I'M GOING BACK TO VEGAS

I wanted to get up early this morning, but I lagged and left late as usual. I wanted to wait for my books to arrive because I'm giving Richie a book written by Neil Strauss called "The Game". In it, Strauss describes turning into a pick-up artist and hooking up with some of the most beautiful women he's seen. Any guy who reads this book will wonder if any of it is true, but ultimately, there's only one way to find out.

I made it to Jean, NV fairly quickly. I took a break there and stopped by Whiskey Pete's to join their rewards program. I'm on a mission to join every single awards program there is. It's cheaper than collecting casino chips and I might actually get something out of it. But really, it's just another stupid collection. One day, I'm hoping to create some kind of artwork with all the rewards cards I've collected. I do this with matchboxes too. I have some seriously old matchboxes from Vegas back in the day and I can't wait to frame them somehow.

I met up with Rich at his place. His cousin's little puppy was in the house and it came running up to me. I said, "oh my gosh, what happened to Sage!?" Of course, it wasn't Sage but the cutest little puppy dog that looked like a gremlin. Poor Sage was sick and Richie was keeping her outside because she was barfing too often. Even though I didn't like Sage's whippy tale and sharp claws when she jumped on me, I missed her doing that.

We got ready with a little yay and headed off to pick-up Brenda. When we arrived at her apartment complex, she had to get out to open the gate. She looked the same but with a coat on. Rich got out and gave her a little Christmas tree plan I had bought and told her it was from the two of us - our little Christmas present. She brought it back upstairs and they returned to the car.

I was hoping I'd get a hug, a nice hello or something like that, but as I suspected, there was nothing of the sort. She just got in the car and said, "hi". Jeez, I thought, she really knows how to make a guy feel special.

We drove off to Tao which is in the Venetian. We didn't get in last time, but this time, we were rollin' with some of Brenda's buddies. They were cool guys but Rich and I kept to ourselves. Tao has an Asian theme with lots of dark, red colors. As we walked inside, I saw Nick Cannon walking out with some hot ladies. Fame - what it can do.

There were a lot of brothers and sisters in the house tonight so I knew there was going to be hip-hop and some booty shakin'. We got to the bar and it was still early enough for some of the older business men to hang out. Two of them were staring Brenda down and I told her so. She finally got enough courage to walk up to them and they offered her a drink. She kindly accepted. What a drink slut!

The night passed along without much action. We saw Angel there and met Jasmine who Rich had already known from the Aloha Bar. At one point, I got a little jealous when Brenda was showing one of her friends Toma where the bathroom was because they were holding hands and were really close to each other. "I think I may be getting shafted," I told Richie. But it was more my insecurities than anything else because I later found out that DJ Toma is one of those guys that keeps an eye out for Brenda when she's wasted. "I once told Toma that he's more than a friend, but not like that, not like that," Brenda explained.

As the night wore down, I looked at Rich and wondered when he would say something. It was really late and I wondered how he would get to work. By 4am, he was saying, "let's go, I gotta go." I was glad to go and told Brenda that I would take him home. "I'll call you when I drop him off and meet you at your place," I said.

Poor Rich. He was knocked out on the way home and he stumbled across his driveway to get inside. Meanwhile, I took off to Brenda's and inside her apartment, Angel was grubbin' away on the couch watching TV. Brenda described what they were eating. "Have you ever had chilli and mayonaise?" she asked. Nope. Never had the pleasure, but it sure reminded me of chilli and sour cream. "Mayonaise is better."