I am not sure why our daughter chose such a place for her 50th birthday celebration but we went.  We try to grant as many of our children’s wishes as possible, within reason.  Since my wife likes the slots, Vegas is considered reasonable.

Vegas is a city of many faces but the underlying theme of the place is that of excess.  It thrives on the concept of “over the top”.  People flock there to be encased in the excesses of food, entertainment and sometimes debauchery.  How they approach this concept of living is the thing I like to watch while I am there.

Somewhere in Vegas there is a “little black” dress rental store, much like a tuxedo rental store.  There has to be.  I have never seen so many young ladies wearing the little black dress in my life.  I looked up once and saw 8 young ladies, approximately early 20’s walking along in a parade line, like ducklings behind a mother duck, and all of them were wearing a small black dress, mostly strapless, black hooker heels and carrying what I am told is a clutch purse.  The dresses were so short that any attempt at raising one’s arms higher than waist level would have exposed areas of their nubile bodies that mothers are supposed to warn their daughters to keep covered.  I am talking short and tight.  Any exposure to a winter gust of wind would and could cause some severe problems.  I was just dumbfounded that so many had on the exact same thing.  I can remember when 2 women wearing the same outfit at the same party was a social felony.  I have seen instances where such a thing caused tears to be shed.

High heel shoes are a thing of mystery to me and to most men.  Why and by whom were they invented?  Were they invented to tone a woman’s legs?  Were they invented to make a lady’s bottom bounce, which is actually what they do, or for some other unknown reason.  Why do the heels seem to be getting higher?  Our little gaggle of folks walked across the casino behind a young lady who was a newbie in high heels.  Although she was in her 30’s it appeared as if that night was the first time she had worn such shoes.  She wobbled like a Juarez string puppet and I had to hold back a couple of times to keep from grabbing her, thinking she was about to fall.  You could tell that her entire backside was clinched in her attempt to keep from falling so that  when she got to where she was going that she loosened everything and puddled like a melting popsicle.  All in the name of fashion.  She could have worn some comfortable SAS shoes and been much more comfortable and I for one would not have cared a wit.

As anyone knows who has been to Vegas, all things are for sale there.  Paid companionship seems to be a hot commodity.  Casinos take a great deal of care to monitor who goes up to the floors of the hotel where the guests sleep, so they have a hall monitor.  He checks room keys.  This is where the paid escorts gather to wait for their clients to come down and usher them up.  At times it appears to be a hooker supermarket.  I, for one, would be too embarrassed to come down to pick up the package for fear of someone seeing me going to the store.  You almost always run into someone you know in Vegas.  And that business about what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas is a total myth.  In the age of YouTube, action in sin city can be world-wide in less than 10 minutes.

I feel as if this was my last trip to the city in the desert.  I don’t like to gamble, the buffets are marginal as far as food quality is concerned and there are no places to sit while watching people, except in front of a slot machine.  People are the greatest things to watch in the world, other than maybe a good 3 ring circus.  If they would only figure out that they could build an area in each casino, set up with comfortable chairs, a good view of the areas used by people, charge a fee for the time spent sitting and they could make more money than they do at the slots.  A comely cocktail waitress coming by periodically with a drink, a decent menu of finger sandwiches and a day of people watching would match the super  bowl as entertainment.

Chuy the entertained