Christmas Alone

I imagine when you look at this title you might think this is going to be a sad and depressing story. On the contrary, I want to express how much joy I feel during my "lonely Christmas".

I have been on my own for four years now. My son lives with me part time but I do spend a fair amount of time completely alone. I am ok with this though. It doesn't cause me any stress. I believe my childhood in Montreal prepared me for this.  There was a fair amount of hostility towards the English during the sixties. The FLQ wanted Quebec to separate from the rest of Canada.  Mailboxes were blowing up all over the city as a protest of some sort.  I can vividly remember attempting to play with the French kids and having a pail of sand dumped on my head and being pinned against a brick wall by a girl on a bike until my leg bled.  So I learned to amuse myself on my own.  I lived in my imagination.  I played on the train tracks and in a deserted factory. (No one cared about that kind of thing back then) I constantly wrote poems on little scraps of paper.  And the teachers at my school gave me a special dispensation to use the high school library so I spent a lot of time there. So being alone is something I am Ok with.

In my "former life" I used to go to great lengths to prepare for Christmas.  I decorated for days. I baked 10 different kinds of cookies and squares. I shopped months in advance trying to find suitable, reasonably priced gifts for my family. But as the years passed I started to get tired and frustrated at how much effort went into Christmas.  One year I discovered that the top half of our large Christmas tree would fit into the base and therefore I only had to decorate half a tree so I starting doing that.  I baked less. Who needs all those calories?  I made the suggestion of pulling names out of a hat and only exchanging gifts with one family member instead of many but that was nixed. I was attempting to lessen the "holiday load".  Typically this falls on the "moms" of the family.  Moms do all the shopping, all the decorating, all the baking, all the meal prep, all the clean up, all the un-decorating etc etc etc. It is exhausting. Unless you have had to do this task for many, many years I don't think people realize how taxing it can be. My Mother in Law discovered I could cook a turkey back in the 80's and from that moment on it became my job. Mind you, she cooked other dishes to go with it, but every holiday you could see Facebook posts about how much I hated ramming stuffing up a turkey's ass. Do I miss sitting at a long table attempting to converse with relatives that I rarely ever see?  Not really.

When I moved out in 2020 I realized that I couldn't bring all my millions of Christmas decorations with me. My small apartment had no space to store them and no room for a tree. I began to analyze what it was that I REALLY loved about Christmas and I came to the conclusion that is was basically the decorations:  the lights, the sparkly things, the shimmer and shine!!!  Things that looked plain and ugly the rest of the year looked glorious at Christmas. BUT just because I had no room for all these trinkets and lights doesn't mean I can't go out and enjoy other people's! Yes occasionally I will feel a pang when I see a picture online of something that was mine, but I remind myself that IT IS NOT IMPORTANT!  What is important is that I am in a safe, comfy apartment with an incredible view and I am AT PEACE!

So that is what I wish for everyone reading this...PEACE.  Don't turn Christmas into a stressful, expensive nightmare. Be content with simple things.  I raised two kind, considerate children who will visit me over the holidays and I am perfectly happy  with that.

Merry Christmas everyone, 

no matter how many or how few people you are spending it with.

Is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Vegas? Final chapter. October 14

 Today was my last full day in Vegas.  Always a bittersweet day,  I am sad to leave but I want to be home.  Does that make sense?

It was pleasant spending this last week downtown so I didn’t have to observe the F1 mess.  I must congratulate the Plaza on their success with both the Carousel bar and the PinkBox doughnut place. I have been here a week and both places seem to be busy all the time.  I am also happy that the Carousel bar didn’t destroy the look of the Plaza’s gorgeous porte cochere, it adds to it.  It looks like it has always been there.

I spent the morning writing my trip report so I got a slow start as usual.   What to do on my last day?  I have comped food in three places but I can’t leave without having a meal at Binion’s.  I wanted to try Whiskey Licker Up but it looked packed so I just went to the coffee shop as usual.  I enjoyed the Gridiron breakfast.  ( whatever a gridiron is). It was excellent as always.  
I went to to my quiet corner to play a bit.  My VP machine ate my hundred quickly today.   I wandered through the rest of Binion’s and Four Queens looking for something I wanted to play.  Everywhere was so busy and soooo noisy that I gave up and came “ home”.   The Four Queens elevator is still broken….grrr.  No Magnolia’s visits for me this trip.

 I went back to my favourite VP machine at the Plaza and had luck there again.  I might have stayed longer but between the screaming dudes at the craps game, the annoying girl’s voice screaming “Press the BUTTON!” and music from the Heidi and Hannah slot,  I had had it.  Even though I was wearing earplugs it was just too much.  I am over the noise.
I went to the desk to tell them I was leaving in the morning and to check my bill.
Came upstairs at 7 pm and started packing up.
I plan to leave the hotel by 9 am.
So another Vegas vacation is in the books.
This was a great one!
I did some new things, some familiar ones, met tons people, and had a bit of luck here and there.  I really enjoy watching my son and his girlfriend have fun here. So hopefully I will be back again next spring.  Fingers crossed.

I wish I could find VP like this in Windsor!

My breakfast 

The broken elevator at the Four Queens 

Is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Vegas? Chapter 11 on Friday the 13

 

I did my usual slow moving morning,  showered and got presentable.  I had been messaging with LasVegas4ever board member, Michael Arnold. He and his wife Sheila were coming to meet me this morning. As usual we couldn’t find any place to sit in the food court, so we ended up sitting in the Mexican restaurant’s eating area because the restaurant wasn’t open yet. It opened while we were sitting there talking and I expected them to throw us out but they didn’t thank goodness. So we had a lovely chat about them buying their new home here in Vegas and other things.  Then Sheila went to play bingo and I decided to play video poker with Michael while we waited. Here’s a picture of one of Michael’s good hands and I managed to get the Deuces again this morning. Yay!!!
After Sheila was done at the bingo Mike and Sheila continued on with their day and I went in search of a meal. They had showed me the Plaza kiosks and amazingly enough I had three $25 coupons for free food. So I decided to use one of them at Pop Up Pizza because I hadn’t had any of their pizza this trip.  I like it, I don’t love it, but it’s good. I got three slices and a drink for the $25.  Enough for several meals.

I brought that back up to my room to eat and took a bit of a rest. Then at 4 o’clock I got ready and took an Uber over to El Cortez to meet up with the gang doing GrannyFest. This is a meet up run by Gambling Granny of mainly YouTube slot channels.  I had run into Granny and her husband Dice at the Mac Bridger slot pull and they were kind enough to give me a ticket and so I thought I would go down and see what it was all about. I got to meet a bunch of new people which is always fun, but it was quite a large crowd and many slot channels that I was not familiar with. I was excited to to meet Coco, who is a lovely lady who has been following my travels for years.  I got Dice and a fellow named Dewder mixed up and now I can tell them apart, so that’s an accomplishment.  I got to spend more time with Denise Z which is always a joy.  I got to chat with Mindy and Tom again which was great.   I was the first one in to the meeting room  (which was a lovely room by the way) and I sat there for about 45 minutes.  I realized that I really wanted to go see the Grand Funk Railroad show that I had bought tickets for so I decided to leave before the show part of GrannyFest started. I had hoped to run into a few other people that said they would be present, but I really wanted to use those tickets and so I went out to the front of El Cortez and called an Uber and took it over to the Golden Nugget.  Took me quite a while to get the GN elevator to go up to the show room floor. It was kind of ridiculous because they wanted you to use your room key but if you weren’t staying at the Nugget obviously you didn’t have a room key! Eventually I was successful. I got seated in an accessible seat which was good for me because I could stretch my legs out. I had a very nice lady from Buffalo next to me and we were chatting about the crowd, lots of gray haired rockers for sure.  There was a dead ringer for Edgar Winter in the crowd.  I was shocked if I saw anybody that looked like they were under 50. As always I am annoyed by people who waltz in late to a show.  I swear they should just lock the theatre doors at showtime and if you aren’t there, TOO BAD! 

I was impressed with how good Grand Funk Railroad looked and sounded .They all looked healthy and sang well. The drummer reminded me of Baby Billy from the Righteous Gemstones TV show. And the bass guitarist reminded me of cousin IT , ha ha. I guess there is only a few songs of theirs that I truly loved. My favourite is Some Kind of Wonderful. 
At one point the lead singer was talking on stage and some rude AH yelled “ Stop talking and sing”.   People have no manners anymore. Another thing I noticed that I only saw one or two people with their phones out.  You could definitely tell it was an older crowd.  I hate when I go to a show at Caesars Windsor and there are hundreds of phones raised up blocking my view of the stage!

There was some kind of strange thing going on in the audience. There was a lady that looked to be in her 40s accompanied by two very elderly men on either side of her.  It seemed like she was with both of them. And she was canoodling with both of them lol. And at one point the theatre staff came over and reprimanded her but she didn’t have her phone in her hand or anything so I’m not sure what exactly they were yelling at her for. Possibly she was doing something objectionable with the two older men??? Strange.  But was interesting to watch. 
I was happy that I attended the show. I walked back out onto Fremont Street and enjoyed the glorious lights as usual. It is Friday night so it was packed and hard for me to navigate through the crowd with the walker, but I made it. 

When I got back to the Plaza I wasn’t ready for the night to end so I decided to go play for a while. Once again, I decided to try my beloved Wicked Winnings but they were not kind to me. The  fella next to me won $7500 on a two dollar bet so that was really fun to watch!  I gave up on WW and went back over to video poker and won back the money I just lost. I played until midnight! That’s the latest night I’ve had here this whole trip.. Thank goodness for Robaxacet. I would never make it through the trip without it!  Lol

Tomorrow is my last full day, sob. 

 I love it here but I am ready to go home.

The first picture is a hit Mike got.

 

Dice and Dewder.

is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Vegas? Chapter 10 Thursday October 12

 I never left the Plaza at all today!  

I was a little ouchy in spots so I decided to take it easy and not hoof anywhere.

I went downstairs at 11 am and played video poker for two hours on the same hundred and came back to the room with $150.  I met up with Denise Z in the hallway. She was here to attend a video poker group pull. She is always so kind. I just brought a burger back to my room for my first meal of the day.

I relaxed in the room until 3 pm and then went downstairs to take part in the VP pull that Vegas Bebe and Bobby G were organizing to support the Royal Flusher and the Quad Queen in her battle against ALS.  I got to meet lots of people for the first time; Bobby G, Tracey, Daniel Ocean, Dewder, IrishDave etc.  I also got to see Kenokid and KenoKandi, and Julian from Vegas Confessions. The live stream was lots of fun.  I continued to play Bonus Deuces Wild as it was happening.  At one point I got the deuces with an ace for 2000 quarters!  A few minutes later I got five aces for 400 quarters!  If you watch the livestream video from Vegas Bebe you can see my wins towards the end.  This is the first time I am returning to my room with more money than I left with.  Before I left the casino I tried a few slots with no wins.  Dumb move on my part…lol. I should have gone straight back to my room.

I was upstairs by 7 pm. I ate leftover chicken parmigiana on my walker for my dinner.  Glamorous eh?

I think I am in for the night.

The slot pull link….. https://www.youtube.com/live/2ZxG0VALUv0?si=zEQcp30G7ZjAB6Mu

Is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Las Vegas? Chapter 9 Wednesday October 11

 

Today turned out to be a really fun day!

I woke up around 8 but didn’t leave the room till 11 am.  When you check in to the Plaza they hand you an information sheet that says if you want your room made up you just have to call housekeeping and ask.  I did that as I was leaving my room but they said they weren’t doing that but they would bring me whatever I needed.  I mean that is fine.  As long as I don’t run out of toilet paper I am good, but I just found that rather odd.
Breakfast was a Big Mac and a senior coffee for 6 bucks.   I know, I know, I am so boring.

I decided to play for a bit on the slots here at the Plaza. The ONLY one I managed to stay alive on for awhile was the Carribean Dollar Storm.  I quit at 1 pm and decided to save the rest of my bankroll for later.
I was supposed to meet a board friend and his wife for bingo but Plaza is having an enormous bingo tournament here this weekend so that wasn’t possible.

Around 2 pm I received a message from LininNJ. She was at my favourite corner in Binion’s.  I walked over to meet her and we had the most fascinating conversation for about two hours. I could have talked to her all day.

I was meeting another Vegas friend named Judi for dinner at Bacon Nation so I walked over to the D.  While I was waiting for Judi to appear Crystal aka VegasBebe called my name and came over to say hi.  Delightful young lady!   

Judi and I proceeded into the restaurant and had a great time getting to know one another.  

Three new friends in one day!  Am I lucky or what?

A lot of conversations we had tonight centred around how we miss the Vegas we knew and loved. the Vegas that catered to gamblers.  The Fremont Street Experience where I knew every song and when it would be played.   Sigh.

After we were done eating I decided to stay and give the D some play.  Once again their firecracker games gave me lots of action.  I put $200  in and had it up to $400 several times but kept on playing.  I wound  up cashing out even so that makes me relatively happy.

Walked back to the Plaza at 9 pm through the insane crowd.  Saw the dude who dresses like Marilyn and the crazy twirling lady.  Then I just came up to the room for the night.

LininNJ and I

What is up with Vegas Vic?   He is all burnt out again!!!!

My humidifier because I am having nosebleeds again.

Is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Vegas? Chapter 8 Tuesday October 10

 

Woke up around 7 am today and took my time getting ready.  I was meeting a board member, Ralph and his lovely wife Ruth for breakfast/lunch.  The plan was to go to Hash House but it was packed and the wait was an hour.  So we just went to McDonald’s because at least we could get a table there. We had a nice long conversation despite there being music that was too loud for an eating area.  Honest to God, almost every place in this city has their music cranked too loud.

After we parted ways I wanted to use some free play I had.  I could use it at the D, Golden Gate or Circa.  I chose Circa because it was close and has a little devil machine I like in it but it just gobbled up my free play in short order with very little play time.  Disappointing.  I need to stay away from there. I never win anything in Circa.  

Next I went over Binion’s and got a scoop of frozen custard from the snack bar  ($3.50) and settled into those quiet VP machines there.  I swear this is the only place in town where I like the music.  I got a few decent hands.  I was able to play two hours on my hundred dollars.

I was falling asleep on the machine so I came back to the Plaza and laid down for awhile.  Went back downstairs to play at 5 pm.  I tried a few slots but I wasn’t getting any play time. The machines were just sucking up my money lickety split.  I went back to video poker and played for two hours.  No Deuces today.  Sob.

Apparently George Clooney was wandering around downtown today.  These are not my pictures. Unfortunately I did not spot him.

Is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Vegas? Chapter 7 Monday October 9

 

Well if you weren’t bored before you will be now.  I am moving downtown and my days tend to get quieter down here.

On Sunday night I went to the Mirage desk and asked for a late check out to give me plenty of time to get packed up.  I also got copies of my zero balance bill.  Just the way I like it.  I got my room all packed and mentally said goodbye to Mirage.

I had a pleasant Uber ride down to the Plaza using only surface streets, yay!   I went to line up to register and a cute little lady, who turned out to be Esme, a casino host, showed up beside me and took me to the VIP line which I much appreciated.  My Luxe room wasn’t clean yet so I left my bag and went to Hash House a Go Go to get a meal.  Their plates are so enormous it is breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one!  I ordered my favourite, chicken and waffles,  and boxed up half of it to bring to the room.  Then I thought I would ask again if a room was ready and it was.  I love these rooms!  Cool, spacious and comfy.

I laid down on the bed for an hour and didn’t feel like getting up but a FaceBook group called Downtown Vegas Report was having a meet in the Chicago Brewing Company at Four Queens and I wanted to go.  I hoofed down there only to discover their elevator wasn’t functioning.  I messaged them on Facebook but there was no response. Not knowing what to do I just left and staggered back to the Plaza and my room. I did stop into the ABC and bought some shampoo and a High Noon.  Still hate it….lol.

  I was feeling exhausted so I laid down and conked out for an hour.  That gave me a second wind. I went down to the Plaza casino around six thirty and wandered around looking for any signs of Matt Bridger and the Begas Vaby couple who were supposed to be doing a joint group pull at 7 pm.  I kept circling the casino. I wandered out to the no smoking area twice.  I think the security guards thought I was nuts.

I couldn’t see anyone so I was wondering if it got called off or something.  I tried playing a few machines with no luck.  Ironically enough, two of the slots I played were the ones the group pull used.  Around 7:30 I heard hollering and thought “Ah!  There they are” Even though I wasn’t officially part of the pull I wanted to watch.  I parked myself on a chair where I couldn’t see what was happening but I could see the people running the pull. That is when I didn’t have someone’s butt in my face.

It was fun to watch.  I met a nice lady named Melanie who recognized me from somewhere.  At one point there was a guy with a beard in front of me and I poked him and asked if he was “ Dewder” . He laughed and said “No but I know him and my beard is nicer than his. I am Vice.” I recalled that he was Gambling Granny husband and as it turns out she was right behind me.  They were part of the pull.  It was nice to meet and talk with them and she gave me a ticket to Grannyfest on Friday at El Cortez.  I had booked tickets to go see Grand Funk Railroad that night but maybe I could switch the tickets to another night.  I will see what I can do.

I would have loved to say hello to everyone but they were too busy so when the pull was over I just went to play video poker.  I was doing MUCH better at VP than I had been at the slots.  I got the deuces twice!   Yippee!  After the second time I decided to pack it in and go to bed.  I have a lunch date tomorrow with board member, Ralphie and his wife.

My room…

The group pull.

I left this useless thing behind at Mirage.

Is This a Really Dumb Time to be Visiting Vegas? Chapter 6 Sunday October 8

 

I woke at 6 am this morning after falling to sleep around 11 pm the night before so I had a decent sleep. I went downstairs at 9 to locate some coffee. The line up at Snacks wasn’t as horrible as usual so I stopped there. I ordered a yogurt parfait, a muffin and a small coffee.  When they presented me with my purchases I had a large orange juice and and enormous latte.  I told them I hadn’t ordered those and they said “they are yours if you want them”.  So score!  I have never had a latte before but it was good. Just a milky, frothy coffee.  I had to sweeten it myself.

Then I went over to the video poker corner to amuse myself for awhile.  It is probably the quietest corner in this place.  I didn’t come out ahead sadly.  I came back to the room at noon to just chill and put my feet up and rest before the day’s adventures.

 At 4 pm I met Mike and Terin at Zak Bagan’s Haunted Museum to do the RIP tour.   It was very different.  I have never been to anything quite like that before.  I spent a lot of time wishing there was more light in the building so that I could read the plaques and observe the artifacts more carefully.  My favourite room was the serial killer room that had mementos from Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Manson and the like. Of course there is no way for us to know if those articles are really former belongings of these people, but it was interesting.  There were certain things I couldn’t do like go down into the basement or go upstairs but they gave me an IPad that showed me what the others were seeing on the second floor.  The tour was over two hours long.  I was happy I had my walker to perch on at times.  We RIP people were given Tshirts and neck lanyards and some extra rooms to tour.  Hopefully no evil spirits followed us home!

It was almost dark when we got outside.  We Ubered back to the Linq with the intention of going to Guy Fieri’s but there was a 45 minute wait.  I caught a glimpse of the Sphere as we drove down the Strip.  The kids have been able to see it from Flamingo.  We ended walking all the way down the Promenade to Yard House.   I really like that place. It has such a wide assortment of food.  I had macaroni and cheese with chicken in it.  Mike had Cobb salad with chicken and Terin had Jambalaya.   I was so tired and hungry I forgot to take pictures of it!  Gasp.  I am enclosing a picture of our bill. The prices aren’t bad in my opinion.  I also included Mike’s bill from their visit to Ocean One. He liked that place.

Then I had to say goodby to Mike and Terin because they are flying home in the morning. They did four escape rooms on their trip! And they escaped them all!  I am switching hotels to the Plaza tomorrow.

  I staggered back to the Mirage after saying our goodbyes.  I played for awhile but I shouldn’t have.  I was too tired to enjoy it and just lost. Finally I gave up at 11 and went upstairs to bed.

Pictures are from Zaks Bagans.

Is This a Really Dumb Time to Be Visiting Vegas? Chapter 5, Saturday, October 7

 Chapter 5, Saturday, October 7

I didn’t come back to my room until 11 pm last night and stayed up until 12:30 writing my trip report. Imagine my shock when I woke up this morning and checked the time.  8:30 AM!  Wow.

I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to do today.  I considered going to ROSS but I don’t really need anything.  Since Covid I have taken to ordering my clothes from online businesses with varying degrees of success.  My favourite company is one called Bloomchic and their clothes always fit.  I also knew that Peppermill would be mobbed and I need coffee and a meal.  I thought about visiting Resorts World but there is really nothing that entices me to go there.  Mike had mentioned TI and I realized that I had not set foot there in a million years.  I tend to forget it exists.  So I decided I would go next door.  The kids were downtown eating PinkBox doughnuts and doing another escape room.  They have the PINK show tonight.

I didn’t leave my room until 11:30 am today and this was the only day my room wasn’t made up.  Mike said their Flamingo room is being serviced daily as well.   I went to go get on the tram to TI but discovered it doesn’t start until noon.  I decided to hoof it.   Omg, did someone move TI???   It seems so far when you are as gimpy as I am.  Finally got there and I was impressed.  The first thing I encountered was a large attractive restaurant with the unassuming name of the Coffee Shop.  I really like that.  (I wish Mirage had a restaurant like that.  Their Pantry closes at 3 pm.)It was huge and very busy. Everything was very efficient.  I wanted to order breakfast but changed my mind when I saw they had Clubhouse sandwiches.  That sandwich had more meat in it than any other Clubhouse I have ever seen. It was $19 but it was so huge it will work for both lunch and dinner for me today. The coffee was delicious and they put an entire pot on every table!  
Another thing I liked about TI is that they had more than one sundry shop where you could buy drinks and snacks etc. Mirage doesn’t have the same selection. 

I got myself a new TI card and I was surprised that I was still in their system.  I wandered around checking everything out, trying to decide what to play. I briefly tried the Frankenstein machine but I don’t like that you have to play three dollars or over in order to qualify for the jackpots.  Next I moved over to a new slot that I can’t remember the name of.  ( pictures of it below) It had a million different bonuses and was super fun when it was hitting. ( As they all are) I played that machine for around three hours.  Unfortunately it is not at Mirage.  Around three I decided to come “ home” and rest awhile.  The tram was running so getting back was a lot less ouchy. 

I went back downstairs around 5 pm to play some more but my Buffalo Lightning Link wasn’t being very kind.  I was betting $2 a spin and you can get some decent bonuses that way.  I was running out of money so I lowered my bet to $1 and the bonuses are not as good at that level.  I particularly hate it when you get a $2 bonus!   That is not a bonus!  I went back to my room at 7 pm tonight.