Night Swimming

Originally posted on the Indianapolis Star Blog "Tales of a Hoosier Ex-Pat"

When you're a kid, there are certain benchmarks that define the year. For me, the summer always had an ebb and flow with some major annual events.

Memorial Day Weekend – Indy 500 and the unofficial start of summer
Last Week of June – Thunder on the Ohio
Fourth of July – Midpoint of summer
Last week of July/First Week of August – Family Vacation
August 17 – My Birthday
Labor Day Weekend – Frog Follies and the unofficial end of summer

As I have gotten older and moved away from Indiana, Thunder and the Follies have become more of a nostalgic concept rather than a seasonal marking of time, and I haven't had a full family vacation since 1987. However, I still view my birthday as the white flag for summertime. This summer was a lot like watching Casino, I sat around and waited for it to start and then it was over. Don't get me wrong. In my old age, and living in an apartment that lacks air conditioning, I'm not overjoyed by sweltering days with 1000% humidity. I'm not really ready to let go of this summer. Not just yet. I really like the fall, but I can put it on hold for a little bit. It's not like my 35^th year was not all roses. D and I had to push back the wedding again, and I became victim 3, 593, 293 of the economy. I really need a fresh start to a new year.

Since I first got Automatic for the People, I have always equated the song "Night Swimming" to my birthday. It's a sentimental song about the end of an era. The song, and the day never used to hit me that hard until about 4 years ago.

There are many things that I am going to miss. I'm going to miss riding my bike in decent weather. I'm going to miss the smell of sun screen. I'm going to miss trying to figure out when the Cubs are going to blow it again. I'm going to miss not hearing from the blowhards in this state go on and on about the stinkin' Vikings. The unbelievable feeling of drinking a cold glass of water will be lost soon, and I'm going to deal with space heaters and frozen cars.

Now, my major events run like this.

October 15 – The average date of the first day of snow
May 3^rd – The latest day of snow in my 7 years in Minnesota
June 1^st – The first of a maximum of 115 days where doing something outside doesn't suck

As REM said in that song "September's coming soon." Happy Birthday to me.

Vegas III, In Review

Usually, I would get excited about going to Las Vegas. I pepper my blog with Pre-Vegas themed entries (such as Top 5 Vegas Movies, and Vegas Tips). That is if I know if I am going in advance. I found out about the latest and third trip to the real city that never sleeps about an hour and a half before takeoff. I had plans with my fiancée to celebrate her birthday (Thursday), wander around the Uptown Art Fair (Friday), and see one of my favorite bands, Flogging Molly, at the Irish Fair (Saturday). But first, we were going to pick up a friend of hers from high school at the airport on Wednesday night.

When we get there, I spotted my best man and one of my poker buddies. Confused, I asked the natural question.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"You're going to Vegas."

"I'm not going to no Vegas. I'm not packed."

"Yeah, you are," D said as she popped the trunk and pulled out my suitcase, and my computer bag (which I still want to know how she did that without me knowing). "It's your bachelor party."

It slowly started to dawn on me that D's plans for a weekend were not only a cover, but prevented me from making other plans. There was no friend of hers at the airport; it was just to get me to drive out there with her. So three friends of mine (and one we'd meet with out there) flew away to the Ian Shane preferred vacation spot. Lots of things were going on for the trip, so I'll just give you the Reader's Digest condensed version of the trip.

-Had a great room at the Luxor, however I found it amusing that they were trying to brand themselves as the "green" casino by installing energy efficient lights and a requesting that we re-use towels to save water. Keep in mind that this is the casino that has 7 high powered lights that shoot a beam into the air for no real reason.

-Playing poker in Vegas is not as scary as you would think. The prevailing logic is that the best of the best go there to play. It's poker Top Gun, and if you are a middle of the pack kind of player (which I am), then you'll lose quickly and you won't have any fun. The truth is that you're not going to find Dan Harrington playing a $52 dollar buy in tournament at the Lux, or a 1-2 no limit game. The fact is poker rooms are usually populated with drunken rubes and first timers. These are the people who watched maybe one or two WSOP tape delays and thought "This is easy. Anybody can do this." The way they play makes you believe that they would be more than willing to give you their money directly, but since poker room rules prohibit such acts of charity, they'll limp into a pot with a pocket Jack/4. If you play a patient game (which I admit, I didn't the last night there…fatigue was starting to set in.) you can walk away with a bit of money. I was up 100 bucks in 45 minutes in 1-2 no limit the first time I played.

-I don't care what the "How to Play Blackjack" books say about odds, when a dealer shows a six, nine times out of ten, the under card is a five, and the dealer will pull a face on the draw. Conversely, when you have an 11 and you double down, you'll draw a two 90% of the time.

-Never, never, NEVER play roulette. It's a game specifically designed to draw in newbies and rubes who think that they can beat the odds.

-Girls who wear the "Las Vegas Hottie" T-shirts aren't fooling anyone.

-Las Vegas is Spanish for "The Buffet". Which if you are looking for a great place to have a reception dinner after your Vegas wedding, it's not a bad place to be. You're paying 26 bucks a person, and you let the guests decide what they want. You don't have to painstakingly go through menu options. As long as your jerky guests don't do the annoying clinking of the glass to get the bride and groom to kiss, then you're welcome anytime.

-Pound for pound, I still say that Fremont is the place to be. I love the old school Vegas. We played poker at the Fitz, and it was the highlight of the gaming portion of the trip (although it may be the highlight because I finished better than everyone else in the party, and sixth out of 33 entrants).

-Trip highlight was the Diana Krall show at the Palms. The show was great, and her version of "Jockey Full of Bourbon" was lights out. If there's a Tom Waits song being performed by someone other than Waits, then it damn well better be Diana.

By the time we got on the plane, I was ready to leave that wretched place, and looking forward to the next time I go.