January 02, 2005

New Years in Sin City

My first trip to Las Vegas as an adult able to legally gamble and drink for New Years 2005 was fantastic. I went with a bunch of friends from high school, leaving on the 30th of December, and returning in the early evening on the 1st of January.

We stayed at Bally's, with 12 people in the same room, which needless to say, was quite an experience. I suppose we could have spent some more money and gotten more rooms, but realistically, sleep was not on the itinerary and why waste alcohol and gambling money on stupid things like beds when a sleeping bag can suffice? Our first day in Vegas, after arriving at 3pm, I spent most of the afternoon resting and watching Cal lose miserably to Texas Tech University, drinking the Parrot Bay rum from the bottle that broke on the car ride up, and getting depressed over the embarrasing loss. We ate dinner at Barbary Coast, which was so-so, and then, after some pre-partying in the room, we headed to the Ghost Bar in the Palms Hotel, purportedly one of the coolest places in Vegas. Two hours waiting in line, with no hope of getting in lead us to give up and head back to the hotel.

Although most of the crew decided (lamely) to go to sleep after our initial failure, some of us headed out again at around midnight, for another attempt. We made it to Mandalay Bay, spent some time at the bars, found a lame club that refused to let the guys in without paying cover of $25, even for the last hour they were open, and finally discovered the joys of 5 cent slot machines. I ended up winning about $20 off 50 cents and we finally made it back to the hotel at around 4:30am, for three hours of sleep.

New Years Eve was spent mostly relaxing in the hotel, and resting for the celebration at night. After pre-partying in our hotel room for several hours, watching the Times Square event at 9pm on television, and getting sufficiently buzzed, we headed out to the Strip to stumble around and watch the fireworks. Bally's screwed up the countdown, going off five minutes before midnight, but the fireworks were right on the dot. It was a nice night, so they looked great.

After the Strip, the plan was to meet in the Paris Hotel, but getting there was easier said than done. As I headed towards the hotel, I tried to jump a stone wall, only to be accosted by large men, who told me their children were asleep on the ground by the wall and I had almost stepped on one of them. Why anyone would bring children to the Strip and then further let them sleep on the ground on New Years Eve is beyond me, but I was really too intoxicated to worry about it and I simply walked away while they were still yelling at me.

After making it over the wall and avoiding certain death, I got trapped in a rowdy crowd about to riot. I kept on getting pushed back and forth, especially in the stomach, which didn't help the fact that I had to pee really bad. Eventually, when I was very close to just letting loose in the crowd and warming up the guy next to me, I made it out, stumbled into Paris, and bumped into people I knew. As we were walking to the bar, I bumped into some large guy, who proceeded to cuss me out. Once again, I relied on my quick wits and walked away while he was yelling at me. Luckily, he did not pursue me. Death avoided a second time! The rest of the night passed uneventfully and we finally made it to the hotel well ito the wee hours of the morning.

All in all, the trip to Vegas was a blast. I hadn't had that much fun in a long time, and I was really glad that I decided to go. It had definitely been a long time since I had partied this hard with people from high school and I'm thankful that we've managed to remain so close, despite so many years of living all across the country and going to different schools. Pictures from the Las Vegas trip, as well as our escapades in Orange County will be forthcoming as soon as I return to Berkeley and figure out why my webserver went offline.