Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.

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Tres random stories from the recent Vegas trip

uno:
I went to Vegas for a few days with my friend K last week. Not a huge trip, just a quick jaunt, a short break from work and life to keep insane. I'm glad she suggested it, I needed the time off even if was only for a couple of days.

One of us is a good enough gambler that the Stratosphere comped us a suite. A suite with a bathroom the size of my living-room, that had a jacuzzi tub just slightly smaller than my upstairs bathroom.

After checking out the room, one of us went downstairs to the casino and was soon using hundred dollar chips in their bets, while the other lay in the jacuzzi with the jets going full blast drinking Arizona brand iced green tea and eating some of the leftover road trip snacks.

Yes, even we made jokes about our successfully fulfilling queer stereotypes.

dos:
Our two big meals of the trip were the buffets at Aladdin�s and Belagio. From some restaurant review sites I�ve seen, they�re duking it out for best Vegas buffet. Best as in quality, not price, since in a city filled with billboards of photoshoped ginourmous lobsters, and unappetizing hunks of bloody meat for prices "no one else can beat," there are certainly cheaper eating options. Not that I�m likely to choose those other options. Even if I were a big meat eater, crappy steak is still crappy no matter how cheap.

Anyway, food at Belagio was the same as last time I was there, though a bit pricier. Highlights of that meal were herb grilled lamb, little cups of a spicy shrimp cocktails, pesto mashed potatoes, a thick and rich red bell pepper soup, a small glass of a liquidy strawberry desert that I forget the name of, and a slice of a tart lemon meringue pie.

I think I liked the selection at Aladdin�s better as it was a �food of the world� deal and thus more varied than Belagio (and certainly cheaper), though the quality of some of the food was not quite as good as it could have been. While a couple of things I chose were disappointing, most of it was good including chicken kabobs, hummus, saut�ed mushrooms, grilled asparagus, a white fish (forget which kind) in a buttery sauce,and small crepes in a chocolate sauce.

Oddly, while eating at the Aladdin�s, I got goosed by a ghost. It was strange, not so much the teasing by a nonexistent figment of the imagination, since that�s hardly novel for me, but because of the location. Las Vegas is usually more normal than that.

tres:
I think I may have been lightly cruised in a men�s room at Aladdin�s, though these things happen so rarely to me, I may have imagined it. I walked into the restroom, did the usual cursory scan (checking out cleanliness and placing the location of everyone to maneuver around), when I noticed a man looking at me in the mirror over the handwash sinks. I looked back, and two, three, four, five, six seconds later we were still looking at each other.

I finally broke eye contact so as to not walk into a wall. His expression was emotionless, neither overly positive not negative, so it was hard to place just what was going on, other than that looking at each other for several seconds was a definite breach of public restroom etiquette.

As I went about my business �round the corner from the sinks, I started thinking that maybe what I thought had just happened did not actually happen, although if it had, it would have been flattering, even if I had no intention of doing anything other than being mildly startled. He was attractive-ish, a white guy, early thirties or so, with scruffy, dirty-blond hair, blue eyes, and short hoops in both his ears, which surprised me since he wore a name tag for a construction expo/convention that was going that weekend and that seemed to conflict with the image of a midlevel worker sent to Vegas to drum up business for some heavy construction equipment company.

A problem I have in situations like that one is that unless the other man is being pretty obvious, I�ll likely end up confused and wondering just what was going on. For example, the other day leaving a store, I noticed a youngish Latino guy staring at me, with a huge Cheshire cat of a smile, looking mighty pleased and mischievous as I headed off towards my car. HIs intentions, I understood.

more later,
nico

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