Viva Las Vegas

It's good to be back in New England, although I could have done without the whole temperature in the teens bit. And now the forecast is for our first real snowstorm of the year to hit tomorrow. Great.

Vegas was fun, despite the fact that various delays led to me arriving almost six hours late Sunday. The conference went well, and me and my co-worker Matt even played some slot machines; I think I lost about $15 on the nickel and quarter slots. What can I say, I'm a wildman. We were staying at Treasure Island, a pretty nice hotel and casino, but we also checked out the new Wynn casino, as well as the Bally. One strange phenomenon the first was the prevalence of people every few feet trying to give away cards; the cards advertised local escort services. The weird thing is, the next night, all of the "sales reps" were gone. It was almost as if they all quit or something. That night, we decided to explore the older, seedier side of the Strip and ended up going into the Stardust, which is an old-school casino. And when I say old-school, I mean straight outta 1963 old, right down to the waitresses, who were all in their 50s and wearing short shorts and control top hose. Scary. We didn't stick around there too long.

I flew out yesterday on a direct flight to Boston and almost didn't realize I had a celebrity neighbor. When I got on the plane, there was a guy in the window seat who was already asleep, which was strange since boarding only began about five to 10 minutes earlier. I had the aisle seat and nobody sat between us, so I just started reading Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes; I had met him along with my bro-in-law Matt at the NYC Marathon and the book was a quick read. (I love reading on plane rides. It seems to be the only time I get much reading done. On the extended trip down, I finished the painfully hilarious Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin by Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig.)

Anyhoo, the guy snoozed for the first two hours or so of the 4.5-hour flight. When he woke up, he ordered and downed four Heinekens in a row; I was deep in my book and was listening to my iPod, so I didn't talk to the guy or anything. One of the stewardesses said something to him like, "The girls are going crazy back there. They're having a flashback," which struck me as curious, but I didn't get it at first. Later, it kind of hit me that the guy looked like Jordan Knight, a member of the late '80s/early '90s boy band New Kids on the Block; I was never a fan or anything, but they certainly got plenty of press around here since they were from Boston. I wondered why he was traveling in coach, but it's not like he's riding the top of the charts anymore. Sure enough, at the baggage claim, a girl had her photograph taken with him and he seemed to have a little entourage. I did a little research and it turns out he was in Vegas appearing Tuesday night at the Billboard Music Awards. So there you have it.

More blogtography tomorrow.