I went over to the Hard Rock last night. Well it was Tuesday in Vegas and most things were dead. Then I remembered that there was this place right around the corner called the Double Down Saloon. I was pretty impressed, since it was the closest thing a dive bar like the Old Pink in this town. Although the Jukebox was pretty much heavier music and Punk. The scariest and most fascinating drinks that I have seen are in this place. The speciality "Ass Juice" is a mixture of all the leftover bottles and they feature a "Bacon Martini" seeing the bacon in a bottle was quite a site. I just drank my mainstay Pabst Blue Ribbon. I was seeling like I merged Hardware and the Pink into one weird place. I ended up having some strange conversations with a couple of airline piolts and the bartender. Then again the place was pretty slow.

Then these people from California took me next door to a place called the Buffalo. It was jumping pretty good. I don't know if I should go into more details, but the theme was a Bear night! Pretty exhuasted I made it back to my room @ The HR after my Cali people left.

I have just cooled it on playing table games and slots. The slots have been chewing me up. The one sucessful aspect of this trip has been betting Hockey with my college buddy giving me games. So far we're 4-0 with my laying a lot of lumber yesterday with the Sabres. I don't want to say how much I bet but even though I won, it gave me some good fuel to go out as I did last night just due to the relief.



Tonight I'm off to placed downtown, the first being the Art Bar. Another LJ friend is taking me out and she's probally one of the most fascinating people that I know. I haven't hung out with her since the last couple of times I have been out here. It is never boring that is for sure.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll end up going to the new local casino Red Rock 30 minutes off the strip with my other LJ friend Chad.

I'm totally exhausted right now. I didn't sleep until 10am Pacific time yesterday. So when (e:carolinian) dropped me off at the airport on Monday I didn't get to sleep until 1PM your time on the East coast!!! There is nothing like feeling like a bum in a suit. The night started out @ Mandalay Bay. Originally I wanted to go upstairs to the Foundation Room. It's the most exclusive club in LV that is "Members only" they open it up on Monday nights but it was closed yesterday :-( So I ended up drinking a $12 martini at a bar called Red Square.







So in the most Capitalist city in the world they have a touch of the Kremlin.

After hanging out at Mandalay Bay I ended up going walking down the strip to the Imperial Palace to see my Livejournal Friend Chad since he works the grave shift from 2am-10. We are going to hang out later in the week.

So right now I'm just hanging at the Rio. Going out to the Hard Rock later tonight after dinner and checking out a local bar in the area. I'm pretty much going to lay low on the gambling today. I just need to unwind after my crazy start. So an appointment at the Spa is in order.

This town is awesome and a mindfuck at the same time.

The X-mas spirit finally hit me as I was able to sneak out of work today after about 5 hours. It was dead and after being a nice co-worker and running outside in the cold to grab some starbucks for the room, they let me go. I guess it was the eggnog latte that sugared up my brain for this holiday. So when I was leaving work we had the radio on and that Wham/George Michael X-mas song was playing and just totally infested my head. You know the chorus:

Last Christmas I gave you my heart
The very next day you gave it away
This year to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special, special...

It was about this time last year in which I had a utterly miserable Christmas with my Ex. Ironically I think I did end up going to Vegas but it was only for about 36 hours I think on my Dad's B-day. Well the next day I after I arrived home she dumped me. It's a long story but to be honest I wish she woudl have done it before the Holidays because it was really strained and looking back it was arkward and sucked.

So this year I ended up meeting my best female friend Deb for a blended starbucks beverage shared a X-mas gift and just had a nice conversation. Which was fun as she had her family stuff to do.

Then I hurried as I remembered the message from my Aunt/Uncle in Canada inviting me over for dinner. I was a bit late but I arrived right when they were finishing up and I just had a bit of a Polish traditional item, herring. I chomped down the still warm meal and then just enjoyed my 3 adolescent cousins and my aunt's immediate family. To my surprise they actually bought me gifts! It was a very nice and pleasant surprise, since they know that my family doesn't do the exchanging of gifts thing. The one shirt they my cousin A* gave me I am actually going to take with me and wear in Vegas.

For the first time in years I actually experienced a normal Christmas Eve. Yea in about 9 hours I'm going to off to Vegas but still to be in a festive envirionment was great.

As I write this I'm just reliving an old Florida Tradition and watching/listening the Mass from the Vatican on NBC. I remember coming home the last time I actually went to church and catching the JP2 in his fraile state. I am actually missing him this year and it feels strange to say since I haven't been to church in years.

The other trigger of a Ghost of X-mas past was drivng up through Canada and listeing to Star 102. They had some "X-Mas from Disney" Staring Terri Hatcher of Desperate Housewives. Pretty much the show as old time Christmas songs and some product placement. What does Johnny Depp and The Pirates of the Carribean have to do with Christmas? THe really creepy part was they were actually selling the idea of taking the family to Walt Disney World in Florida for the Holidays. They were just pounding how great and remarkable WDW is for the Holidays ect.

Back when my the last of my grandparents passed on we actually did what they were selling long before they ever came up with this marketing campaign on radio. I just remember being in some newely built hotel in Walt Disney World. I don't think I was quite 18 but I had a great fake ID back then. What I do remember was I had bought a pack of Salem Ultra Lights at the gift shop and ended up going out back to this Jacuzzi that was part of our room. It is funny remembering the begging of my sister not to tell my parents that I was smoking.

The other part of htis holiday that has me all nostolgic is the music. Now what I really can't get enough of is the old school artists.

I had this old 33 as a king that had Gene Autry doing Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. Bing Crosby, Do you hear what I hear. Dean Martin, White Christmas. Burt Ives, A Holly Holly Christmas. Margaret WHiting & Jimmy Wakely, Silver Bells.

To me that is part of the music. Listeing to stuff from artists that you wouldn't listen to at all during the year. Remembering relatives from long ago from Christmas long past.

Other notables I love hearing this time of year. Bing Crosby and David Bowie doing Drummer Boy. Anything from The Carpenters, Karen is just haunting with her voice. that cheesy Paul McCarthney X-mas song isn't that bad simply having a wonderful Christmas Time. Although to me it just doesn't hold a candle to that John Lennon song, So this is Christmas.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

I just want to get out to Las Vegas so badly right now I can feel it. My parents left this morning for Florida and they'll be there when I arrive on Monday. Right now I am trying to plan out my suitcase but as it stands right now I am just trying to get myself to just carry-0n but I am not leaving myself any room for anything I may aquire when I'm out there. The shopping out there to me is just as good as the gambling. Strolling through Nordstrom and Nieman Marcus is just as fun since I have no clue where the nearest location of any of those stores is to Buffalo.

But I am just trying to figure out what to bring since I may attempt to go clubbing. On Sunday there were these 2 guys from Germany playing Poker and they were wearing these nice Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts. So I asked them if they've been to Vegas since I'm staying at the LV Hard Rock for a couple of nights. They told me that they picked them up at the one in Tampa and are going to be there at the end of Dec the same time that I am going to be there. So I gave them my # and we shall see if they call. Hopefully these guys will turn out to be wing men or at least good for splitting a cab. This could be quite interesting.

On another note I'm a bit disappinted that I will no longer be able to listen to Randi Rhodes :-( It's too bad that Air America is not in Buffalo any longer, although she was really the only show that I listened to on that station. Al Franken was hit or miss sometimes and the other shows on that station were not captivating at all. I remember when I first did a wiki search on her I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw her picture.

She was not at all when I expected, in fact I thought she looked like a knockout. Then again I think I may have a secret fetish for women from NYC. There is something about that accent. Couple that with someone that most likely has a strong secure personality and crying, "Oh, Gawd!" when they're turned on it just makes me melt. On a related note when I turned my phone on this morning I had a voicemail from A* the NYC chick that I spent the weekend with back at the end of August wishing me a early Merry Christmas; That was an excellent start to the day.

Not as much of a Ghetto these days with a new Starbucks. There is a Starbucks in Niagara Falls and Monday was it's first day in operation. I had to stop in today since it is really the only viable business in walking distance of work that is not a bank or a bar and I just had to be there for the first day. Although I am glad that I am feeling like I lost a pound or two today by drinking that stuff I have to be at work at 7:30am today.

This is what happens when you are a lightweight coffee drinker. I think I'll just stick to my Tazo tea and Jones Cola.

Need quick sleep and a break from being way too wired for my own good.

ARG!

I always get creeped out by that little HSA Holiday Service Message that they play once in a while. Although I see the whole message of "From our families to yours..." idea going on at the same time it always made me think about their lives the other 11 months out of the year.

This may sound creepy but I always wondered about the shots of the reporters and anchors that are with their dog or stuffed holiday themed animal. The one reporter that I have always thought was one of the hottest women in the world was Ellen Maxwell. Ever since she joined ch 4 after WGR 55 went to all sports and news was no more she was always single with just a rain deer in those holiday shots. This year she is with a guy and hopefully it's not her brother. I actually feel a bit sad that someone so amazing as her hasn't found that one and only guy. What separates me from being a weirdo stalker is that I don't ever think in a million years it would be me. I only meet her once at the farewell party of the Larry Hunter show. It's more of being a nerd that I really empathize for her since here I am a guy in his 20's listen to news/talk radio.

So I find it quite ironic that I am worrying about a hot news babe finding a guy in her life when in reality I don't have anyone. Am I more of a compassionate person? Or do I consider myself chopped liver? Heck, I could be worrying about the lonely people on (e:strip).

Last night I ended up hanging in a Dive Bar in the Falls. It was a bit interesting to see a place still stuck in the 1950's but I was a bit leary of the people in the place not counting my Ex. The old guy that owned the place and his daughter behind the bar seemed like they operated the place for the love of it. The upside was the old guy was quite passionate about selling his tacky merchandise that he accumulated; it was a blast to see this walking singing Santa walk on the bar of the price of $15 dollars. The downside was this was a local watering hole for worn out people so the smoke was pretty bad. If I wanted to smell like a butt can I would have went to the pink and enjoyed great music and had interesting people to look at instead of old bar hags and senior citizens.

After receiving a call from my buddy Peter I ended up stopping by the Brickyard on the way home. It was packed but there was just a negative vibe in the air. The dude from my H.S. class was there, he had been there since 5pm and it was 11! How do these people do it I have no clue. It was typically a local night out except for a few strangers. It was just weird, my buddy was cut off due to an argument he had with his neighbor about his dumping activities on his property that apparently blew up before I arrived. After hanging out with a table of acquaintances I witnessed a fight! The last one I witnessed in this place was about 4 years ago. Apparently some old 40ish year old guy called some spoiled girl Ugly and the next thing I saw was him chocking her as they were taking it outside. Totally messed up. Where do these people come from? I'm almost happy I'm working this weekend now, Yikes.

This has to be quick as I need to be out the door soon.

I did have a good walk today after work (e:theecarey) it was pretty refreshing and uplifting. It was just like May but much darker in relation to the time of evening.

When I was out I did end up getting a call form a guy that I know from High School. Since I was going out to dinner at a local bar/restaurant I decided to meet him and this other guy that I went to High School with and some random woman. Back in the day I really wouldn't hang with these guys, but we were always alright to each other. It is just strange to see guys my age that have kept the whole going out 4 time a week thing going past 30. The kicker is that one of them is married and still hangs out in local bars here with pretty attractive women. SO after dinner I hung out with them and watched 2 periods of the game.

Now I go to work, meet my new Dr. and get psyched for Vegas. It seems that there is a bout of Holiday stress going around (e:strip). I wish I could cheer everyone up.

So I didn't do much of anything today and it felt great. I have only worked 1 our of the last 5 days and I'm feeling great. My skin is looking better and I sneezed out allot of the gunk that I breath in on a daily basis. All I can think is I need to get out of what I'm doing soon. Although I have been saying that for a while this just proves how much better off I could be.

For the moment I can get through the next little while until the Holiday. When I get back I just don't know what I'm going to do. It's just with 2 people soon to go out on maternity leave my schedule is going to go down the dumpster. Time for a move.

It's just today was a bit creepy. Going to Tops at 11am and being the only person shopping that wasn't riding on a scooter was not a good feeling at all. On my way to work to drop off a proposal I ended up stopping by a OTB and when I went in there I just didn't feel it at all. The worst part of it was the horse that I intended to bet on from the tip from TVG ended up winning the first @ Bay Meadows. I was 5 minutes too late. Then looking around the environment of a typical western new work off track betting branch I high tailed it out of there, the horse would have only paid even money anyway.


The highlight of the day was I ended up going to Wegmans later in the evening and ran into an old friend from years back @ NU. She's doing OK with her hubby out in Burt, looking for a job, etc. Then I ran into my co-worker G* of which was an interesting conversation for about 40 minutes in the middle of the grocery store.

Well I'm just going to try to type up some loose ends and try to go to bed.

Full of a wide range of emotions that I can't really pinpoint. Finals week for starters and to be honest I don't know where that is going to go. I have an open book compressive exam tomorrow and I have no clue on what or where to study.

A friend of mine that is getting laid off from the SBA has come up with an interesting business plan and I'm doing my best to make sure I can put a couple extra bucks in my pocket.

I'm totally anxious about Las Vegas.

It's not that i need to get laid but currently I have that raw energy similar to it that could be quenched by breaking out of my comfort zone and taking a gamble. The feeling of your stomach dropping down to the floor a la roller coaster style is something I wish I could have at the moment. It's just that finding it at the moment is a bit ambiguous.

It's just that need for an endorphin rush. I could get it by landing a new job, hooking up with a hot woman or betting $10000 and winning.

Oh, and I have Howie Day's "She Says" stuck in my head at the moment. Why I don't know!