Stood up by a stripper

In Vegas last week, I wore my glasses the majority of the time. When you sleep a couple hours every other night, contacts don’t cut it. Glasses enable you to roam the streets with red eyes without looking like an alien blinking incessantly. Though in Vegas, no one looks the other way when they see red eyes, wrinkled shirts, or men wearing white wedding dresses.

When I was working at the radio station, the promotions director always asked if I wanted tickets to anything. Radio doesn’t pay much and perks like tickets and food gift certificates make up for it. I never took him up on it, not seeing anything I was interested in. When I left, they kept in touch and said if I was ever in town and wanted tickets, let them know.

So I asked for Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, and he came through. As hack as they are, I’m a sucker for Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, and Phantom of the Opera is a favorite. The Vegas version is a truncated, 100-minute version (even the title was shortened) with a fireworks display that they somehow received permits to let off onstage. The center orchestra seats were terrific and I didn’t notice what was missing from the intermission-less show, other than possible talent that Las Vegas still has trouble attracting.

But as the spectacle in the Spectacular, it was worth every bit of the comped tickets.

My friend J was impressed as I was with the constant motion and new scenery with every scene change. We were two rows in front of where the Phantom hung from the chandelier, which was fine because I don’t like having dirt from people’s shoes fall on me.

I would’ve taken a picture of the breathtaking theater, but theaters are kind of my church, and I tend to respect the no photograph rule.

That didn’t, however, stop my obsession of snapping a picture of restrooms, downstairs in the Phantom lair.

As with anything in hotel rooms that isn’t nailed down, I considered absconding with the softsoap, but I didn’t have a convenient place to hide it.

Here’s the flimsy program along with a Phantom chip I won in the poker room.

That poker room was the stop after the show, and I watched J as he bet aggressively at the 1/2 NL table and was called by several players.

After he lost, he headed to Wynn to try out his luck.

Suddenly, the table became tight and it was a chore to win anything. J is a tight player but overly aggressive only when he doesn’t hit, and I think while he was playing the table loosened up.

I managed to squeak out the $5 Phantom chip along with $95 more, and it was hard to concentrate with two attractive girls at the table.