Friday, 20 July 2001 6:00pm

H

appy birthday to me! Yes, today is my 24th birthday. I was born in Brooklyn, NY at 9:31pm EDT... which means that in one hour I will officially be 24 years old, thanks to time zones. Well, I spent Wednesday and Thursday night at Treasure Island. I had high speed internet access there but I had a hard time uploading things from there due to some proxy system they have set up.
Treasure Island was sort of like a mini-Mirage... the room itself was of comperable quality, but some of the other amenities like the pool and the buffet were not even close to the same quality. The buffet actually, was straight up disappointing. It was tiny, and had very little selection. On the upside, I think it's baout $5 cheaper than the one at the Mirage. The pool was okay, I mean it wasn't bad in the least, but nothing close to the sprawling oasis they have next door.
The view from my room was nothing to write home about, looking straight east. I think the only thing of note that I could see looking straight out my window was the Elvis-A-Rama museum. But if I got really close to the window and at a crazy angle, I did get a view of the north Srip.
The other night I decided to check out some of the locals casinos, and ended up winning a free 6 pack of Coke from Sam's Town with a little mini cooler too! Woohoo. And last night... well while hanging out in Downtown (no it's not the ghetto) Las Vegas, I ran into this group and man, one of their (female) friends was pretty damn cute. Unfortunately, they were all going back to Hawaii where they are from very early the next morning, so not a whole lot happened there.
Right now though, I just checked in to the Stratosphere, where I will be able to actually upload this update. They just opened up a brand new tower with 1000 rooms, and I am staying in one of the rooms. This place just plains smells new. I can smell the new carpet, new curtains, the new everything. New as it may be, this room isn't quite as cool as the mini-suite I got here last time. This room doesn't have a real closet -- it has something very similar to what I had in my freshman year dorm room -- a big wooden cabinet with a clothes hanger, but whatever. It still looks and smells new!
All in all, it's been a decent trip, and it actually hasn't been too hot... I think it's stayed under 100 this whole time... not bad for Vegas in the middle of the summer! I should be staying here through the weekend, but who knows. Maybe I'll hit up The Beach with my glows-under-blacklight hair gel that I haven't really gotten a chance to use yet!
Anyway, time to go whoop it up on my birthday!!

Saturday, 21 July 2001 5:00pm

A

hhh man what an ordeal. Just after I wrote that last update I discovered that my phone wasn't able to make out going calls, so I needed to get transferred into a new room, otherwise, how am I gonna dial in? So the front desk sent up a bellman with some new keys for me, so I packed up all my stuff and moved down the hall... only to discover that my new keys did not work in this door!!
So then I went back down to the front desk, and got that situation fixed, and then, went all the way back up to my new room. Yeah. And now I have a crappier view than before too. Boohoo.
As usual, I went to The Beach, as usual, there was a cute girl there, and as usual, I wimped out. The end. And oh yeah that blacklight gel wore out way too fast. And that skanky ho that I've seen there hooking up with marines all the time was there again but didn't hook up with any marines.
Oh and thanks to (Jenny and Cyn (who was in my dream the other night) for sending me e-birthday cards!

2:30am (sunday morning)
Ahh, nerding. I'm sitting here at Lucky's Cafe at the Sratosphere at 1:45am starting this update down here while waiting for my late night $3.95 Ham and Eggs special to come out. This trip has turned out to be ok after all, even though I didn't get nearly as much video footage as I wanted to get. Oh well, I guess I'm just a slacker!! I still haven't decided how long I'm gonna stay in town, but I do know that I'm checking out of Stratosphere tomorrow for sure.
Tonight as I was walking around on the Strip with my camera, I got a wacky notion -- people often seem to ask me to take a picture for them when their whole group wants to be in the picture... and I am always happy to oblige. But starting today... whenever someone asks me that and I have my camera on me too, I will also take their picture with my camera and I'll add it into a collection or something. So far I've gotten two. One was this group of kids, and one of this large family, both near the entrance of the Caesars Forum Shops.

 

Yes, of all the fabulous places I could eat on the Strip, tonight I chose to have dinner at Denny's. Nestled right in there between The Venetian and Harrahs, and across the street from the volcano, the Denny's is located at Casino Royale and is in some prime real estate.
The first time I ever saw it, some years ago, I just had to laugh... what is something as down-home as Denny's doing in a place like that? It just seems so out of place. But the real reason why I am writing this tribute is to honor the people who work there.
During peak hours on a saturday night, this place is straight packed. Packed full of people who can't afford the fancy food, and lots and lots of screaming kids. The line goes practically out the door, and the service might seem slow (and people probably get mad) but tonight as I sat at the bar watching the guys in the kitchen work and the waiters and waitresses coming in and out, I gained a newfound respect for people in this industry, and especially at this specific place.
Each person running in and out are carrying trays just FULL of plates (I don't even know how one would carry that many plates on a tray without spilling anything), and are keeping track of all the details of every order that they are taking care of... talk about multi tasking! And to do this day in and day out is just mindblowing to me. And there are the people who have been doing it all their lives -- they must be so tough cuz I don't think I could last a day doing that stuff. So this is my tribute to you, the employees of the Denny's on the strip -- you guys are incredible.
Oh yeah, it's unmistakeably Denny's, but it's also unmistakably Vegas. Every 15 minutes you hear the rumbling of the Mirage's volcano, and then the constant traffic on the Strip is always there... and at what other Denny's can you get a comped meal for playing some slots or blackjack??