Viva Loss Vegas

Plenty of people love Las Vegas, but for me, the town is always a Loss. It’s full of more freaks and weirdos than anywhere else I’ve ever been and the hustle culture there is relentless. You can’t walk anywhere without someone trying to sell you some junk bracelet or entice you to come to some random nightclub. Also, I hate being around drunk people and I don’t drink alcohol, especially in highly public settings. The only time you’ll see me with an alcoholic drink in hand is if I’m someplace cute and classy like Cutesville’s very own Speakeasy, otherwise, I’m sticking to my iced teas and Coca-Colas. I need my awareness levels to be up high in that town and anything that prohibits that isn’t happening for me.

Now this isn’t to say we didn’t have many lovely moments on this trip. Just like Rihanna, we too found love in a hopeless place as we traveled there to see two other members of Pop Music’s Royalty hold court. We saw the Queen Madonna on Friday night and one of Pop’s many Princesses, Christina Aguilera Saturday. It goes without saying those were two highlights in what was honestly a weekend full of them.

So the next several photos are from this immersive art exhibition that highlighted the Animation of Disney. If you went to the Van Gogh one that traveled the country a few years back it was exactly like that, but showcased a variety of Disney’s greatest animated masterpieces and several of the iconic songs that have defined generations. We all love Disney, so we all loved it! I cried six times and Melissa eight. Seeing so many of the stories and characters I love more than anything projected across those mirrored columns combined with some of my favorites songs and interactive features like moving floor images and bubbles and snowflakes falling from above, it was just pure magic. I hope and pray this traveling exhibition comes to St. Louis because we’ll be the first in line to attend again! 10/10! Highly Recommend!

The next block of photos are from our night at Madonna. She gave us over two hours of hits and high energy and I couldn’t of asked for a better show! For being 65 years old, she was out there performing and dancing like she was forty years younger. This is especially impressive considering she nearly died last summer, so this was a real celebration for all of us in the arena.

We went to the Conservatory at the Bellagio where they had this beautiful display for Chinese New Year. Like anything else, it was packed as possible, but it’s also one of the only free things in the entire city, so I’m sure it attracts even more people! The next couple pictures are from it. I wish I could’ve walked around more in a less crowded environment, but that’s Vegas for you.

Saturday night took us to see Christina Aguilera. Now the doors to the Voltaire Theater in the Venetian where she performed opened at 9:45, but we knew she didn’t start till 11:30, so we opted to not get there till about 11:00. Big mistake! HUGE! We had General Admission tickets, so standing room only. I knew that going in, but what I didn’t know is that the stage sits lower and because we got there so much later than everyone else who had been there drinking it up, we were six people deep, so unless we watched the show on someone’s phone in front of us, we didn’t see much of it. Quite disappointing honestly. Christina brought down the house with her vocals that appear to have only been amplified over the years, but I saw about half the show with my own eyes, Melissa and Nancy, much less. Kamber even left about a third of the way through because she was so frustrated with not being able to see it. This was probably a Loss for us overall. 5/10. Sadly, Wouldn’t Recommend.

The next several images stem from this incredible Princess Diana exhibit we visited. It was located in the Crystal Shoppes right next to the Art of Disney exhibit and it hosted a variety of Diana’s personal items from her wardrobe to handwritten letters and all else in between. I learned quite a bit from it honestly. I had no idea Camilla and Charles were always in love. This makes me think so much more of their relationship that everyone dogs on. I’m happy that after all their stops and starts, they were able to be together. Good for them. The tailend of this exhibit about Diana’s charitable work and death put a few tears in my eyes. All I can say is thank God they didn’t have Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997” playing or it would’ve been Game Over for me!

Other notable odd moments I had was when I put my .69 voucher and a $20 bill into this NFL slot machine in New York, New York and the cocktail waitress brings me this GIGANTIC glass of alcohol – this is like at 2:00 in the morning mind you after Madonna – and I tell her, “I’m sorry, I didn’t order this.” She looks at me and goes, “you weren’t sitting here.” Then this Australian guy comes around the corner from another slot machine and says that’s his drink then the cocktail waitress goes, “that’s his money in the slot.” Referring to my $20.69 and he then gets all riled up and tells me he won $1,000 on this slot and asking me what I did with his voucher. I calmly responded to them both, but directed more at the accusatory waitress, “look, I know we’re on surveillance 24/7 in here. Have someone view the tapes and they’ll see this money in the machine is mine, not anyone else’s.” Then the Australian realized his friend had his $1,000 voucher and he apologized and went about his night. Nonetheless though, it was a rather tense two minutes.

Then after Christina Aguilera at about 1:30 in the morning, two gentlemen cornered me in the Harrah’s Casino asking me who the biggest and best NBA player was. I drew a blank. I realized in that moment I don’t know any current NBA players. Another Loss for me, so I told them I don’t follow basketball. Then the one guy pressed me more for an answer and said, “come on now, everyone wears his shoes.” So I answered, “Michael Jordan?” He got so excited and his friend got pissed! “How you gonna say Michael Jordan the best of all time? Come on now, man!” I just responded, “How could I not? After all, he was in ‘Space Jam’ and everyone loves that movie.” We all just laughed and I went about my night making this the first moment I had to catch up with Melissa and Nancy as they were usually the ones struggling to catch up with me, but those two guys took up a lot of my time honestly with that random basketball infused conversation.

THEN the peak moment of insanity arrived about a hour after the basketball one did. I was in the restroom at MGM and if you’ve been to Vegas, you know most of these restrooms are HUGE! This one was no exception. There were easily ten or twelve sinks in here. I use the first sink in the corner. Some drunk NASCAR loving guy comes and uses the one right next to me and asks, “are you French?” I responded an, “excuse me?” “Are you French?” He asks again. “Am I French?” I repeated. “Yeah man, are you French?” It is well after 2:00 in the morning and I’m tired as can be, so I wasn’t following this weird ass man’s question, so I ask, “are you asking me if I’m from France?” “Yeah man! That’s what I’m saying! Are you from France?” He enthusiastically responds to which I say, “nope, I’m American.” Then his enthusiasm shot off the charts, “HELL YEAH! That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! Put her here!” He exclaimed as he invited me in for a high five, which I gave. He then asked if I was enjoying Vegas and I politely said lied and said I was before he steps in front of me blocking my direct path to make sure I knew there were plenty of nice Frenchmen out there. I agreed with him, but as the room was cavernous, I quickly darted around him and scurried out of the restroom. It was a real freakshow moment. I’m telling you, I’m a magnet for unique situations like that, but that one I’ll readily admit had me on edge.

I realize no one is making me go to Vegas but myself and the last time I was there was eight years ago, but I hope and pray I don’t invite myself to that city for at least another ten years. My brain cannot simply handle it again for at least that amount of time. Speaking of time, it doesn’t exist in that city! I don’t know how else to explain it, but it’s the easiest thing to lose track of! Even more so than the twenty’s I was putting in the slots!

As always, THANK YOU so much for viewing! I appreciate you greatly! Feel free to leave me a comment below as you know I LOVE reading and responding to them! I’ll be back next week with another all-new, emotionally impactful post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!