Your Typical Blog
Miscellaneous blogging.
July has been another busy month with work and other stuff. So far I’ve gone camping at Big Sur last weekend, and ran the Wharf to Wharf race in Santa Cruz yesterday.
There nothing much that is new, but I did happen to buy a five-gallon fish tank. It’s a small tank that fits perfectly on my desk. I currently have six fish; three Glow Light Tetras and three Black Neon Tetras.
The blistering Las Vegas morning sun pierces through the curtains of our hotel room like heat-lasers pointing at my face. I wake up in a sweat, hung-over, with a throbbing headache. “Huy, you’re up! Let’s go hit the tables!” exclaims Aziz while in his bath towel and smothering himself with deodorant, lotion, and more cologne. The bathroom still steaming from Aziz’s shower, I brush my teeth and splash some water on my face and head out the room down to the casino floor. “You didn’t take a shower, and isn’t that the same clothes you wore last night?” Aziz asks. “Don’t worry. I think you put on enough deodorant and scent-smelling body lotion for both of us.” I reply.
The casino floor is busy with people swarming out and about through the slot machines and gambling tables. This time the usual casino noise all seem to be mushed together into one big hum combined with the ringing in my ear from the dance club last night. “What are we playing?!” I cry out compensating for the acute hearing loss. “Crabs!” Aziz responds as he hurries over to a specific spot. Crabs? I thought, I didn’t understand. I’ve never heard of it. We head to a crowded table and squeez into a spot. The table is bustling with people throwing their chips on the table and talking to the dealers in a in cryptic-jargon like a quarterback calling out his plays. A person at the table picks up a set of dice and throws them to the opposite side of the table, it lands and the other people around the table cheered, and the dealers began paying them out, and the people continue to put more chips on the table. Then the cycle begins again with the dice throwing.
I finally understood what Aziz had said earlier. He meant ‘craps’, not the marine crustacean. Craps looks very difficult to play. There are so many diagrams on the table and understanding them is going to take some time. I decide to be a spectator and watch Aziz play while asking him questions about the game. After 45 minutes, a husky old lady standing next to me with a Southern accent says, “Boy, are you gonna bet, or you gonna just stand here till the cows come home?” She’s right. I’ve been here long enough to at least know something about this game. To prevent her from pestering me with her cigarette breath, I throw down 40 dollars.
I follow Aziz placing the same bets as him. The player throwing the dice is on a good roll, and I quickly triple my money. I keep my single-dollar and my five-dollar chips out, and pocket the larger denomination chips as I win. Suddenly, it’s my turn. The dealer slides the dice in front of me on the table . “Just throw it!” Aziz cries. I grab the dice and threw it. “Four!” the dealer shouts. A large white button is placed on the “4” listed on the table, and people begin placing bets on the other numbers. “Okay Huy, now just roll any number except seven.” Aziz explains. Simple enough, I thought. I pick up the dice and threw it again. “Six!” the dealer shouts. Whew! I thought. That wasn’t too bad. Again, I pick up the dice and threw it. “Six!” the dealer shouts again. I can see the other people around me getting excited. They begin to place their bets on six. “Boy, you think you can do another six?” the husky cigarette-lady next to me asks. “Sure, why not?” I respond. I pick up the dice and threw it again. “Six!” the dealer shouts. The table literally erupts with cheering and clapping.
Aziz is excited and jittery as a school girl. He takes a large chunk of his chips and bets on six, and everyone else around the table seem to follow suit. Oh geez, I thought. Don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up. I nervously pick up the dice and threw it again. “Six!” the dealer shouts with amazement. Again the table erupts with cheers, clapping, and laughter. A young man across the table walks over to me, and raises his hand up in the air. With my hand, I give him a high-five. “Yeah baby! Keep it going six-shooter!” he shouts. Aziz screams at the top of his lungs, “Huy’s my boy!” Aziz had pressed his six, doubling-up his bet for the win. My hands are sweaty, and I couldn’t believe this is my first time playing. I can see my chip stack increase with every roll. I already calculated in my head that I have increased my winnings eight folds. Don’t fuck up, don’ fuck up. I thought as I pick up the dice and I threw them. “Six again!” the dealer shouts. A large crowd begins to form near the table. People are curious. They’re asking questions and trying to get in on the action. The table is already full. No new players can come in unless someone leaves. I stare at the dice and position it on the table in front of me. My heart races knowing that everyone’s money is hanging on to my every roll. The suffocating cigarette air masked with Aziz’s deoderant didn’t seem bother me anymore. Before I rolled, I look up to see three pit-bosses from other areas of the casino floor standing beside the table. They didn’t come to check out the action, but to make sure I wasn’t cheating somehow. I threw the dice. “It’s six again!” the dealer shouts. I continue to throw for another half hour hitting sixes several times and a few eights and fives. My arm is getting tired, not from rolling the dice, but from all the high-fives with all the people around the table. My reign ends when I carelessly roll a seven. Everyone who has chips on the table lost them to the house. Strangely, all the people around the table gives me an applause. Aziz points to his watch. We need to meet up with the rest of the guys soon. I stack my chips and put it on the table to ‘color it up” (exchange my small denomination chips for larger ones). I lost track of how much I had won, but the dealer hands me four chips; one 500 dollar chip, one 100 dollar chip, and two 25 dollar chips.
We are in a hurry and Aziz didn’t ‘color out’ his chips, Aziz is counting them like a stingy homeless man as we walk across the casino. When we arrive, the guys are already there waiting by the elevators. “So how was gambling?” Vitaly asks. With a smirk, I respond, “Eh, it was okay.”
[To be continued…]
For those who are afraid of heights indoor rock climbing is a great way to climb without much of the risk. My friend John and I squeezed in some time today for some climbing at Planet Granite’s Sunnyvale location. Anyways, Happy Fourth of July!
Note: When climbing those high walls, you’ll need a partner to belay. For bouldering, you don’t need a belayer, but a partner is still recommended for spotting and beta-ing.
“Who was that?” Yuri asks. Before I could answer my cell phone beeped of an incoming text message, Meet us in room 2318. “That was Vitaly. We need to get dressed.” I explain. The three of us, Aziz, Yuri, and I, dress as quickly as we can. We bolt out the door leaving the room smelling like aftershave and cologne. The 23rd floor, room 18. We’re here. The door is already open and we walk inside. Vitaly and six of his friends sat around the room watching ESPN. Mike shouts, “Holy crap! Did you guys take a bath in cologne or something?!” Yuri and I glance over at heavily-cologned Aziz.
“What are we wai-“ before I could finish my sentence a room service attendent comes with a bottle of champagne and several wine glasses. We open the bottle and fill our glasses with the bubbly libation. We all cheer, “To Vitaly!!!” The bachelor party has officially begun.
‘Mini skirts and long legs’ seems to be the theme for the night. We stand in line in front of the Tangerine, a new night club inside the Treasure Island Hotel-Casino. The line quickly extends down across the casino floor. We have a great view of the eye-candy that swarm through between the slot machines that seems to be place randomly on the dark psychedelic casino carpet.
Inside, the club is small and cramped. It’s difficult pressing through the crowd of elbows and shoulders to get to the bar. “Redbull and vodka!” I shout to the bartender. Before I even got my drink one of the guys had ordered a round of tequila shots. Already buzzed from three glasses of champagne I shot down the tequila and chase it with my Redbull/vodka. As I turn around I was quickly grabbed by a random girl, and we began to dance. I hold the drink in my left hand in the air, so it wouldn’t spill as we dance. I place my right hand on the small of her back to pull her closer. The dance floor is dark, but I can see she is attractive. Her forehead glowed with sweat, and her breath smells heavily from an unknown combination of liquor. She seemed to have plenty of alcohol this evening as the lack of inhibition is prevalent. She began kissing my neck, and I feel her sweaty face against mine. With her tongue, she plays with my ear. I feel a slight euphoria and my skin is covered in goose bumps. She grabs my other ear with her hand and tilts my head to the side. Before she could kiss my lips I lean back, and with my free hand I push her away feeling her moist belly. She is standing in front of me confused. I didn’t know what to say to her, so I thought of the next best thing. I lie. “I’m sorry, I have a girlfriend.” The mysterious girl turns around and disappears into the crowd.
“I’m an idiot.” I thought to myself. I walk to the bar sipping my drink regretting my mistake. I run into the guys, and, again, we go for another round of shots. My veins are filled with alcohol. I can feel myself getting drunk. I can’t make out any of the words in any of the songs. I walk through the dance floor, and every girl looks amazing. I feel like a pinball bouncing off people as I move about. It was difficult to keep count of how many girls I danced with that night, but I somehow manage to find my way back to my hotel room. Too lethargic to take off my shoes or undress I plop onto my bed and instantly fell into comatose-like state. Later that night, I awoke from a pungent smell of stale potpourri mixed with herbs and spices. My vision was blurry but when it came to I realize Aziz has just entered the room.
[to be continued…]
The topless exotic dancer dances hypnotically to the music. Her perfect breasts sways elegantly with her torso in rhythm. Her long athletic legs glistens from the soft lights that barely lit the room, and as I sit in the plush suede chair she approaches. She places her right knee at the edge of the chair between my legs with her thigh up against my groin. She presses it against me and her fingers ran through my hair down to my ears. Her erect nipple barely but softly touches my face slid down to my lips. Suddenly, the chair begins to vibrate violently and the room echoed with a loud but familiar ding. I open my eyes and I am back in the plane and in an instant a voice fills the cabin, “This is the Captain speaking. Sorry for the turbulence, but we are approaching the Las Vegas airport, so please put on your seatbelts and your trays in their upright and locked positions.” The announcement quickly ended. Damn, it was only a dream
It’s about 10:15pm. My friends and I head towards the airport exit and as the automatic sliding door opens we are hit with a seering blast of Las Vegas summer air. It feels like standing in front of a bellowing hot furnace. “Holy shit!” my friend Aziz cries. We approach a Taxi that happens to be a Lincoln Town car. We hand the driver our bags and tell him the hotel we were staying. We hop in the backseat of the air-conditioned car with much of appreciation of cooler air. The driver threw our bags in the trunk and quickly slips into the driver seat with speed and accuracy adjusting the rear-view mirror and putting on his seatbelt at the same time. The car quickly sped out narrowly missing other taxis and pedestrians. The driver glance over his should and in a stern but informative voice he says, “One hundred and four degrees.”
As we walk inside the chilled hotel-casino the voluminous environment was filled with pings and chimes of slot machines and drops of coins falling into steel trays, which are done on purpose as a pychological effect on having you believe that these machines payout often. We checked into our rooms and plop on our queen-size beds testing for stiffness and rebound. The phone in our room mysteriously rang. “Who the hell is that?!” Yuri exclaims. I pick up the phone. “Hurry! Get dressed we’re heading to the club!” And in an instant the phone hung up with a click.
[to be continued…]
Anyone who wondered how much I ran here is an excel file that I used to keep track of my running from August 29, 2004 to March 9, 2005. This doesn’t reflect on how much I run now because I just don’t have the same amount of time anymore.
The distances are measured in meters (1600m ~ 1 mile). The locations are varied from High School tracks to local races to even at home where I run on nearby trails. The workouts are varied as well. They’re ranged from runing intervals on the track or just one long run.
Some of you may asked how I knew the distance of my run for when I run on trails. The answer is simple, I carry a GPS watch that I use to keep track of my distance/speed/time. Here’s a picture.
The past few weeks have been busy, so my blog entries have been quite sparse. And it will seem to be this way for the summer. So what have I been doing? Nothing. Well, nothing exciting. I have a weird work schedule and with my free time I try to squeeze in some running, biking, and a few trips to the beach. I’ve also picked up a book, Angels and Demons. I must say that this is a great book.
Summertime means, plenty of good movies to be seen. But so far, I’ve been disappointed by the current releases. There’s one movie I can’t wait to see and hopefully it can save the day. Yup, it’s Superman Returns.
Great news, I’m heading to Las Vegas at the end of the week. I’ll try to take plenty of pictures. Hopefully, I’m sober enough to do so.
Who want’s to get plastered first?
‘Let Me Go’ by 3 Doors Down
I haven’t really officially taken a vacation from work yet, but this past week, including Memorial weekend, I took it off to rest and relax, hence, the lack of any blog entries last week. I spent the weekday sleeping in and put in some good running and biking. For the Memorial weekend I took a road trip to San Diego with some friends. The weather wasn’t so great until Sunday. On Sunday the beaches were packed and there was plenty of alcohol floating around and not to mention all the beach bunnies too.
Pictures of my trip has been posted in the gallery. Check ’em out.