What I Learned this Week in Vegas

Hurricanes cannot be stopped.

Love Frontier Airlines $200 RT Charlotte to Vegas v $770 American Airlines.

I get more attention and experience more camaraderie during 12 hour shifts at the Craps tables than I do sitting at my favorite watering hole surrounded by people who know me.

I can fly thousands of miles across the country and then move a total of maybe 100 yards from my hotel room for an entire week.

Trubisky will be a flop this season.

Even though they made me a shit ton of money, I experienced no joy rooting for the Packers.

Aaron Rodgers and those big wide eyes reminds me of one of those Serta Sheep.

I ate a fried egg Monday morning before I caught an Uber to the airport. I did not eat again until I sat down at Hells Kitchen during TNF for an awesome steak.

Caesar’s suite on 34th floor is dead silent compared to Cromwell suite in 5th floor with traffic noise on Strip below and Drai’s throbbing upstairs.

I know every Craps table dealer by name at Cherokee, New Orleans, and Cromwell. Half at Caesars.

Gordon Ramsay doesn’t know how to play craps. Super nice though (story later).

I personally rolled All Tall Small twice this trip, $15 apiece each time, and was betting it one time when someone else nailed it, also at the 15-15-15 number. That’s $3,150 each hit.

I was missing one number to make them all 6 times. Just one more of any of those would have been really, really nice.

I bought a tiny skull on a chain necklace thing from King Baby on my last night. I charge one piece of jewelry to my room each trip now, and my host graciously picks it up, along with all my incidentals and my one meal (ha!) and limos to and from airport. I talked to my little head all night and we made serious bank.

I try to help everyone at the Craps table, plus everyone watching. I teach, advise, educate. One woman finally said as she and her husband were coloring up at Paris, ‘You are the nicest man. You probably don’t remember us, but we’ve watched you help everyone all week at this table. You are just the nicest man.’

That compliment meant the world to me.

This goes back to my earlier thought: I am invisible at home (largely by design; I don’t need the drama) but I really get to be a more outspoken, extroverted version of myself when I travel. It’s intoxicating. The chips, the dice, the attention, the camaraderie, the money.

People from other casinos across the country walk up and say hello to me by name. Reminds me of having a Euro Rail Pass back as a teenager and traveling around Europe, running into people I met weeks earlier in different cities at random places.

Everyone seems to remember my name, and apart from my dealers, I can’t remember anyone else’s. It’s bad. I should remember. But still, sometimes someone greets me with my name and for the life of me, I can’t remember ever laying eyes on them before. Early onset dementia?

I need to hit a golf ball. Kick off my shoes and walk the course barefoot. Catch up with my friends. Traveling this often is an exercise in managing loneliness.