The Las Vegas Bug

I've visited Las Vegas several times but I've never had a deep affinity for the city. I remember being ten or eleven and on a trip with my parents. Sitting on the sidewalk outside Cesars Palace was a man, a woman and three kids. They all looked like they could use a shower and a nap. The father was eating shrimp cocktail out of a Dixie cup and passing it to his wife for a bite. The three kids were sitting on backpacks and looked misreable. They weren't into the shrimp (which is just as well, there was hardly enough for one person).

The next day, I saw a man yank at the arm of his girlfriend, who was trying to enter a casino. She shrugged him off and he implored, "I don't have any fucking money!" She said, whatever, and then marched in without him.

So my earliest impressions of this city were of sad families, fractured relationships and broke people. Things seem to have changed, though. I caught an episode of the new season of Top Chef and it takes place in Vegas. The contestants were cooking at Joel Bouchon's restaurant and I was amazed at how cool Vegas seems now. Major restaurants, hip nightspots and not such a desperate feel to it. Of course, now that I want to go it would be difficult with a toddler in tow. So my fantasy is to have my parents watch Mags, fly in with J, have dinner and drinks, play a card game or two, and then fly back the same night.

I caught the Vegas bug from a TV show. Oh, the humanity.