Surprisingly Not Annoying

Well folks, one week from tomorrow I will be headed off to Las Vegas for 4 days of golf, gambling, ATV-ing and general R&R (except for my liver - he might have to work a bit harder).

There's 8 of us going and one has already notified us he hurt his back and golf and the ATV excursion are in jeopardy. As an aside, I'm so thankful for my general back health. Though I've had very minor issues at times, I can't imagine dealing with a 5.5+ hour flight on Southwest with a bad back. So good luck, buddy.

A few of the guys will just play poker whenever we're not on the golf course. So, periodically, I'll pop in and see how they're doing but I can't just sit in one room playing poker all day, every day. Cool guys like me and the Fonz need more action!

One guy, G, won't go on the ATV trip because his wife thinks he'll kill himself. First, I think he needs some balls. Second, would that place be in business long if they lost one or two of their patrons every trip? I'm pretty sure its a nicely controlled environment, but whatever. Seems, he's the controlled environment.

Another buddy, I'll call him B2, is the obsessive sort. On the one hand, he's great to go away with because he gets so excited and we get a kick out of that. He really has genuine fun when he does stuff and its contageous. On the other hand, he obsesses every little detail. I mean everything. (How close are the rooms? Where will we eat every night? Are we seeing a show? Are we not seeing a show? What are you going to wear? (Yeah, he really asked me that.) Don't forget your GPS. How about check out? Can we stay late? No limo this year, think a cab will be hard to get?) Whereas, I'm more of a go with the flow sort of guy. Normally, his behavior would irritate me, but for some reason with B2 its comical and sweet. He calls me 2 or 3 times a week (for the past 15 weeks or so) to update me on how many days are left, or remind me to bring something or ask what else I want to do while out there. The rest of us have a big laugh about it. He comes across at motherly, but its tempered by his enthusiasm.

Apparently, last year he was bumming that he didn't "do more". I guess one night he just kind of hung out in his room and did nothing. He's a big gambler, so if the tables are cold he loses lots and he had been pretty beaten down. That was the night I went on my little escapade involving copious gambling, inbibing and eating. My best buddy, B1, is going with us for the first time (his wife granted permission if I promised not to take him to a strip bar - I did. We won't). He and I are more similar in that we like to have a few more beers than the other guys and cruise around and check out the scene more. We're more into the roaming party, you could say.

If the tables beat us up, perhaps we'll hang out in a bar and play Keno until the wee hours or do a bunch of casino hopping. There's always fun to be had. We'll just go with it. I hear one of the casinos has Beer Pong even. How cool is that? I'm sure to check that out. I was pretty good in my day. Being able to consume large quantities of beer and having a modicum of hand/eye coordination served me well back in college (and after for that matter).

Also, B1 one is not an experienced gambler who tends to be protective of his money. To set him up, the other weekend we did a mini casino night where I taught him a bunch of games and dealt a million hands and we're going to do it tomorrow night too. At the least, we can practice drinking some beer.

This year B2 says he wants "in". That means he wants to hang out with me. (Hey! I'm fun dammit!) And B1 will be with me 24/7 I'm sure. So, that's fine by us, but he's already trying to plan it. He's called to ask what we're going to do, where will we go, what's the plan? We don't know. B1 and I, being so damn cool, don't plan. We just do. If B2 wants to come along, that's perfectly fine. He just better keep up.