Long Walks

So this weekend was all about family. One of my nieces turned 21 this past week. Her mom decided to bring her and her sister out for the weekend to celebrate. (If that sentence sounds weird, the girls are my step-nieces.) Anyway, on Friday night I headed down to the Rio to meet them all for dinner. It was really nice to see everyone again. Ashley had just returned from spending a semester in London and had plenty of stories to share. After dinner, Liz (the 21 yr old) and I went over to the Mirage to see the Beatles LOVE show.

I saw it the year before with Lori, but I was so ready to see it again. Plus I love the fact that Liz loves Paul McCartney as much as I do. She can be a bit on the quiet side sometimes, but she was pretty chatty the whole time we were waiting for the show to start. Plus, we had to pass the Beatles gift shop on the way to the theater, so we were both pretty excited to go in after the show ended.

Once the show was over and we had loaded up on all our Beatles swag, we headed back to the Rio to pick up Ashley. Ashley (who just turned 19) wanted to walk the Strip and take pictures. When am I finally going to remember to carry flip flops in my car? I should totally stop typing right now and go put a pair in my trunk. Needless to say, my super fun leopard print high heels were less than super fun at that point. We stopped in the gift shop at the Rio to see if I could pick up a cheap pair there. I should have known better. $30 for a pair of plastic flip flops. Are you kidding me? No way.

So it was time once again for the fallback plan. Thank God that the Strip has a 24 hour CVS. We grabbed a cab and headed over to New York New York so Ashley could get some great pictures on the walkway over Las Vegas Blvd. That done, we started heading up the street. We made a quick stop at CVS so I could pick up my third pair of cheap flip flops ($7) and we were on our way. We stopped at the Bellagio to watch the fountains before heading through Caesar’s and then on to the Venetian. Flip flops or not, it felt like we walked about 3 miles. After sitting in the Palazzo and having some tasty gelato, we were ready to call it a night. Although they stayed the weekend that was the only night I had to see them. It was fun to catch up and I hope the rest of their weekend here was fun.

The next night I had another birthday party to attend. Heidi’s sister was having her birthday party. As usual, I was the driver and Heidi and I made our way out to the JW Marriott resort where they had reserved a 2 bedroom suite for the night. This was my first time inside the place and I had no idea how big it was or the fact that there really is a Rampart Casino (like they mention on CSI) inside. On TV, the Rampart seems to be the location for many nefarious crimes, so I was on high alert for any criminal elements hanging around.

We left the car in Valet and headed in to the elevators. We already had drama going on because apparently, the hotel had double booked the suite and tried to get us to move to another room. When we refused, they said that we weren’t allowed to have a party there and that any reports of noise would result in everyone but the registered guests be removed. What this meant was that everyone that was coming to the now non-party birthday party had to sneak in and avoid the front desk. Especially since it was sort of a pot luck affair and we weren’t using the catering services of the hotel. So Heidi and I (and the contraband onion dip) got in to the elevator and headed up only to find that we were in the wrong tower. Apparently there are 2. Guess where the other one was? On the other side of the resort. So once again I found myself on another long walk through long corridors, the casino, the food area, more long corridors and finally to the other lobby and set of elevators. Luckily, I was wearing better shoes this time.

The size of this suite was twice the size of my apartment. The bathrooms alone were bigger than my living room. The usual crowd was there so at least I wasn’t facing a room full of strangers. There was also a huge wrap around balcony which was good for the smokers. One good thing about being with this group is that they all know that I am the sober driver so they don’t try to pressure me with the inevitable shots of patron they all love to do. I made a very weak drink, grabbed a sandwich and headed out to chat with some girls from the spa. Heidi planted herself at the bar and settled in to have a good time. Too bad that good time was going to end sooner than she anticipated.

I don’t know what she had to eat that day, but it wasn’t enough. The next time I saw her, which was probably no more than 30 minutes after we arrived, I could tell she was drunk. Not a good sign. I told her to eat something and to have some water and to pace herself. But, since I am her friend and not her conscience, she did what she wanted which apparently was to do more shots and beer. The next time I saw her she could barely stand. I think we had been there under 2 hours. I have never seen her that wasted before. All signs indicated this was not going to end well.

So I stepped it up a bit and tried to get her to sit down. I took her fresh beer away from her, took her phone away from her since it was also covered in beer and she kept dropping it. I walked her back inside and her sister and brother in law took her into their room to put her to bed. If she was going to stay the night, then I was free to leave whenever. I decided to hang for a bit longer just to make sure she was out for the night. The next time I went to check on her I found her in the bathroom. For the next couple of hours, I progressed to the “friend that holds your hair” stage. This was a first for us. When she could speak she kept apologizing and telling me to go back to the party and have a good time. Then she would collapse on the floor on her towel and rest until the next round. I of course stayed right where I was and kept telling myself that the hair I kept pulling back from her face was wet from the water…

Meanwhile….back at the party, more drama was a brewin. Apparently, there were a couple of “guests” that decided to go through people’s purses in the other bedroom and look for pills and cash. They were caught in the act. I heard the arguments going on and went to the other room to retrieve our stuff. Nothing appeared to be missing, so at least we didn’t have to deal with that. I didn’t stay to listen to the fallout of that drama, and went back in to stay with Heidi. In the time it took me to leave the room and come back, several people had decided to camp out in the bathroom with Heidi to do one or more of the following: hold her hair, rub her back, ask her if she wanted water, ask her if she wanted to go lay down, ask her how she was feeling, ask her if she was done, blah, blah, blah. As if she was going to answer. I was mortified on her behalf. I understand they all were concerned and wanted to help, but did she really need an audience? Plus, I just remember what it is like to be that ill and THE LAST thing I would want is anyone near me let alone anyone touching me. So I did what I could to hustle them back out again. It was a waste of time. People would leave only to be replaced by more people with more questions and advice on what she should be doing.

Eventually, she seemed ready to leave her place on the floor and try to go to bed. Again, people materialized out of nowhere to help in this effort. Since she was doing better and since I was about to have a coronary, I thought it was probably best to leave. The last time I saw her that night, she was in bed and surrounded by no less than 4 people and they were trying to wrap her up in the comforter on the bed. She was weakly saying that she didn’t want the covers, but apparently everyone helping her knew best what she needed. Then I heard her call for me. I thought she was going to ask me to get her the Hell out of there which I would have gladly done. Instead, she asked me where her phone was. LOL….

I left shortly after and made the long walk back to the Valet. Sunday morning we met up for breakfast and I filled her in on the fun night she couldn’t recall. She seemed to be fine. I would have been miserable for the next week. Ah, youth.