Vice Vegas.
In my life I've had most of the usual "guy" passions and vices; I went through the heavy metal phase, the Bruce Lee phase, I lusted after fast cars for a while and I HAD a fast motorcycle for a while. I've had passionate love affairs with playing tennis and golf at earlier periods in my life. I've been a devoted SF Giants fan since I moved to the Bay Area in 1985. I had my weed phase and a mostly short and very choppy coke phase and I've always loved attaining a good liquor buzz.
I went through a couple year-long obsession with going out on weekends in San Francisco when I had not yet moved to the City. I had a streak of over a year in which I went to SF every weekend, usually getting a cheap hotel room and riding Caltrain up from the San Jose area. Pretty much just left all my friends and a fairly serious GF down there in the dust and rode that obsession until I ended up moving here. While the other guys I worked with were leasing Mercedes and expensive apartments, I was blowing $300 every weekend on Polk Street getting drunk and chasing tail.
Some people have a passion for cars, or clothes, or shoes or money or Beanie Babies. My current passion and addiction is Vegas.
I follow a handful of Vegas blogs and news sites and in some ways frankly I'm more in tune with what's going on in Vegas than I am with what's going on in SF, and probably more so than a lot of people who live there. I'm more INTERESTED in Vegas than I am SF, though on even the heaviest of trip years for me I'll only spend the equivalent of about 2 weeks there. Whereas in the past I would feel a sense of guilt and disappointment if I didn't go out at least one day per week in the City, I now willfully and happily stay in on days off for months at a time saving every last dime for three days in Vegas. I haven't gone out in the City for a month, and it will be another month until after I come back from the July trip before I'll go out here again.
I've tried in previous posts to analyze WHY I obsess over Vegas. I suppose trying to explain and rationalize it misses the point of an obsession; when you fall in love with something it just kinda takes you over and there's no real need to give it a cause or reason, you just have to ride it until it's run its course. I've been "in love" with a lot of things in my life, many of them listed above, and there was the whole Becky thing (WAY off-topic and I've wrung myself out over it enough elsewhere, consider yourself lucky for not having to hear about it here). Like most of those obsessions, Vegas too will pass, I suppose. I have no desire to MOVE to Vegas, I have no doubt that the excitement you get on a short trip would get old quickly if it was daily life, and I certainly don't have or will ever have the kind of life that would allow me to afford the "Vegas lifestyle" on a daily basis (unless I get OBSCENELY lucky on penny slots). All my former passions and addictions wore themselves out and diminished to a great extent or completely in some cases. Vegas will too.
But, damn, it's fun when you have a period in your life that allows you to pursue one of your passions. Right now, Vegas is it.
T-minus 1 month from today.
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