Atlantic City! Hooray!
Almost since I started my tenure at the good ol' P&P WAU, my boss Johnny Fortune (yes, that's his real name) has been trying to get Bobby and I to go to Atlantic City with him. As if the name didn't imply it, Johnny is quite the skilled gambler--if it's truly skill and not luck--but he has untangled all the ropes in Atlantic City, and so Bobby and I were more than eager to take advantage of his invitation....
Bobby and I were talking a while back about taking a weekend to go to Ocean City, Maryland, just the two of us. We have a five-day holiday to OC coming up in August, with Harry Potter and my sister-in-law Erin (and possibly, other nerds), but we wanted a weekend for just us. The only problem is that Ocean City has gotten so expensive, even for just two people, and we're trying to save for the upcoming Big Trip in August...so Johnny suggested that we go "up the way" instead, with him. And the best part? Johnny has so many comps saved up that he got us our room for free in the Tropicana casino, 43rd floor, in a corner room with views of both the ocean and the city.
Te Hotness!
Of course, the weekend started last week with all that hullabaloo in London, and Bobby's agency went to 24-hours. And so, while we intended to leave as soon as I got home from work on Friday, the 24-hour business through a wrench in those cogs, as Bobby ended up working until midnight.
And, then, they were doing track repairs on the Metro. Add a half-hour.
So it wasn't until after 1 a.m. that we finally got on the road. Bobby had had a hectic two days and so I drove. I was crazy-slap-happy by that time, and I put the pedal to the metal, did about 75 mph most of the way up there, and got us there in two-and-a-half hours. In the meantime, though, poor Bobby had to stay up and engage me in meaningless conversation about Elves and other things that interest me to keep me from falling asleep. I have a good husband.
At some point, I was dubbed with a new name. I have long had the monikers 'gund (which is my mean personality) and Felak Full of Struggles (which is me when I am having any sort of prolonged or melodramatic struggles) and, at some point, my crazy rambling and questions led me to be dubbed "Felak Full of Wonders," which also doubles as me on the road in awe of large architectural structures, like, "Bobby, awesome! We get to go over the Delaware Memorial Bridge!" or "Cool! We get to go past that big overpass!" I truly am a nerd.
Anyway, at about 3:30 a.m., we arrived, met by Johnny, who took us on a quick tour of the casino, with me half-dead and mumbling in half-sentences and giggling in between. But he's worked with me for a year-and-a-half by now, so he's used to that :)
I did not sleep nearly late enough on Saturday. Johnny and Karen (his wife) decided to take us to lunch at an exclusive club called "Diamond Jim's." By this point, I hadn't had any real meal since my Taco Bell lunch with Bobby the previous afternoon, and I got on edge when Karen said, "Dawn, we picked this place for you, because we know you're a vegetarian, and they have a salad bar."
Which was pretty much a guarantee that I would not be eating lunch either.
Most people remain very naive about vegetarianism, despite the fact that it's become very popular. I can survive comfortably at just about any restaurant. If a place has pasta, I can usually have it made vegetarian. If they have appetizers like nachos or potato skins, even, I can have them adjusted. At the worst, an entree salad and a bowl of soup or a fatty-potato with sour cream and such can make a girl very happy. As soon as people start identifying a place as vegetarian-worthy because of the presence of a salad bar, though, I get suspicious.
So my first real meal in twenty-four hours was a few scoops of potato salad, two pieces of bread, and four cookies. :( My blood-sugar was hating me and threatened to pitch me on my @$$ a few times on the Boardwalk.) I appreciated the thought, though, however misguided it may have been.
Bobby and I walked the Boardwalk after lunch. It has been eleven years since I was last in AC. I loved it as a child because I loved the grandeur and flash of the casinos, the millions of lights, the theming, the purple carpets and sheer extravagance of the place. I love it at night, when Bally's changes colors every few seconds and the world turns into a carnival. I must admit, though, that a lot of the places disappointed me now. When I was younger, all the casinos were on a somewhat-equal ground and we walked through each in turn, to please my sister and I and our love for purple carpets, but now, some have thrived and others have languished or even disappeared. The excitement, now, is confined to Tropicana, Bally's, and Taj Mahal. In between are a lot of 99-cent stores, pawn shops, and sheet-rock facades that--I hope--indicate construction.
True to our form, we walked the length of the Boardwalk--the exciting part anyway, between the casinos--and then, feeling a bit tired from our early morning and my low blood-sugar, decided to take a nap on the beach. So we got our towels and laid down on the sand, which was far less crowded than OC. A storm would roll in that night, and the breeze off the ocean was cold. Even Bobby didn't get into the water. While we lay there, we made an important decision. "What kind of Elf are you?" I asked Bobby. "Teler, Vanya, or Noldo?" We decided that he is a Teler because he loves the ocean and music. I am a Noldo because I love science and writing and tend to be rebellious and creative. My husband is truly wonderful! (What other man would entertain that question as seriously?)
We went back to the room around 6:30, and I called Johnny, but he was getting ready to see Batman Begins at the IMAX--having had an unlucky day--and so wasn't interested in dinner yet. We were starving, so we went to a barbecue joint called Corky's and ended up eating an atrocious amount of food. Of course, it was my first real meal in eighteen hours, and I put away a salad, a cup of French onion soup, and a bowl of pasta primavera (and, an hour later, a cup of ice cream).
We couldn't go to AC without trying our hands at the slots, and so we went to the Penny Pavilion (because we are cheap and poor) and tried the Enchanted Unicorn, thinking that it would be lucky due to its association with my pet unicorn Nelyo--who, of course, had accompanied us on this trip, although he waited in the room--but it turned out to be a dollar max-bet, which meant that our fun expired quickly. We sat down next at a machine called Texas Tea, which had a max-bet of forty-five cents--so more than twice the fun of Enchanted Unicorn--and Bobby had almost twenty-five dollars on his initial five-dollar investment before a series of losing streaks took him back to zero. It was all in fun, though.
We meant to stay up late but, alas, are spoiled by jobs that require early hours--and, hence, early bedtimes--and by midnight, we were in bed.
Sunday, we had lunch at Carmine's, an Italian restaurant from New York City that allegedly has a three- to four-month wait at its NY location. It was excellent. Bobby and I always joke that our favorite part about vacation is trying new restaurants. It is a wonder that we both manage to stay as skinny as we do.
We tried another round of Texas Tea, but neither of us had any luck this time. Finally, we headed home, into the heavy traffic that welcomes you back to Maryland, getting a bit lost on the way on our way back to the Turnpike, but we are back safe and not broke, having spent a heckuva lot less than if we had gone to OC for the weekend and having had just as much of a good time (which is the important part).
Bobby and I were talking a while back about taking a weekend to go to Ocean City, Maryland, just the two of us. We have a five-day holiday to OC coming up in August, with Harry Potter and my sister-in-law Erin (and possibly, other nerds), but we wanted a weekend for just us. The only problem is that Ocean City has gotten so expensive, even for just two people, and we're trying to save for the upcoming Big Trip in August...so Johnny suggested that we go "up the way" instead, with him. And the best part? Johnny has so many comps saved up that he got us our room for free in the Tropicana casino, 43rd floor, in a corner room with views of both the ocean and the city.
Te Hotness!
Of course, the weekend started last week with all that hullabaloo in London, and Bobby's agency went to 24-hours. And so, while we intended to leave as soon as I got home from work on Friday, the 24-hour business through a wrench in those cogs, as Bobby ended up working until midnight.
And, then, they were doing track repairs on the Metro. Add a half-hour.
So it wasn't until after 1 a.m. that we finally got on the road. Bobby had had a hectic two days and so I drove. I was crazy-slap-happy by that time, and I put the pedal to the metal, did about 75 mph most of the way up there, and got us there in two-and-a-half hours. In the meantime, though, poor Bobby had to stay up and engage me in meaningless conversation about Elves and other things that interest me to keep me from falling asleep. I have a good husband.
At some point, I was dubbed with a new name. I have long had the monikers 'gund (which is my mean personality) and Felak Full of Struggles (which is me when I am having any sort of prolonged or melodramatic struggles) and, at some point, my crazy rambling and questions led me to be dubbed "Felak Full of Wonders," which also doubles as me on the road in awe of large architectural structures, like, "Bobby, awesome! We get to go over the Delaware Memorial Bridge!" or "Cool! We get to go past that big overpass!" I truly am a nerd.
Anyway, at about 3:30 a.m., we arrived, met by Johnny, who took us on a quick tour of the casino, with me half-dead and mumbling in half-sentences and giggling in between. But he's worked with me for a year-and-a-half by now, so he's used to that :)
I did not sleep nearly late enough on Saturday. Johnny and Karen (his wife) decided to take us to lunch at an exclusive club called "Diamond Jim's." By this point, I hadn't had any real meal since my Taco Bell lunch with Bobby the previous afternoon, and I got on edge when Karen said, "Dawn, we picked this place for you, because we know you're a vegetarian, and they have a salad bar."
Which was pretty much a guarantee that I would not be eating lunch either.
Most people remain very naive about vegetarianism, despite the fact that it's become very popular. I can survive comfortably at just about any restaurant. If a place has pasta, I can usually have it made vegetarian. If they have appetizers like nachos or potato skins, even, I can have them adjusted. At the worst, an entree salad and a bowl of soup or a fatty-potato with sour cream and such can make a girl very happy. As soon as people start identifying a place as vegetarian-worthy because of the presence of a salad bar, though, I get suspicious.
So my first real meal in twenty-four hours was a few scoops of potato salad, two pieces of bread, and four cookies. :( My blood-sugar was hating me and threatened to pitch me on my @$$ a few times on the Boardwalk.) I appreciated the thought, though, however misguided it may have been.
Bobby and I walked the Boardwalk after lunch. It has been eleven years since I was last in AC. I loved it as a child because I loved the grandeur and flash of the casinos, the millions of lights, the theming, the purple carpets and sheer extravagance of the place. I love it at night, when Bally's changes colors every few seconds and the world turns into a carnival. I must admit, though, that a lot of the places disappointed me now. When I was younger, all the casinos were on a somewhat-equal ground and we walked through each in turn, to please my sister and I and our love for purple carpets, but now, some have thrived and others have languished or even disappeared. The excitement, now, is confined to Tropicana, Bally's, and Taj Mahal. In between are a lot of 99-cent stores, pawn shops, and sheet-rock facades that--I hope--indicate construction.
True to our form, we walked the length of the Boardwalk--the exciting part anyway, between the casinos--and then, feeling a bit tired from our early morning and my low blood-sugar, decided to take a nap on the beach. So we got our towels and laid down on the sand, which was far less crowded than OC. A storm would roll in that night, and the breeze off the ocean was cold. Even Bobby didn't get into the water. While we lay there, we made an important decision. "What kind of Elf are you?" I asked Bobby. "Teler, Vanya, or Noldo?" We decided that he is a Teler because he loves the ocean and music. I am a Noldo because I love science and writing and tend to be rebellious and creative. My husband is truly wonderful! (What other man would entertain that question as seriously?)
We went back to the room around 6:30, and I called Johnny, but he was getting ready to see Batman Begins at the IMAX--having had an unlucky day--and so wasn't interested in dinner yet. We were starving, so we went to a barbecue joint called Corky's and ended up eating an atrocious amount of food. Of course, it was my first real meal in eighteen hours, and I put away a salad, a cup of French onion soup, and a bowl of pasta primavera (and, an hour later, a cup of ice cream).
We couldn't go to AC without trying our hands at the slots, and so we went to the Penny Pavilion (because we are cheap and poor) and tried the Enchanted Unicorn, thinking that it would be lucky due to its association with my pet unicorn Nelyo--who, of course, had accompanied us on this trip, although he waited in the room--but it turned out to be a dollar max-bet, which meant that our fun expired quickly. We sat down next at a machine called Texas Tea, which had a max-bet of forty-five cents--so more than twice the fun of Enchanted Unicorn--and Bobby had almost twenty-five dollars on his initial five-dollar investment before a series of losing streaks took him back to zero. It was all in fun, though.
We meant to stay up late but, alas, are spoiled by jobs that require early hours--and, hence, early bedtimes--and by midnight, we were in bed.
Sunday, we had lunch at Carmine's, an Italian restaurant from New York City that allegedly has a three- to four-month wait at its NY location. It was excellent. Bobby and I always joke that our favorite part about vacation is trying new restaurants. It is a wonder that we both manage to stay as skinny as we do.
We tried another round of Texas Tea, but neither of us had any luck this time. Finally, we headed home, into the heavy traffic that welcomes you back to Maryland, getting a bit lost on the way on our way back to the Turnpike, but we are back safe and not broke, having spent a heckuva lot less than if we had gone to OC for the weekend and having had just as much of a good time (which is the important part).