Monday, October 05, 2015

Not Exactly Living the Good Life at the Moment

Welcome to you from a comfy bed in The LINQ in Las Vegas. It is mid afternoon and I have been in bed for about 18 hours. And no -- I did not find some hooker with extended stay rates!

The precursor to the trip was a challenging day Saturday. After going to the local Humane Society with my family to pick up our new puppy, I had lunch and then went into work to take care of several tasks I needed to complete before heading out of town: writing a blog post for my employer's blog, reconciling financials for September, approving time cards, doing operational planning for 2016-2017 ... Sometimes the hardest part of taking a trip is all the crap you have to do at work to allow you to go on the trip!

I got home and, since my wife was out, got to re-experience some of the real fun of having a new puppy: cleaning up pee and poop! I then had some home tasks to take care of, and began to pack, leaving myself virtually no time to sleep before my 7:30 a.m. Sunday flight.

I most often fly Southwest out of Midway airport in Chicago -- about 150 miles away -- but this trip was on American Airlines, which allowed me to take a short commuter flight to Chicago O'Hare. The five mile drive to the airport was certainly appreciated! However, I had to deal with travel on American. American has always treated me well, but because it has a charge for checking bags (which Southwest does not), many of the travelers on board bring outrageously large carry ons onto the plane. And ... American has a First Class section, and I was forced to watch those passengers being treated like royalty while I suffered in Coach with the other schlubs. I was reminded of the excellent Seinfeld episode when Jerry was in First Class and Elaine was in Coach (first four minutes of this video):


Of course, now people in Coach don't even get the crappy meal they once did many years ago.

I got into Las Vegas and checked in at The LINQ. The LINQ's former "VIP Registration" area, where we lowly Platinum members could register, is now called "Diamond Registration." I went in to register and was politely directed to the regular registration area. It looks like Caesars Entertainment continues to crap on members below Diamond status.

I had lunch with Pete P Peters at the Yard House and then went with PPP to play some poker at Harrah's. What a crappy table! One guy was running off his mouth non-stop and speaking very loudly the entire time. V blogger The Trooper sat down to play at the table and got into it with a Patriots sports fan sitting next to him. Nothing went right and I started the trip on a losing note. I also started feeling kind of sick, but I figured it was just the accumulated fatigue from the past few days.

I went to the work conference I had come for that was at Caesars Palace, then left as I was feeling terrible. I am pretty sure I got minor food poisoning from my salad at Yard House. I went to sleep at 9:00 p.m. (YES - 9:00 p.m.!) and had a terrible night consisting of many things that would be graphically gross to put in print.

So ... I have not had anything to eat or drink except water for the past 24 hours. I hope to get some dinner in a few hours, although I have no idea what  I might be able to eat. I missed a full day at my conference and hope to be able to go tomorrow.

But ... I am in Las Vegas and hope to have some fun before heading home on Friday. I just hope the ol' sea legs return quickly.

16 Comments:

Blogger Rob said...

What the heck is the Yard Arm? Do you mean Yard House??

So sorry to hear the PPP (or maybe it was the Trooper?) poisoned you. It sucks to be sick in Vegas. Hope you can recover quickly.

Get some chicken soup. It couldn't hurt!

5:40 PM  
Blogger cokeboy99 said...

Get well soon sir....there's not much worse than being sick on vacation, alone, in Las Vegas....

5:51 PM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

Thanks for the correction. I am surprised I didn't mess up more stuff.

The Trooper did not really respond to a comment I made at the table: "Hey - wait a minute. Aren't you that famous poker blogger ... Tony Bigcharles?"

5:52 PM  
Blogger Memphis MOJO said...

Get well, win money, have fun. It's easy.

9:35 PM  
Blogger angerisagift said...

Yard House should of had In and Out burger professor

11:48 PM  
Blogger Poker & Gambling 24/7 said...

Is there some reason you choose to stay at The Linq? I am also a platinum member but have free options at Ballys, Rio, Flamingo, Harrahs, Paris, and The Linq, but I would have to pass on the last choice unless it was my only option in Las Vegas, then I might go somewhere else :)

3:43 AM  
Blogger FlushhDraw said...

Hope you start feeling better soon

4:14 AM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

WEC - My poker and gambling -- and especially my trips to Caesars properties -- have decreased a lot since I added some responsibility at work 3 1/2 years ago. As a result, I have not accumulated many tier points and am only currently platinum because of my Total Rewards credit card. And even when in Las Vegas, I have been playing poker more at MGM properties. My free room offers at Caesars properties have mostly dried up. My brother has also not been going, and he usually got more free rooms than me, and using our Total Rewards cards together we have lots of options.

I stayed at The LINQ my last trip because it was the least expensive place mid-strip for me. I am attending a convention this time and the convention hotels are Caesars Palace and The LINQ. If I had the free choices you have, I would stay at Paris or Bally's.

Perhaps I need to play some VBJ (if I could find one of dem GOOD machines) to put myself in better standing with Caesars.

6:52 AM  
Blogger Kat Martin said...

Ah the Harrah's Pats fan. He gets into it with everyone.

4:58 PM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

He certainly seemed to overreact and get vulgar too quickly.

7:15 PM  
Blogger thundering36 said...

Remember the good old days when we'd get comped rooms at Wynn or Encore or Bellagio or Paris or NYNY or... :-(

9:15 PM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

thundering - Unreal. I was just talking with PPP about the "old days" and then saw you made this comment.

11:41 PM  
Blogger Poker & Gambling 24/7 said...

Well thank you for discussing, and I hope you are feeling much better!! Maybe give a shot at playing poker and a couple dollars slot machines/table games at the Venetian and I think you will find some free offers in your mailbox.Good Luck

5:02 PM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

Believe it or not, The LINQ has turned into a great place to stay. It is difficult to believe it used to be such a craphole when it was IP. Can't beat the location and price -- for those of us who don't currently have comped rooms.

10:21 AM  
Blogger Doufous said...

I stayed at Linq in June and was surprised to see the rooms. Never thought they could upgrade those rooms, but they did a great job. The elevators are still an issue. But as Lighting said...location and price makes it a great choice.

2:12 PM  
Blogger Tino said...

Sounds like what you were stricken with was the Norovirus. I got it once in Atlantic City. Very similar to how you described getting it. I have read conflicting reports that some say you can only get it once, and others say you can get it more than once. I have only had it once and so has everyone else I know who has had it. It is similar to seafood poisoning. Good luck for the rest of your trip.

9:30 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home