Las Vegas in Review
Jul/081
The best way to describe the trip to Las Vegas was that it exceeded my expectations. I suppose it is worth noting that I actually didn’t have any set expectations for the trip which is a stance I’m finding to be most beneficial when taking a trip. The key was to have a fun time in whatever form it would come and just enjoy the opportunity to spend time in Sin city with my brothers.
My younger brother and I arrived around 10:30pm on Thursday night (pacific time). We had to wait for my other brother and his friend to arrive so we grabbed a seat at Chilis. Not surprisingly, 2 beers and an order of boneless buffalo wings was $33. We followed this up with some coffee since we expected it would be a late night and drowsiness wasn’t any option.
Once they arrived we stepped into the long taxi queue. It was both surprising how quickly we moved through the line and how incredibly hot it was outside for so late at night. As expected, it was a very dry heat and a nice feeling.
We were supposed to have two rooms at the Excalibur but somehow something got screwed up and we only had one room for the trip. It ended up being not much of a problem. A couple of us slept on the floor and it was fine.
For the sake of not writing a 40 pages of story, I’m going to stop the narrative right now and go to a handy list of highlights.
-watching Mark’s friend react to having a shot of Jameson to start off the trip (it was not a positive reaction)
-Befriending a bartender who gave us 6 free shooters
-Winning some money at video poker the first night and getting it in my head that winning was easy (I consequently lost about $200 playing video poker)
-Going up $25 in video blackjack, getting cocky and max betting and then losing $45 in about 2 minutes
-Eating breakfast/dinner at 6am the first night
-Watching Mark eat a pale of fried sausage
-Seeing a Cirque Du Soleil show
-Going into a magic store, handing my drivers license over to the magician and watching him make it fly through the air and spin in circles (it was quite impressive and I couldn’t tell how he did it even though I was 3 feet away)
-Seeing the Vegas strip
-Eating dinner at Mix at Mandalay Bay
-The view from the restaurant which was on the 64th floor of the hotel
-Learning how to play craps and then winning almost $300 (Mark and his once friend both won a couple hundred each because we were rolling hot)
-Losing a couple hundred dollars playing craps
-Losing every time I placed a bet at the roulette wheel
-Eating a Vegas buffet
-The fountains at the Bellagio
-The Pink Flamingo casino which seriously gave me a headache because of the lights
-Walking around with open containers
The Bellagio fountains.
My brothers and I.
Me enjoying a 24 ounce PBR.
Our crew visiting In-n-Out Burger.
The Bellagio without the fountains.
The view from the Mix restaurant at Mandalay Bay.
A shot of our hotel, The Excalibur.
Swingers
Jul/080
There are these little events in our lives that stand out as funny little twists of fate. A good example of this took place many years ago when I was at boy scout camp. I had the sheet music for Stairway to Heaven. I was playing it on my guitar in my tent. I finished playing the song. I turned on the radio only to hear the very song playing.
Anyway, my older brother’s friend sent out a youtube link to a clip from the movie Swingers where the main characters are in a car driving to Vegas and getting all excited about it. Later in the day my older brother sent an email saying that he’s been reading my blog a lot lately and suggested that I watch the movie.
So, I checked Netflix to see if they had it available for online play. Nope. I checked for a torrent file but had a hard time sorting through the porn associated with the word swingers. I asked my roommate if he owned the movie. He looked at my oddly and told me to follow him. He walked up to his room and disappeared for a second. He stepped back through the doorway telling me that he had stopped at Best Buy last weekend and bought a new movie.
As fate would have it, he bought Swingers.
Tomorrow I’m off to Las Vegas with my brothers. Vegas Baby!
3 Questions
Jul/083
1. Looking back on your life, of what are you most proud?
Here are a few that standout…
-Being cross country and basketball team captain for 2 years in HS
-Being named MVP of a basketball tournament
-Graduating in the top ten in HS
-Working as a photographer for the Penn State sports information department
-Have the core group of friends that I’ve got
-Being one of the best outfielders in kickball back in 7th grade when I had a broken arm
-Graduating from college with distinction
-Getting my first “real” job
-Getting promoted a year early
-Having previously been in a band that recorded a CD
-Knowing that I’ve significantly influenced the lives of several friends even if they never realize it
2. If you had three wishes, what would they be?
The problem with wishes is that it is easy to over-wish without realizing the consequences. If you ask for happiness you may never again know what it is to struggle for a goal. If you ask for money you’ll never again know what it means to put in a hard days work. If you wish for love you’ll never again realize how lucky you are to find love.
All the same, if I could just have one wish I’d like to do something positive and significant enough on society that I’m written about in history books as the great guy who did… insert great thing
3. What are you looking for in a relationship partner?
Someone with a positive and adventurous attitude that is rarely found saying “I don’t really feel like doing that.” There is so much out there to be discovered that I would just hate to find myself years down the road in a relationship with a person who doesn’t want to find out what else the world has to offer.
Camping, Beer, 21st
Jul/083
For the 3rd straight weekend I ended up in Snyder county. Once again, no real complaints. The keys to this weekend was to go camping in “mountains,” attend a beer festival in Selinsgrove and in some way celebrating my younger brother’s 21st birthday.
The camping was excellent. There isn’t much to say about it. It was relaxing. It was peaceful. The funniest part of it was probably the fact that we bought 4 cases of pounders (16 ounce beers) thinking that we would need that much. I think we maybe drank one case between 5 of us. I think that may be a sign that we are either getting old or getting smarter.
I have mixed feelings about the beer festival. It was surprisingly well organized. They had plenty of water. There were no hassles that I can think of. They had decent brewers there. I think that in the future they need to provide more shade, invite more brewers and have a clear plan for what to do if it rains (if it would have rained it would have been a disaster). Additionally, it was not worth $40. Maybe $20. They need to increase the value of the event if they want to charge $40. One part that took away from experience was that I didn’t feel good because I thought it would be a good idea to go for a run right before (when it was 96 degrees in the shade).
I had considered going up to State College to help celebrate my brother’s 21st birthday. Due to tiredness, I decided to make it a low-key night and just ended up at BJs which was nice because I got to see Lindsay, who I hadn’t seen in a while. But anway, my parents and I drove up to SC on Sunday to have lunch with Mike. It was a painful experience.
My parents were being stupid and made it terribly hard to enjoy being along for the trip. I don’t know if this is me being a 5-year old thinking to myself, “it’s all your fault Matt, you’re to blame” or if they were just being stupid, but I know that sometimes I call them out on their un-proper or annoying tendencies which probably sets them off. For instance, if my dad is speaking in a tone that is condescending to my mother or my my mother is completely disorganized to the point that is bothers me, I’m prone to letting them know. I think this is actually a good thing to some degree. Life can’t be all smiles and pretending like everyone is perfect.
We had a little jam-session.
Just a picture of Trevor.
The moon and fire made for a very cool picture.
Another cool fire picture.
A picture of Phil.
Time Capsule: 5 years
Jul/082
I was asked where I see myself in 5 years. On the spot, my answer was as follows.
-probably not living in Philadelphia
-not necessarily living in Pennsylvania
-probably working for the same company
-hopefully married
-happy
Caffeine
Jul/080
Some of my co-workers have tried to tell me that I’m addicted to caffeine. For a while I tried to tell them that I was not. I’m starting to wonder what the truth is.
This morning I just had to stop at Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee. First off, I really like their iced coffee. I get it with skim milk and some sugar. It is so tasty. Secondly, I didn’t eat breakfast at home so I wanted to get a multigrain bagel. So, I really enjoy iced coffee as if it were a good beer. I don’t drink beer because I’m addicted to alcohol. So, is this coffee any different? Do I try to justify my addiction by claiming that I like cold bitter water and that is the motivation?
On top of the iced coffee thing, I’ve grown to really enjoy sugar free “energy” drinks. I don’t like the ones with sugar. I can tolerate them but I have no desire to drink them. There is just something really nice about taking 10 minutes in the afternoon to walk down to the closest gas station to get a sugar free Monster. Hmm, so delicious.
I’m not sure if I have one of the two drinks every single work day. Notice how I specify work day? I don’t really crave these so much on the weekends. Maybe the fact that I don’t know if I have one every day is a problem as well.
Mmmmm, caffeine!
I’ve Started Writ…
Jul/086
There are about 25 entries I started writing that I never actually posted on here. I start one last night but instead of saving it I deleted it because it was especially not interesting. It was about the TV show Lost and how I just finished the 4th season. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next season. Out of the other ones I’ve never posted, I’m not really sure how many have significant content but I’m guessing that it isn’t too many. To the reader, this should be interesting, because there is something out there that you will never see. How does that make you feel?
Highlights from a Enjoyable Trip Back to School
Jul/0812
Sometimes the key to a good time is to not set expectations. Just show up, roll with the punches and have a good time. I did exactly that and had a lot of fun and participated in some events that will probably be referenced for years to come. The following are the highlights from my latest State College adventure.
11) Falling asleep on the Old Main lawn.
10) Going to Cold Stone Creamery immediately after eating buffalo chicken fajitas and excessive amounts of chips and salsa at Chilis.
9) Going to Taco Bell at 2:55 am, watching them lock the doors so no one else can come in, eating 3 burritos and then discussing how it would probably be a good idea to induce vomiting to save our bodies a Taco Bell hangover.
8] Getting into the bottle shop literally seconds before they locked the door for the night, followed by drinking in the hotel lobby while watching people complain that it is only 1:45am and the bottle shop should still be open and then watching Derrick trade 3 Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beers for $10 thus making the other 3 beers of his six-pack essentially free.
7) Turning a nearly early night into a late late one simply by trying to have a political discussion with 2 Republicans.
6) Learning that I know nothing about politics but continuing to make bold statements anyway just to get a rise out of the 2 Republicans.
5) Claiming that I could long jump 18 feet and then having everyone call me out on it and participate in actually measuring out 18 feet in the hotel lobby.
4) Sitting in Dunkin Donuts for an hour, people watching (more like people gawking) and wondering what the couple making out across the street was going to do.
3) Going back to Waring Commons to eat lunch and enjoy the nostalgia of the dining hall.
2) Everything else…
-hanging out with fun people
-drinking tasty beverages
-throwing plastic darts
-hitting wiffle balls
-shooting pong with my bro
-looking at art I can’t afford
-eating pokey sticks
-sleeping on the floor of a hotel room
-drinking big-ass margaritas at Mad Mex (“I’ll have the yellow one”)
-forcing myself to run
-waiting 3 hours for my brother to get in touch with me after calling him 12 times
-drinking Dunkin Donuts iced coffee
-wondering why anyone would stand in line to go to Indigo (formerly Players)
1) Realizing yet again that it was never State College the town that made college fun but rather the good times spent with good people. That is something that can hold true for the rest of my life as I go back to visit. As long as I’ve got good people to join me, it will be a successful trip.
I Kicked a Chipmunk
Jul/081
1) Congrats to John and Sarah on finding, bidding and accepting a house in State College. It looks like a nice place and I’m very happy for them. Now it is time to sign lots of papers. This is an example of when I think it is ok to buy a house for two reasons. First, I benefit because now I have friends living in SC and that is awesome. Two, they are both moving to start a new life and probably have a family and all and I think families do better in homes rather than rentals. I have no real basis for making that statement buy I make it anyway.
2) I stayed committed to the training and went on a run in State College this afternoon. It was incredibly not a good day for running. Very hot and a bit humid. It was a pleasent run though with respect to the scenary. I was going to run from our hotel to Walmart on North Atherton but made a change of plans as I ran down the hill from Sunset Park. On a side note, the woods smelled really nice and the path made me think back to all of the times I traveled on it for football games, runs and walks back at 2am from the bars. The change I made was to turn right at the bottom of the hill to follow a nice finely chipped stone path. Along this path a chipmunk ran out in front of me and without trying or changing my stride my foot kicked part of the chipmunk. It was kind of funny.
3) Back on Blue and White weekend I felt very disappointed post trip. State College felt very foreign for whatever reason. Because of that experience, I was a little apprehensive about coming up here and what the trip would be like. However, last night was pretty fun. I had lots of laughs with good friends, a bunch of good beers, a surprising run-in with an old friend (Josh Glace), a little time spent with my brother, some pong, some Pokey Sticks, a 40 of Hurricane and a nice spot on the floor of the hotel room. No complaints.
4) I take it back, 1 complaint. I sat outside of McLanahan’s waiting for my brother to get done with work and I observed some people walking by. I felt annoyed after watching people for about 10 minutes. The best way to describe it is that all of the guys looked really young and like cocky ass-clowns and all of the girls looked like skanked-out whorey whores. It made me wonder if everyone looked like that when I was in school. I couldn’t really remember and probably didn’t take the time to notice.
Busy Week
Jul/080
I’ve seen calendars much worse than my own, but this was probably one of the more meeting-filled weeks I’ve experienced. I think that after tomorrow I’ll have been in 30+ meetings. Fortunately, I was not in any meetings to plan a meeting. Most importantly, a handful of actual decisions got made.
