'I’d be lying to you if I said that the best part of the trip was the zany animal circus or the Mad Max slots'
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images On a recent Friday night in Las Vegas, I made the mistake of going out on the Strip at 11:30 p.m., thinking I could quickly grab a bite and get back up to my hotel room. The streets were jam-packed with drunk people looking to have a good time and/or get more drunk. Upward of 30 people lined up outside a shop selling daiquiris in those three-foot-tall plastic cups shaped like the Space Needle but upside down.
In the back of one of the Strip’s seedier casinos, I found the only place selling food without an unacceptably long line, a stand hocking a footlong hot dog for $2.49, and then went back out into the madness, moving slowly in the horde of what felt like millions of people with a silent desperation, fantasizing about being back in my quiet room at the Venetian. I finally made it back, and walked across the casino floor, looking for the elevators.
Many people would have found the hustle and bustle of the Strip on a weekend night thrilling, especially after having been cooped up for so long. But I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I don’t party, and I’m not a big-time gambler. So why did I come to Las Vegas at all? Well, I moved to Reno nine months ago, and I thought I needed to have a full-on Vegas experience in order to become a real Nevadan.
By Monday morning, I was walking through the Venetian like an old pro, no longer getting lost or feeling bitter about the time it took to get from the lobby to my room. I approached one of the many European fountains, a security guard asked if I wanted a picture with my boyfriend in front of the gaudy marble display. “Do you have kids?” he asked. I told him no. “Well, if you decide to have kids, they’ll be beautiful. You’re a beautiful couple.
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