Welcome to Las Vegas - Day 1

The Imperial Palace,
right in the middle of the strip, a perfect location to set up camp for the next four glorious days and nights. Ah, so far, heaven this place -- the excitement, and ah yes, the weather. Only the first week of May, but the sun, so very nice, beating hard upon my winter-weathered body, face. Ghostly and wan from months of winter, I was ready for a change, a quick tan, a new look. I always thought that I'd looked better with a tan, handsome, maybe not a matinée idol type of handsome but handsome enough to have attracted a fair share of pretty girls in my still young life. I've had my share of girlfriends, a few I really thought I loved but maybe my ideas of love were misguided by an overwhelming sense of need and too much alcohol. To love, one must truly feel, and how can one really feel when numbed by bouts of alcohol and binges of insecurity?

Before I met Patricia, my companion, my traveling partner I was alone-- my last real girlfriend bolted after she had walked in on me while in the arms of a curvy pick-me-up I had found sitting lonely in another cheap bar in a cheaper part of town and who I decided to bring home, to see my collection of old records of course.

Though I thought I loved Katie, perhaps she, too, was nothing more than a security blanket or a temporary reprieve from abject loneliness. Out went Katie, came in Patricia, a lady who had experience, a bit of sophistication, she was for goodness sake, more than ten years my senior. She could probably teach me a few things, I thought that first day as we sat in the middle of the park sharing a few sniffers of vodka and a couple of songs that were playing out on her little boom box.

I was glad that Patricia took me up on the offer to finally try out Vegas.

Patricia and I checked into our room, a nice room, with two double beds in which we quickly put together to make one large California King, for we would need the space to indulge in our calisthenics and wine-enriched athleticism.