"When people ask me if I like Vegas, I wish I could express to them the feeling I get when I step in the cab line, about it see you ladies. It's just... giddy." -LL

McCarran cab line.  Where giddy starts.

This past Easter weekend (I apparently start blog posts and never finish them -- but in honor of D's trip this weekend, I thought I'd give my take on the Paris of the Desert.  I just made that up.  No one calls Vegas that.) was my annual trip to Vegas with my girlfriends.  The title of this post is a text I got from my best friend while she was in the cab line at the airport waiting to come meet us at the hotel.  One of the things that I love about Vegas is that from the moment you get off the plane, the experience is larger than life.  Even the cab line is an event -- there are probably 200 people in it at any given time (many more if you're arrive between 9pm-11pm on a Friday night) and the energy is electric.  You know from that first moment that this is a place like nowhere else on earth.

We've been to Vegas at least once a year since we were 21 and, since we're all getting up there, that means we've had quite a few nights in Sin City.  Originally, we went just for the clubs -- Vegas has some of the best nightclubs ever; always packed, big dance floors, cool tables and amazing DJs. (Seriously, I use to fly to Vegas just to see Clinton Sparks -- who lived maybe ten minutes from me in Boston -- play at Body English, my favorite (now, sadly, defunked) club ever.  The loss of Body English should be a blog post on it's own, since it closed seemingly for no reason and Vanity has nothing on B.E. At any rate, that's a story for another time, since this post is already so tangental that I can barely follow it.)  The clubs were just the greatest scene with the funnest crowds. (Crowds with some of the best pick-up lines ever in the history of the world, like, "Well, going to clown college really chooses you." or "Do you know Pepto Bismol?  I'm actually the heir to the Pepto Bismol fortune.") We always met fun, funny people there, got drunk, danced and had a great time.  There is definitely a certain level of trashiness in any club, and especially in any club in Vegas (Vanity is taking trashy too far.) but the trashiness can be ignored because of the fun.  Also, Vegas has the most amazing bathroom attendants of anywhere I've ever been.  One night at Drai's, I saw a woman rip her dress, go into the bathroom and take off the dress, wait in the stall while the bathroom attendant sewed the dress, and then put it back on and go back to dancing.  For real, that is service.  At any rate, we loved the clubs.  Even though there's still a giant Body English-shaped hole in my heart, I still think they are really fun.

It really is all that.

This past trip we spent time at the Palms clubs, Moon and Ghost Bar, which are worth visiting for the view alone.  You're like 45 stories up, dancing outdoors on this huge patio, with the Vegas lights all around you.  It's really surreal.  Making all the crazier, at Ghost Bar, the floor of the balcony is clear, so you're also watching cars whiz by on the street below you.  Unbelievable.

So, in short, the clubs are awesome.  As we've gotten older though, we've embrace some of Vegas' other attractions.  This past trip, for example, we saw Zumanity, the Cirque du Soleil show that borders on actual porn, but is still completely amazing, despite it's weirdly racist undertones.  Not only was it a great show, but it struck up a lively dinner conversation about which countries the Cirque du Soleil performers were B-list gymnasts in.  It's nice to have something to talk about over dinner.

Favorite people, favorite place. 

In another totally adult move -- and this is a highlight -- I learned to play craps.  It's legitimately the most fun gambling game I've played, and I really like to gamble.  Craps is the quintessential Vegas game, because it's all about strangers coming together to have fun.  In my first game, I won like a hundred bucks, had an entire crowd of strangers chanting "Eight for Kate! Eight for Kate!" and received a marriage proposal.  For someone who likes attention as much as I do, it was pretty much the highlight of my life.

To sum up, I love to dance, drink, gamble and watch acrobats perform well-chorographed soft-core porn.  Like in life, the most important part about Vegas is the people you share it with, and I'm lucky to get to go to heaven in the Mojave (I made up that name too.) with some of the smartest, funniest, wildest girls I know.  Ladies, I can't wait til next year.   For now, I'm so, so sad that I won't get to be with you, D, as you lose your Vegas virginity.  But I hope you know that I'm with you in spirit.  Enjoy the giddy, you deserve it.

xo kate