Thanksgiving in Vegas

[JavaMan]

All right people, this is my first TR, so I hope I remember all the details correctly.

So, 2 high-school friends from Mexico decide to visit me, and I think well, what better way to entertain them than in Vegas, right? We have previously traveled to other nice spots, like Europe and South Africa for the World Cup, so I know this couple of guys make for a solid trip. For purposes of this TR, my friends will be from now on referred as Irv and Aze.

Irv: 2nd time to Vegas. Avid gambler who plays blackjack by the book. Fearless after a couple drinks, once made out with a 55 year old lady in Madrid (we are all 30). Vegas highlight: went on a 3 hour stretch that included removing a girl's top at Rain and "playing" with her boobs in the middle of the dancefloor, made out with another girl at the taxi line, proceeded to jump into the little fountain inside the MGM lobby, and finally ended up puking right at the door of his room, spanning both the room and the hallway.

Aze: 1st time to Vegas. The bald guy of the group, nicknamed "The Professor" because of his older looks. Has no idea how to gamble at all. Easily losing his conservative morals when drunk, he is the X factor of the trip.

Daniel (Me): 6th time to Vegas, first after finding this forum. Degenerate gambler, will go on long gambling sprees, but always by the book. Gets the occasional room comp. Easy-going guy, usually serves as the calming voice of the group. Vegas highlight: happened on this trip.

Wednesday night: Irv arrives at LAX and I pick him up, since I'm the one that lives here in LA. His first words to me: "How much cash are you gonna gamble?". This does not bode well for our wallets. Aze will be catching up with us on thursday in Vegas.

Thursday 25th, 8 am: Irv and I depart from LA to make the trip to Vegas, listening to road trip music and catching up with one another. Did I mention that I absolutely love the drive to Vegas? Amazing landscape. As a bit of a science fanatic, it amazes me that a good part of the Mojave, including Death Valley, was once a collection of large lakes. We already bring from LA the pre-gaming bottles, one vodka and one tequila. We stop at Primm for some not-so-quick shopping, and then, to Vegas.
Few things can compare to that last turn in the road where you finally see the casinos... and right away feel the adrenaline rushing through our bodies and do the mandatory "Vegas, baby!!" yells. We immediately decide that we will visit Vegas at least once a year for the rest of our lifes. Safely arriving at the Excalibur (cheap) around 1:30 pm, we meet with Aze in the lobby and check in. As I step out of the car, I can literally feel my lips turning to crust... damn dry weather... and make a mental note to bring choppstick in the next trip.
We decide to take thursday easy, as preparation for friday, our party night. So, we take a re-energizing nap, take a shower, and head down to the New York to the sports bar there, I forget the name. It's the Mexican soccer playoffs (you know how we mexicans get with soccer), so we get a booth, switch the TV to Telemundo, and proceed to order a massive amount of food. What a great meal... soccer in the booth, thanksgiving football and basketball on the giant screens. 2 hours later, around like 8, we head out, fighting a food coma.
Vegas is dead right now (well, as dead as I have seen it anyway). Everybody is having their family dinner. So we decide to walk along the strip so that Aze, an architect, can appreciate the mega-giant casinos. We walk all the way to Caesar's Palace, then head back to the MGM, my favorite gambling spot. Great rules for balckjack. So the gambling begins... and it's a rollercoaster ride. At one point I'm down 380, but by some miracle of the odds I manage to finish the session only down around 50. On the way back to Excalibur, we stop by Coyote Ugly at the New York, only to find it filled with dudes. Ugh. The Nine Fine Irishmen and the Dueling Pianos bar are not much better, so we decide to keep going and gamble some more at the Excalibur. Some more good luck later, I'm exactly even for this first day, and we decide to call it a night.
Overall, pretty relaxing day... not much action going on in Vegas yet, being thanksgiving and all. Luckily, it gets better...

Tally: 4 hrs gambling, dead even

[Meatball]

Set up nicely, looking forward to the rest!

[JavaMan]

Friday 26th, or, Black Holes and Revelations: I continue the TR where I left off. We wake up at 10 on Black Friday and head straight to the Premium Outlets, which are predictably packed. We all go our separate ways, and I take advatage to buy the Christmas presents for my family, plus somethings for myself

For this day, I had made reservations at both Vanity and Tryst, hoping to come to a decision during the day. We were only gonna buy 1 bottle, given that there's just 3 of us. However, while we are in the outlets, Donnie Eversole from Lavo, whom I had contacted previously also inquiring for table reservations, texts me with the offer that can't be refused: B1F1 deal. While we had our doubts about Lavo on a friday, we decide to take the deal, and cancel on Vanity to Corey Negrelli, and on Tryst to Patrick Frank, sending my apologies.

So we get back around 6-ish to the hotel and proceed to shower and change, since we want to gamble a bit more and I want to try a couple of the drinks in my "bucket list" of cocktails that the forum helped me put together in a thread. Vegas is much more alive this day. We head down to gamble, and after a couple hours we are all up, myself up by around 150 dollars.

So, the time is coming to start pre-gaming for Lavo, so I decide to buy an AMF for each one of us. As you will see, turns out this was not one of my best decisions. We down it like it's water, and we proceed to order a second drink, this time an Arnold Palmer. We were not worried about mixing the drinks, apparently. We stopped there, confident in the knowledge that 2 bottles were waiting for us at Lavo. We grab a quick McDonalds, while having discussions about life, girls, and whether or not Hogwarts is the most dangerous school of all time, with all the 50 ft snakes, life-draining dementors, a dark lord on the lose and whatnot... Clearly, the alcohol is starting to manifest itself, as this is not the time to be having such geek discussions. But I digress. Anyway, we make to the Palazzo at 11:30.

I call Donnie, who immediately spots us (he's working the door) and starts setting us up. He calls this other host, tells us that this other host will show us to our table, and with a smile in his face wishes us to have a great night. So I thank him, and we follow the other host inside... and while we still had some doubts about Lavo, we are immediately seduced. The place is packed. Even better, we have a fantastic table, not on the dancefloor, but on a roped-off area, where there are a couple groups of girls dancing away in the sofas. Granted, most tables at Lavo are bound to have good location, this is the advantage of a small club against, say, Pure or XS... but my friends are flabberghasted. They are also impressed that I could get a great table and a great deal in a great club. I silently mumble to myself, "thank you, jackcolton.com". The only black mark? Due to my confusion and inexperience about the process, I give the tip to this other host, instead of giving it to Donnie, who was the one who got us the deal. Donnie, if you are reading, this is Daniel... I owe you a handshake, you came through in a big way. Even before the waitress comes, the security guy drops by and tells us that anything we need, he can help us get it... if you know what I mean. When the waitress comes, we get a Gray Goose and a... a... I don't remember what was the second bottle, but it was a vodka for sure. It takes us all of 15 seconds to reach the conclusion that this was the right choice for a club. So, we start to mingle, chat with the neighbors a little bit, dancing, going to the dancefloor... you know, having a good time. My friend Aze is like a kid in a candy store, only if that kid was bald and horny like a pimple-faced teenager. My other friend, Irv is following his lead. They bring some girls to the table, we are all having a great time, drinking like there's no tomorrow... when things suddenly and not quite unexpectedly take a turn for the worse for me.

These are my recollections of the night:

- There I am, partying it up...
- We start working on the second bottle at some point...
- I suddenly wake up in a hospital bed.

WTF!!!
I did not have the cliched freak out of "where the hell am I!!", but instantly recognize that I'm in the hospital, and my first thought is "shit, I feel like crap". I look around, and Aze is there in the room, sleeping in a chair. Apparently, only me passed out. After about half-hour awake, we get up, I check out, and we take a taxi back to the Excalibur. I look at my watch; 9 in the morning.

I'm in a surprisingly good mood for a guy who is just absolutely hung-over, and Aze recounts for me the events of the night...

Apparently, we completely finished the second bottle and, considering that we had already had some cocktails before, we drank quite a bit, as Aze tells me we didnt give that much alcohol to any ladies. According to him, we are still having a great time, they pulled some girls from the dancefloor and we kept partying with them. He apparently hooked up with one of them, and he gave them my phone number, in order to go out with them the next day. I have no single memory of these last events. But by this time, both he and Irv are also getting extremely drunk... they go to the dancefloor with the girls, leaving me in the table already sitting down. Drunk as they were, they saw fit to grope some girl who happened to be with her boyfriend (that's his unreliable version of the events), and apparently there was some sort of commotion and pushes, and then security threw them both out of the club. As they are arguing about whose fault is it and how they are going to get in touch with me, they see a guy being carried out of the club in a stretcher and into an ambulance... they start making drunken fun out of the poor guy, like "who the hell gets carried away in an ambulance". Then, Irv says "wait, that's Daniel!!!" Turns out, that poor drunken bastard was me. So they ask the driver where are they taking me... "to Valley Hospital", he says.
By this point, they are also very drunk and dont remember everything completely. There are a lot of holes in the night. We have no idea at what time did all this take place, no idea how much time we were at lavo, no clear idea why they got thrown out, and definitely, absolutely no idea how the hell did I end up getting carried away in an ambulance like some sort of crash survivor. Who called the ambulance? why? was I passed out on the floor, drowning in my own puke? did I pulled my pants down and started peeing into someone else's table? It's anyone's guess.
So they both take a taxi to the hospital... only to find that the taxi took them to the university hospital (or something like that... details are very sketchy). They ask the receptionist where valley hospital is, he gives them directions, so they walk out and begin walking looking for another taxi. After what-seemed-to-them a few minutes, they find another hospital, go in and ask the receptionist for me. The receptionist looks at them puzzled, and finally asks, "wait, arent you the same guys that just asked me the same question 30 minutes ago?" !!!! They are so drunk that they walked for half an hour and ended up in the same hospital without realizing it. Long story short, they eventually make it to the right hospital, Irv is almost passing out so he takes another taxi to our hotel, and Aze pulls a chair and falls asleep.

Aze told me all this while were in the taxi going back to our hotel, where we arrive around 9:30. Back in our room, I try to make an inventory of my belongins. My shirt is completely bloody from where the doctors gave me the serum (dont know the word in english, hope that's it). The nurse apparently did a lousy job trying to find my vein. Amazingly, my wallet is still with me, along with my watch. Unfortunately, no trace can be found of my dignity, since I probably lost it when the paramedics put me in the stretcher. Also lost for all eternity, my leather jacket and Aze's jacket.

Before going to sleep, I take a final look in the mirror. Big surprise, I look like shit. However, I do not have a shred of Moral Hangover... after all, this is Vegas, right? And if I'm going to do stupid shit, I might as well do it here and not in the "real world". I finally fall down on my bed. It's 10 am.

Overall, what I can remember qualifies as a great night. We had a good time, one of my friends hooked up, and it was not at all expensive. Thankfully, I cannot remember the embarassing parts. Also, a big shout out to Donnie Eversole, Lavo host, who delivered as promised.

To be continued...

Gambling tally: 6 total hours, +150 for the trip

[Vadiksf415]

Awesome TR, keep it coming.

[Drew]

I think Lavo is going on the list for next trip

[gubuju]

I think Lavo is going on the list for next trip

I think Lavo for sure on Sunday instead of XS during NYE weekend

[mrankimonki]

I think Lavo is going on the list for next trip

oh, for, sure.

[mrankimonki]

awesome TR so far - let's see how sat night goes great read

[YellowandNavy]

Great TR. I been to hospital in Vegas myself back in 2006 after mixing every kind of alcohol i can think of almost thru the entire day. Since than I usually stick around with same type of hard liquor and beer all night.

Im glad you had a great experience at Lavo, I will be checking this place out myself on NYE weekend.

[jsully84]

I think Lavo is going on the list for next trip

That's what I was thinking too. Sounds like Donnie has been taking great care of the JC members.

[WarreN]

lmao Great TR so far!

Props to Donnie for hookin it up! Don't forget to mention him in the host appreciation thread.

[mrankimonki]

I think Lavo is going on the list for next trip

That's what I was thinking too. Sounds like Donnie has been taking great care of the JC members.

supposedly this last sat night was also awesome at Lavo... Donnie took care of Darryll who was hosting a co-worker of mine from Dublin!

[JavaMan]

lmao Great TR so far!

Props to Donnie for hookin it up! Don't forget to mention him in the host appreciation thread.

Done and done. It's the least I can do

[nassau]

Good TR Java Man, enjoyed it.

[yo vanilla]

that's quite an adventure! had a "Hangover" flashback when you woke up in the hospital . any great pics?