Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

Viva Las Vegas

I just got back from an overnight trip to Las Vegas. I went with most of the ladies from our new Havurah. It was "Mom's Weekend Off". I went with Janice, Arlene, Ali, Karen, Michelle and Diane and her sister Judy drove and met us there. It was really nice to get to know these ladies better. They mostly know each other from their days at Steven Wise so I wanted to bond with them a bit and have them know me a little better too. I had to come home today instead of staying because when we booked the flights initially, it was supposed to be Cammy's birthday today which, of course, I had to attend with Carly. Then Lisa had to change the party to Friday and I couldn't go to the party after all but it would've cost too much to change the tickets so I just let it be.

We had a great time though. The girls all took a limo to the airport and started drinking in the car. What a surprise. I met them at the airport. They weren't at the gate so I started walking towards the nearest bar. What a surprise, I found them there. LOL. The plane ride was bumpy (ick) but we made it. Got to the Mandalay Bay hotel, managed to finagle our 3 rooms into a 2 bedroom suite (plus 2 rollaways) for less money than the 3 hotel rooms so that rocked. We went and got some lunch at the Burger Bar which was yummy. What a cool place. There are 6 or 7 kinds of meat (Angus beef, Kobe beef, veggie, turkey, etc) and probably 100+ toppings for you to choose. Grilled asparagus, smoked salmon, 10 different cheeses, truffles for $30, lobster on your burger for $12, etc. You get the idea. And it was delicious. We went up to the room to relax a little and we managed to talk for 2+ hours. I'd tell you what we talked about but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Ali made us all t-shirts that said just that on the back and "Jew Gone Wild" on the front. Fabulous, except that we forgot to take a picture in the shirts. We even had a little shabbat. Karen brought her travel shabbat candles, a challah and a little kiddush cup with a grape juice box. Here's our little "Shabbat Still Life" with the famous t-shirt.



We went to dinner at the Luxe Cafe at The Venetian. Similar to Cheesecake Factory. And then we all went over to the Wynn Hotel to see "Avenue Q". Hilarious. I don't think I've laughed that hard in the theater since "The Full Monty" but I canNOT believe for one second how that show beat "Wicked" for the Best Musical Tony. "Wicked" was simply magical. This was really fun and funny but not the same. Anyway, here we all are posing with Katie Monster.



After the show, some of the girls were tired and wanted to sleep. Ali, Diane and Judy were ready to gamble. Since it was my one night, I went gambling. We went to the daggy Frontier across the street but it was perfect. I played craps for the first time, thanks to Diane's coaching. I played with $40 and walked away with $45 (so I was up $5). Then I played blackjack. Bet $70 and walked away with $90 (so up $20 and gave the dealer a $5 for winning it all back for me at the end). I managed to play both games for about an hour so that was good. The money lasted. When Ali and I were done with blackjack (Diane & Judy had gone back to the craps table), it was about 2:30A and it was time to bed for us. We got back around 3AM and crawled into bed.

We woke up around 9:45AM, the others had gone downstairs for breakfast. I took a quick shower and packed up and we met them at the Red, White & Blue cafe. Ate a quick breakfast and I was off to the airport at 11AM. They're still there tonight and I'm sure drinking and gambling more. I'm really glad I went. They're really nice ladies and I wish I could've stayed. I would've liked to do the spa thing and relax today and hey, getting an uninterrupted night of sleep (even if it's the same 6 hours) is still a heavenly thought. Hopefully we'll do it again. I suggested wine tasting and spa in Napa. Sounds good to me.

posted by Juls @ 10:59 PM