How was YOUR weekend?
Friday afternoon, right about the time that I was getting ready to wrap up one document and start another, I got a call from Michelle saying she was downstairs and wanted to go for a walk (this wasn't a surprise, since she had mentioned wanting to do so that morning). I headed downstairs and instead of Michelle, I saw my buddies Jesse and Matt, and my soon-to-be brother-in-law Denny standing in front of a car with its engine on. They told me to go back upstairs and grab my stuff, 'cause they were kidnapping me for my bachelor party weekend.
Now, to be honest I had at least somewhat suspected that's what was going to happen. My wedding was two weeks away), I was pretty sure that there wasn't going to be a "night-before" bachelor party, and the only other weekend between then and the wedding was valentine's day weekend. Plus, I remember Michelle giving Thomas, one of my best men, a list of names at one point regarding a bachelor party. Plus, I know Thomas well enough to know what he'd plan. (Vegas, baby!)
So off we went, after the obligatory donning of the bachelor t-shirt (which read "I wish I had lots of money instead of this huge dick"), a goofy tie, my "douchebag" hat, and a pillowcase to maintain the surprise. Of course, since I could see through the pillowcase and my office is literally 3 blocks away from the airport, it wasn't TOO much of a surprise, but I appreciated the effort! :)
Matt wound up not joining us that night (he wasn't feeling so hot, and wanted to rest up one more day at home), so Denny, Jesse and I grabbed our bags and headed inside. In line for security I saw my other buddy Mike, which kind of surprised me. I had to check whether his being there was a coincidence or not. Awesomely enough, it wasn't!
The four of us had an easy flight to Vegas, and once we touched down, got in touch with Thomas who had already gotten there. He rolled up a few minutes later in a nice Lincoln towncar (swank!) and we all got in. That's when he mentioned my next surprise, that he was also picking up Ben, who soon afterward walked up.
Before I go any further, I want to explain why I kept being surprised by people showing up. I made sure to include a lot of people on my "list" of guys that I wanted to invite. There were a fair number of those who I figured wouldn't come. Some probably wouldn't be interested in a weekend of drinking, gambling, debauchery with a bunch of 20-something heterosexual guys. Others, I figured, wouldn't be able to make it for financial reasons.
We dropped off Jesse at the MGM Grand (he and Matt broke ranks and stayed at a different hotel than the rest of us), and we went across the street to our hotel. Hooters. Since Ben works as a recruiter for the casino industry, he was able to get us some pretty nice hookups (or so I was told, since I didn't actually PAY for any of it...) It was there that I found out that my friends Jiri and James, and my brother (Chris) were already checked in, for a grand total of 10 of us ready to party all weekend! (My brother has been hard up for cash recently, so I was really surprised that he managed to make it)
First things first, we all headed down to Fat Tuesday for some yardaritas (3 feet of frozen goodness), which Denny was extremely interested in he heard about them from Thomas. After picking those up (they are certainly grab-and-go drinks, and not something you sit and nurse) we went around looking for gambling opportunities. We did some blackjack tables, some poker. We found a place in Excalibur that had a bunch of blackjack tables surrounding an area which had girls dancing on a catwalk. So of course we parked there for a while. A good long while :) As is customary, I did okay. I lost some, I won some of it back, and then I lost it all. It didn't really matter to me, 'cause most of it was other people's money! :D I did get some beads thrown from one of the girls (and subsequently hit 3 blackjacks in a row!), and got a t-shirt and an invitation to come back and get my picture taken with one of the girls for getting a blackjack of the "suit of the day". I figured it'd be a good storytelling item to get a pic with the girl who scored me the 3-blackjack streak, but when I got back there at 2 and handed my card to the pit boss, he said "Sorry, it ended at 1". Now, the card clearly said 4pm, 7pm, 10pm, and 2am, but he was adamant that it was wrong, and that it had to be at 1am. So instead of a picture and a great story, I now have just a great story about the idiot pit boss who lied to my face.
Thomas and Jiri called it a night a little before 2am, but the rest of us were far from done. Though we HAD all finished our yardaritas by that point... REFILLS, HO! (Ho-ly SHIT, that is...) We (me, Ben, Chris, Denny, Jesse, Mike, and James) did more wandering and sporadic gambling, eventually making our way back to Hooters, where we parked around some video poker machines to chit chat and finish our drinks. People slowly started peeling off for bed, until it was just me, Chris, Denny, and Mike. I called it sometime around 3:30. I was drunk, but definitely not incapacitated. The problem was, though, that I knew that I'd never get to sleep in my state, so I decided to... ah... induce. It's pretty interesting how easy it comes once you get started... And it took care of the crappy feeling that I was having. However I went to bed without brushing my teeth, which was not fun to taste the next morning.
I was feeling *alright* Saturday morning. Jesse and I met Jiri (who had been up since 7 am, returning the car) downstairs around 10am for breakfast. In my usual fashion, I opted for lunch and got a club sandwich instead. It was quite good, but realizing how I felt about the french fries, after breakfast I decided to take a nap. After an hour or so I felt much better, so I headed back downstairs and found Denny just getting up. He and Mike apparently were rock stars, and stayed up until 6am just drinking and gambling. Denny also managed to win nearly $1000 on the slot machines that night, so he totally paid for the rest of his trip (and several aspects of mine!) He also recovered like a rockstar, and with only a little coffee, a few mimosas, and some eggs in him, he was ready to go.
Saturday afternoon was pretty chill, since damn near everybody was still out of commission. Matt finally got in, so he joined us (me, Ben, Denny, Jesse, Thomas, and Jiri) and we all went over to the MGM Grand to play some poker. Jiri struck off on his own, and I believe Thomas wound up venturing off on his own for non-poker gambling. Mike and Chris were still in recovery. Matt was a *doll* and got an at-table massage for me (really awesome!)
Later that evening we (all except Chris, who was still recovering) got all dolled up and went to a comedy show at the hotel. The routine felt like something that I had seen before, and that's when I remembered that Michelle and I had seen the guy, Todd Paul, in Reno a few years back. Most of the routine was the same, but it was still really funny. I was fortunate enough to get dragged up on stage and made fun of. :) It was pretty cool. We got a great group picture taken, and once I get it scanned in, I'll post it.
Of course we didn't get dolled up just for a comedy show. I wanted to have a nice dinner out, and Matt found us a nice off-strip Italian place called Ferraro's. Delicious food was had by all. The wine was definitely a point of pride for them, as was represented by the pricing... It was fine, though. Only a handful of us were actually interested in drinking wine anyhow, so we just went with mixed drinks. I opted for a nice vodka martini. Two, actually. Strange how different two Ketel One martinis can taste... Anyway, I decided to go with vodka because of what was coming after dinner. Because what bachelor party weekend in Vegas would be complete without a trip to...
A Strip Club
(by the way, strip club websites are great fun!)
Anyway, they had a cool bachelor party deal (it's like they KNOW their clientele!) with a limo ride, a bottle of vodka, and the bachelor on stage for two songs with two of the girls getting embarrassed in front of everybody. It was my second only time ever being at a strip club, and the first time that I actually had a good time at one. And that's about the extent of what I'm gonna divulge on LJ! :D
The next morning everybody slowly got up. Some more slowly than others, but at least everybody was more or less recovered by that time. Ben was the first one who had to take off, back to LA around noon. Chris was the last one out, back to San Diego sometime late in the afternoon. Everyone headed their separate ways, back to reality after a whirlwind weekend. It was a pretty awesome trip, and I was so unbelievably happy that so many of my friends could make it. I was also taking notes for the sure-to-be-upcoming bachelor parties of some of THEM...
muahahaha!
Now, to be honest I had at least somewhat suspected that's what was going to happen. My wedding was two weeks away), I was pretty sure that there wasn't going to be a "night-before" bachelor party, and the only other weekend between then and the wedding was valentine's day weekend. Plus, I remember Michelle giving Thomas, one of my best men, a list of names at one point regarding a bachelor party. Plus, I know Thomas well enough to know what he'd plan. (Vegas, baby!)
So off we went, after the obligatory donning of the bachelor t-shirt (which read "I wish I had lots of money instead of this huge dick"), a goofy tie, my "douchebag" hat, and a pillowcase to maintain the surprise. Of course, since I could see through the pillowcase and my office is literally 3 blocks away from the airport, it wasn't TOO much of a surprise, but I appreciated the effort! :)
Matt wound up not joining us that night (he wasn't feeling so hot, and wanted to rest up one more day at home), so Denny, Jesse and I grabbed our bags and headed inside. In line for security I saw my other buddy Mike, which kind of surprised me. I had to check whether his being there was a coincidence or not. Awesomely enough, it wasn't!
The four of us had an easy flight to Vegas, and once we touched down, got in touch with Thomas who had already gotten there. He rolled up a few minutes later in a nice Lincoln towncar (swank!) and we all got in. That's when he mentioned my next surprise, that he was also picking up Ben, who soon afterward walked up.
Before I go any further, I want to explain why I kept being surprised by people showing up. I made sure to include a lot of people on my "list" of guys that I wanted to invite. There were a fair number of those who I figured wouldn't come. Some probably wouldn't be interested in a weekend of drinking, gambling, debauchery with a bunch of 20-something heterosexual guys. Others, I figured, wouldn't be able to make it for financial reasons.
We dropped off Jesse at the MGM Grand (he and Matt broke ranks and stayed at a different hotel than the rest of us), and we went across the street to our hotel. Hooters. Since Ben works as a recruiter for the casino industry, he was able to get us some pretty nice hookups (or so I was told, since I didn't actually PAY for any of it...) It was there that I found out that my friends Jiri and James, and my brother (Chris) were already checked in, for a grand total of 10 of us ready to party all weekend! (My brother has been hard up for cash recently, so I was really surprised that he managed to make it)
First things first, we all headed down to Fat Tuesday for some yardaritas (3 feet of frozen goodness), which Denny was extremely interested in he heard about them from Thomas. After picking those up (they are certainly grab-and-go drinks, and not something you sit and nurse) we went around looking for gambling opportunities. We did some blackjack tables, some poker. We found a place in Excalibur that had a bunch of blackjack tables surrounding an area which had girls dancing on a catwalk. So of course we parked there for a while. A good long while :) As is customary, I did okay. I lost some, I won some of it back, and then I lost it all. It didn't really matter to me, 'cause most of it was other people's money! :D I did get some beads thrown from one of the girls (and subsequently hit 3 blackjacks in a row!), and got a t-shirt and an invitation to come back and get my picture taken with one of the girls for getting a blackjack of the "suit of the day". I figured it'd be a good storytelling item to get a pic with the girl who scored me the 3-blackjack streak, but when I got back there at 2 and handed my card to the pit boss, he said "Sorry, it ended at 1". Now, the card clearly said 4pm, 7pm, 10pm, and 2am, but he was adamant that it was wrong, and that it had to be at 1am. So instead of a picture and a great story, I now have just a great story about the idiot pit boss who lied to my face.
Thomas and Jiri called it a night a little before 2am, but the rest of us were far from done. Though we HAD all finished our yardaritas by that point... REFILLS, HO! (Ho-ly SHIT, that is...) We (me, Ben, Chris, Denny, Jesse, Mike, and James) did more wandering and sporadic gambling, eventually making our way back to Hooters, where we parked around some video poker machines to chit chat and finish our drinks. People slowly started peeling off for bed, until it was just me, Chris, Denny, and Mike. I called it sometime around 3:30. I was drunk, but definitely not incapacitated. The problem was, though, that I knew that I'd never get to sleep in my state, so I decided to... ah... induce. It's pretty interesting how easy it comes once you get started... And it took care of the crappy feeling that I was having. However I went to bed without brushing my teeth, which was not fun to taste the next morning.
I was feeling *alright* Saturday morning. Jesse and I met Jiri (who had been up since 7 am, returning the car) downstairs around 10am for breakfast. In my usual fashion, I opted for lunch and got a club sandwich instead. It was quite good, but realizing how I felt about the french fries, after breakfast I decided to take a nap. After an hour or so I felt much better, so I headed back downstairs and found Denny just getting up. He and Mike apparently were rock stars, and stayed up until 6am just drinking and gambling. Denny also managed to win nearly $1000 on the slot machines that night, so he totally paid for the rest of his trip (and several aspects of mine!) He also recovered like a rockstar, and with only a little coffee, a few mimosas, and some eggs in him, he was ready to go.
Saturday afternoon was pretty chill, since damn near everybody was still out of commission. Matt finally got in, so he joined us (me, Ben, Denny, Jesse, Thomas, and Jiri) and we all went over to the MGM Grand to play some poker. Jiri struck off on his own, and I believe Thomas wound up venturing off on his own for non-poker gambling. Mike and Chris were still in recovery. Matt was a *doll* and got an at-table massage for me (really awesome!)
Later that evening we (all except Chris, who was still recovering) got all dolled up and went to a comedy show at the hotel. The routine felt like something that I had seen before, and that's when I remembered that Michelle and I had seen the guy, Todd Paul, in Reno a few years back. Most of the routine was the same, but it was still really funny. I was fortunate enough to get dragged up on stage and made fun of. :) It was pretty cool. We got a great group picture taken, and once I get it scanned in, I'll post it.
Of course we didn't get dolled up just for a comedy show. I wanted to have a nice dinner out, and Matt found us a nice off-strip Italian place called Ferraro's. Delicious food was had by all. The wine was definitely a point of pride for them, as was represented by the pricing... It was fine, though. Only a handful of us were actually interested in drinking wine anyhow, so we just went with mixed drinks. I opted for a nice vodka martini. Two, actually. Strange how different two Ketel One martinis can taste... Anyway, I decided to go with vodka because of what was coming after dinner. Because what bachelor party weekend in Vegas would be complete without a trip to...
A Strip Club
(by the way, strip club websites are great fun!)
Anyway, they had a cool bachelor party deal (it's like they KNOW their clientele!) with a limo ride, a bottle of vodka, and the bachelor on stage for two songs with two of the girls getting embarrassed in front of everybody. It was my second only time ever being at a strip club, and the first time that I actually had a good time at one. And that's about the extent of what I'm gonna divulge on LJ! :D
The next morning everybody slowly got up. Some more slowly than others, but at least everybody was more or less recovered by that time. Ben was the first one who had to take off, back to LA around noon. Chris was the last one out, back to San Diego sometime late in the afternoon. Everyone headed their separate ways, back to reality after a whirlwind weekend. It was a pretty awesome trip, and I was so unbelievably happy that so many of my friends could make it. I was also taking notes for the sure-to-be-upcoming bachelor parties of some of THEM...
muahahaha!