elbowed me to consciousness.
a few of us ended up at ghost bar, an open-space lounge on the 55th floor of the palms hotel and casino. the outdoor portion of the bar extends beyond the width of the building and the floor encases a glass window through which one can see the ground below. the window was faded and scratched, but the view was still intimidatingly impressive. a lake of lights stood before us -- not limitless like a skyline or landscape, but concentrated in a single area where the feeding frenzy is. the lights have a clear-cut finishing line, but that line is clearly quickly shifting outwards.
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i think i finally have some sort of handle on gambling. actually, it's less of a handle and more of an appreciation -- despite my understanding that the house always has an edge and in the long run always wins, i've learned to share my gambling rush with my neighbors as we cheer one another on in games of craps and blackjack. i didn't play a single hand of poker; instead, i joined my fellow losers in betting against the house, knowing full well that the we were playing the dealer's game on the dealer's terms. it was the rush of playing as a team as well as playing for yourself. in hindsight, it reminds me of swimming -- to play as a team but alone, to win for yourself and to a lesser extent for others, to watch as your friends and teammates achieve new medals and records. and finally, on a single significant hand of blackjack, my last bet of the night and las vegas week, i more than doubled my earnings (although i'm still down for the week).
after a full night, we were off on our separate flights back home or back to school only to reunite a couple days later.
