Just landed in Vegas and eagerly awaiting Mark’s arrival. Ezra comes in a few hours and we’ll kick off “Ezra’s Retirement Party Weekend” at the Bellagio this year! Planning on unplugging - not checking email, not checking Facebook. Looking forward to feeling the warm sun again after a tough, long, cold winter…

…so the weekend is drawing to a close and what a weekend its been.

Thursday kicked off with a bad start on the games. Dayton beat Stanford and Wisconsin beat Baylor. We went heavy on Baylor and made mistakes on the over/under. We did much better on the late games as Florida handled UCLA and Arizona managed to get by South Dakota State. We were all pretty tired after that. Honestly, I don’t remember if we played any blackjack after that, but I think we walked to Niketown and ate at the Cheesecake factory at Caesar’s.

Friday we actually rallied and took a cab to UNLV to play basketball, so the tradition continues. We all huffed and puffed our way through, but it is always a blast. Then we came back and go some pool time in. We were stuck in front row seats in the sportsbook Thursday night, so we reserved space in the sportsbook lounge area for Friday’s games. I was too focused on UConn/Iowa St to care much about Michigan/Tennessee game, but that one came down to the last possession (unfortunately, Mark and Ezra were on the wrong side of that one). UConn managed to hold off Iowa St, so everything after that was gravy. Mark and Ezra went heavy on Michigan St over Virginia, which paid off, but Louisville over Kentucky didn’t work out so good.

Friday night blackjack was fun as we played for a while (with a bunch of young guys in oxford shirts and blazers smoking cigars and clove cigarettes, who we sarcastically deemed, “The Whiffenpoofs”).

Saturday morning started at the fitness center and then off to the buffet. We stuffed ourselves amply and discussed everything from us moving east to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We got some more pool time in, then back for another round of games. We did well as Dayton just managed to cover against Florida and Wisconsin beat Arizona. 

Afterwards, we ventured over to Planet Hollywood to check out a billiards/ping pong/darts place, but it sucked. We played a little blackjack there, but didn’t win so we walked through the Cosmopolitan casino to check it out. Very young and drunk crowd, most teetering precariously on high heels and pushing the limits of their evening wear. We stumbled upon a $15 blackjack table as we were leaving and Ezra and Mark sat down (I had “exhausted” the money I brought back at Planet Hollywood).

I watched for a while and was contemplating walking back to the room because my foot was hurting and the smoke was bothering my contacts, but eventually Ezra offered to buy me into the table for $100. We weren’t doing particularly well, but we were having fun with our dealer (Violetta) and the female lawyers from San Francisco we were playing with.

The three of us were getting more and more drunk as other players came and went. Ezra’s relationship with the diminutive Vietnamese Violetta was very funny (to us anyway) as the evening wore on. Eventually, I hit a hot streak that ran right up until Ezra spilled a glass of champagne on the table, the chips and Violetta. Since I was up so much and the pit boss said it would take while to dry off the chips - and it was about 2:30 am - I suggested we cash in. I cashed out with over $700 and gave it back to Ezra, but he insisted I keep some of the winnings, so we settled on $200. I haven’t seen Ezra that drunk in ages and the walk back we were cracking up over his desire to grab the asses of random women. We made sure he kept his hands to himself and got him to bed. This morning he remembered Violetta and the spill, but not the $700 I won or the need to grope random strangers.

The games were early today and I was anxious about getting a good spot for the UConn/Michigan St game, so I headed to the sportsbook early. It was an amazing game - fast start for UConn, a Michigan St comeback, and then an answer by UConn and they pulled it out for a trip to the Final Four! Huge win, good payoff. Kentucky beat Michigan in a thriller after that, but we were understandably less engaged. Now we’re in the room resting up for a nice dinner then Mark goes home late tonight and I leave early in the morning. Ezra takes off around noon. Great idea for us to stay through Sunday, since we would’ve missed the UConn game otherwise.

It’s been a great time and always makes me sad and anxious when it ends, because I miss those guys so much, but I am looking forward to getting home and seeing the girls and facing some of the anxiety that awaits me back in Indiana.