Vegas, Part 2: Thursday/Friday

The other part of Thursday night's game is that, despite the team being chipper, both Val and I were yawning almost the entire time. I was making jokes that I didn't know which one was going to hold out the longest, and Flirty Mary said her money was on Val. (the nerve!)

Friday morning, I woke up pretty early, and got antsy, so I went out for a Power Walk before we left for breakfast. I walked around the whole hotel area, which had lots of lovely paths and green lawns. I did one set of stairs by the casino and decided "That's enough of THAT," and circled back. I found a lap pool that was open (the main pool was closed), and figured out you have to enter and exit through the fitness center, which was pretty good-sized but a teeny bit shabby. Made a vow to go to Target and get a swimsuit (didn't happen).

We went to Terrible's for breakfast buffet, but were caught by our arrival time between breakfast buffet (already closed) and lunch buffet (not open yet). We had table service instead, and I had tasty Eggs Benedict, always a favorite. Roomie and I both ordered coffee and got our own full carafes right on the table. Suhweet. Not so suhweet was the offer of non-dairy liquid creamer in half-and-half-looking little tubs. Eew. This was true everywhere in Vegas, for some reason.

As we walked down the stairs after breakfast, we spotted a TV screen that had an image of a hotel burning. It took us a while to wake up and realize the screen said "in Las Vegas." Wow! I never did see it burning, but one of the teams in the game before the Burninators' had been staying in the Monte Carlo, and they went into their game not even knowing if their stuff was burnt to a crisp. Luckily, no one was harmed and they got moved to the Luxor without trouble.

This one was a squeaker: 2-2 until the end, when a late goal won the game for the Burninators. I believe this was the Rebound Game: their goalie stopped every first shot, and the only chance for scoring was off the rebounds. Very exciting.

After that game, I called my friend who happened to be in town to see when we should get together. She was planning on dinner and a show ("O" from Cirque du Soleil) and thought we should meet for drinks at 10, or when they got out of the show. "I can push on through,"I thought. But we were both relieved when we canceled, especially when she realized 10PM in Vegas is 1AM in Georgia. We rescheduled for lunch the next day.

So, footloose and fancy free, I transferred to the graffiti'd van to go with many others to The Gun Store. All of the others were there to shoot machine guns, which you apparently can't do around here, but I just wanted to shoot a gun to see if I could. I asked for a gun that would fit my hand (as others told me that some guns are just too big for most women's hands) without a lot of kick that I could shoot accurately.

I was given a Glock 9mm. You can see how I did here. The guy who told me how to stand etc. was completely humorless, but when he retrieved my paper target, told me that it would qualify me for such-and-such certificate--which is a little scary, given that I had never shot a real gun before that day. I do admit to being proud of my shooting (that hole in the center of the heart? my first shot), but the percussive sound of my shots and everyone else's in the gallery made me jump every. single. time. I really just wanted to know I could do it, and I came away with that knowledge as well as the knowledge that it was a damned good thing I never signed up for the military, as I would have been a quivering ball in the corner in any gun exercise. I did get to watch Viv shoot one of the machine guns, and see actual fire coming out of the sides of the nozzle. Whoah.

That night was the team dinner, which I'd thought I'd be missing to have dinner with my friend. I was happy to be able to make it, but felt sad that Liz had to miss it to play with another team. The Wynn buffet was $40, which is pricey for me, so when they said they could only seat us together in a side room, and only with an 18% gratuity slapped on, I hesitated. Andrea gave the nod, and when I realized it was only $6, I was happy to pay it. That was a great choice. We had a nice room, easy seating, and the food was (Liz, don't read this) absolutely amazing. I think there was one thing that wasn't actually superb. I had a good time getting six desserts, splitting them all down the middle, and selling the extras to my neighbors. They even had veg sushi for folks like me. Really nice. I mean, really awful, I swear, Liz.