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vegas I'm just thinking out loud tonight, thinking about the two times I have been to Las Vegas. The first time was in 1991, I think. It was a Friday night. I had been out drinking with a bunch of people from work, and as the bars started to close up at 1.00 am, my boss, Beth, suggested that we go to Vegas for the weekend. We didn't have to be back at work until Sunday morning. We decided that this was a great idea, so Beth and I came back to my house and called the airlines and found $100 round trip tickets. Meanwhile, Andy (a co-worker) and his friend went and got a 12-pack of beer. I had no money, and neither did Andy and his friend (don't remember the friend's name), but Beth said she would pay for us. We piled into Beth's BMW and drove up to Phoenix, drinking all along the way, and got onto the flight to Vegas. We got into Vegas at 6.00 am, so at this point we had already been up for 24 hours. Beth, Andy, and Andy's friend were doing a bunch of cocaine, which I had sworn off. They were hyper. They dragged me into a lot of casinos, and they gambled a lot of money. I had NO money, I was trying to figure out how to pay for the tuition for my last semester in college. At one point, we went into a dive bar and I crawled into a booth and fell asleep...only to be wakened by Beth shaking my shoulder. She said, "The manager says it's illegal to sleep in a bar!" So I woke up. We went into a casino, and I went to an ATM and took $20 out of my checking account. I said, "This is IT...I'm gambling this and then I am DONE!" I sat down in front of a quarter slot machine and started playing. I was punch drunk from lack of sleep, and sort of drunk from alcohol too. All of a sudden, something happened with the machine, and quarters started flying out into my bucket. I sat back for a second, and watched the money...$100...then more. I started screaming, and Beth came over....we watched as it became $200, then $300, then $400!!!! So I came home with money! It was cool! The last time I was in Vegas wasn't as cool. I guess 6 years ago. I was dating this guy named Patrick. It was kind of complicated...at one point he had been my boss, and we shouldn't have been dating then, but we did. Very few people within the company knew that we were dating. I got promoted to a position where it would have been ok for us to date, but it was too fucked up by then. He and I were spending time working in California for six weeks, then back in my home state for six weeks. The Corporate people had figured out that we were dating, so they intentionally scheduled us apart. So we planned a vacation in Vegas, with his best friend, Bruce, and his wife. Patrick was supposed to meet me at the air terminal when I got off the plane. I got there. No one. No one to meet me. This was before the time that I had a cell phone, so I went to a pay phone and called his voicemail service. No messages for me. I sat and waited for a long time. Finally, I remembered that we were supposed to stay at the MGM Grand. I called there...no-one was registered under Patrick's name. I felt sick. I got a cab, and told him to take me to the MGM Grand. Got there, waited in line forever...just to find that no-one had registered under Patrick's name. I was still dragging my suitcase, and I didn't know what to do. All of a sudden, I saw Patrick in front of the hotel. He wasn't even looking for me, he was looking for his friend. I played it cool, didn't want to seem the bitch. We found our friends, but it never entered Patrick's mind that I was alone and scared at the airport. The MGM was busy, so we went over to the Tropicana and got rooms for all of us. Riding up the elevator, Patrick kissed my neck and made me feel ok. He was drunk. When we got to our room, he and I started to get into things...then he said "I love you". I didn't say it back to him. He got mad, and threw me down on the floor. He bruised me, so I got up to argue. I ended up with a black eye. The rest of that weekend is a terrible memory. I was crying most of the time. Bruce's wife was so nice to me. I was so fucking happy to come back home. The night I got home, Patrick called from his car phone. He said, "I'm sorry." I didn't know what to say. I said, "Ok." I never saw him again. We talked, but I never saw him again. Miss These?
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