TR - And the Oscar goes to... STAND BY

It's NSF time again.. Around early September, the board is pumped up a notch with plans for another NSF get together. Plans are being made, promises and threats flood the chat room and it's time to gear up for another weekend of T2V style shenanigans. I had every intention of making this NSF and was putting in a good 6 hours a day looking for flights and securing the necessities at home. Things started to go horribly wrong when the cheapest flight I could find had 3 stops, a total of 11 hours flying time all to the tune of $980 CDN. I love Vegas, and I love hanging with this crowd, but thats just insane and I was starting to mention that I might have to skip this NSF. That didn't go over well around here and soon I had a team of expedia spy's trying to find that miracle flight combo that would secure my spot in NSF.

On this side of the computer, there was no way I was going to miss NSF but I had to play cool and type in the default " I'll see what comes up". Somewhere around mid september, I decided I'm going to have to bite the bullet and pay for this flight and just hope it's worth it in the end. I decided I'd let the gang sweat a bit and not announce my countdown timer for a while. Well, it was guilty pleasure that ended up with me just saying screw it. I'm gonna walk in to some casino and suprise everyone. Whether or not they cared, doesn't matter. It was fun to have a little hee hee going on here to keep me on my toes. The next few weeks were hell being in the chat room watching all the plans be made and excitement meter getting pegged at red line. It was so hard to keep my mouth shut. The last few nights I really stuck it in and made some harsh promises to a few others not making NSF that we would chat and be miserable together. Sorry Doc

So, the day arrives. Oct 18 and I'm on a 1:10pm flight threw Seattle to Vegas arriving at 6:04 pm. Like always, our fine Canadian air traffic control gets me out of here exactly on time. All was good until we got over the US border and the " Perfect Storm " was brewing over Seattle. I had 3 FREE beers ( Love Alaska airlines for that ) and was making my way to the rear of the plane to unload and the captain comes on with the announcment that we are heading to some wicked turbulence and would everyone please take their seats. I decide to gamble and I won that hand and made it back to my seat dry and unscathed. I don't know what the exact numbers were, but the winds around Seattle and up at about 33,000 feet were way beyond good flying conditions. The approach in was like being a loto ball in the big draw. Somehow we landed in one piece and the plane roared with applause. It was very tense to say the least. We ended up stuck on the tarmac for about 35 minutes waiting for our gate to clear while starring at the remaining c gates 1 through 7 empty...

It's all good up to this point, I have an hour and 40 mins to make my connection allowing me to slip outside for a few and carry on my way to Vegas no problem. Then it gets ugly. My pass says to go to Gate D 6 at 3:20 to board. I show up, and get told " Sorry, but your gate has changed to C 18". Mother #$(%#(* thats a long hike. So I get there out of breath and I'm told the flight has been delayed to 5:20. I panic momentarily but realise I'll still get there relatively early so no worries. Back outside for a while and I text Angy who was my accomplice being the only one who knew I was even coming that I'm going to be a bit late. I go through security AGAIN ( for those keeping track this is the 3rd time today) and all the way to the gate and it's now delayed to 7:30 but even that was still sketchy. Now i'm pissed. I ask about stand by on a different flight and I get put on a 6:45 flight in the # 13 stand by spot; not a great option really. Back outside AGAIN... I go through security for the 4th time and make my way to the podium to find out about my shot at going stand by. They tell me, go away basically. But, I have nowhere to go so I tell them it's my Stagette party in Vegas hoping that they would sympathize; they didn't. So I'm sitting on the floor in an obvious state of dispare. They proceed to work their way down the list and I notice not many people showing up. Things are looking up and then the guy looks at me, winks and motions for me to come up. As I stand up, he calls my name and I let out a huge THANK YOU I LOVE YOU! and get my seat at the back of the plane. Ah, but it didn't last. Someone forgot to mention to a pilot that he had a freakin flight at that time! So, there we sat, at the gate waiting for the pilot to show up. My awesome score on the standy by 6:45 flight, was now pulling away from the gate at 7:50. As we take off I realize that my bag probably didn't make the flight and I'm a bit concerned, but screw it! I'm going to Vegas to surprise my friends. I don't need no stinkin luggage! We land in vegas just after 10:00pm, I scurry into the Alaska room, tell them to deliver my bag when it gets there and I hop in a cab to the Plaza as per Angy's text. I'm soo excited! I jump out of the cab, enter the Plaza and I'm home. I see the gang all at a BJ table and a few others at tables near by and I make my way towards them. Angy spots me and quickly turns away. I approach the table and in a loud voice I say " DID SOMEBODY ORDER SOME STICKY JUICE?" and the gang went nuts. I was called a few choice names, lots of high fives around and my 3 weeks and flight from hell all paid off. I'm in Vegas with friends and it is on!

So here I am in Vegas, the gangs all here and it all worked out in the end. I sit down at the pai gow table and proceed to actuall win the first 3 or 4 hands. I play catch up with the cocktails and in no time I'm feeling fine. Some how, I got talked into playing black jack, a game I've always been to chicken to play in Vegas due to a number of things, but mainly my horrible math abilities. The dealer and fellow t2ver's all help me out and I actually walked away up a few bucks in the end and I was kind of liking BJ. sometime around 1:00am I realize I should probably check into my room at the Vegas Club so Larry and I wander over to take care of that and along the way we make some time for stupid drunk people pics and videos and we head back to the Plaza. Soon after a bunch of us decide we need some Binions [STRIKE]breakfast [/STRIKE] errr, toast and we head to the coffee shop. I find myself saying " Can life really get any better than this? I got friends, a good drunk on, in Vegas eating toast " It was fantastic! Luckily we were able to finish our meal before getting kicked out but we did get a warning or two from the hostess. I don't recall the time, but it's late and we all head back towards Vegas Club to call it a night. I've never stayed DT before and while I didn't score the Miami Vice suite like a few others did, the room was perfectly acceptable.

Friday morning, I get up, shake off the not quite hang over and head to the casino for slots and coffee. It's how I always start each day in Vegas. Soon Marty and Snert walk by and I hitch with them and go to MSS for the breakfast buffet. Another place I've never been and DAMN! Thats a nice place. I was very surprised! Snert picked up the tab ( Thank you! ) and we head back to Vegas club to connect with the gang. Marty takes a spot at the craps table, Snert and I hit the penny machines and Scott shows up and joins Marty at the table. An hour or so later things are obviously going well at the dice game and I decide I'm going to hit the outlets for some shopping. We make plans to hook up around 5:30 to make our way to Mirage for Angy's suite party. I get cleaned up, sneek in a quick nap and around 5:30 we meet downstairs and pile in a cab to Mirage. We are greated at the elevators by Becky and she gets us up and on our way. The party is under way and everyone is looking good, drinking, laughing all with the most unreal backdrop! The view from the suite is by far probably the best view from a room in Vegas. Stunning view from a corner suite with ceiling to floor windows with every casino on the strip visible from Wynn to the sign of Mandaly bay. It was just like John Gage's party in Indecent Proposal. At least I thought so. As the party went on, more people started to arrive including Angel who was a rookie but fit in like pea's n' carrots. You rock! Then Jer showed up, Ken and his wife, it was a swinging time! A bottle of Cristal was popped and a few toasts were made and we carried on like we were all the kings and queens of Vegas. Angy went over and above hostess duty and ordered some great hordeurves, there were about 14 pizza boxes piled high and the right mix of party music.

As the party was swinging, the lap top was popped open and the camera turned on. I damn near pee'd my pants at all the photos taken. Especially the Marty one where I casually slipped the penis shaped straw ever so strategically at the exact precise moment. It was just great, I can't say much more than that. Thank you Angy for yet another brilliant suite party!

I don't know what time it was, but we shut down the party and made the trek to Carnival Court and hit the dance floor. I only recall buying one drink, but it seemed like I was drinking non stop. I don't know how that happened. The gang was all there and I was good and gone. I danced non stop, in my shitty shoes and at some point, I decided I was Axel Rose and went on a head banging bender. I was on the tracks towards a huge derailment but I held it together. At one point, there was a call for some booty action up on stage and like a total loser, I pulled myself up there to join Darnae and quickly got escorted off. DENIED! I made a complete ass of myself, but had fun doing it and thats what counts.

As CC shut down, it was decided that a game of some good 'ol fashioned poker was needed and we headed over to IP. We requested a private game and without hesitation, they opened up a table for us for some 3/6 hold 'em. This is where things start to go blurry for me. I believe it was me, Sin, Mikey, Snert and Scott playing.. oh Sandra too.. I was pretty much toast by this time. I know I had some aces against scott's 6's that paid off. I think I remember a full house in there somewhere. I had about 1 wheel left on the track at this point and headed towards the washrooms via Sin's flip flops. When I came back to the table it was pretty much over and we scrambled out of the IP and into 2 cabs to take us for breakfast at Peppermill. Many plates of toast... Some egg's... I laughed... Went to the washroom and apparently I was MIA for a while. When I was found, I was a mess and next thing I know I'm waking up in the backseat of the cab at Vegas club. My ability to postpone derailment held up and I made it to my room by about 7 am I think and I was out for the night. I was fortunate to have a room with easily accessable light switches and I didn't have to sleep with the lights on this time.


Saturday morning I woke up and found myself with a hang over like no other and a bad case of STRIPPER NECK. I don't usually suffer hang overs in Vegas but this was an execption. I slowly worked up the strength to make some coffee and veg for a while on the couch before deciding what to do. I figured some slots and coffee and baileys would help so I stumbled down to the casino and made camp at my moneystorm machine. I had texted a few others but there was no sign of life for quite some time. Finally I wandered over to the other side and found Snert starring at a blazing 7's machine and sat down beside him while he played. I had to decide if I was going to attempt to hit the strip for my shopping list, or go back to bed and try later. Snert said he'd hit the strip with me so off we went to Luxor so I could drool over Criss Angel stuff and pick up a t-shirt. Next was Ceasars forum for some Bath and Bodyworks stuff for the girlfriends. After that, I was actually starting to feel not bad and we walked over to TI so I could introduce Snert to Marty.. again..

I put a 20 in and " Houston, we have a problem ". The buttons wouldn't work, the screen wouldn't work. I couldn't cash out or spin or nothing so I sat there waiting for the attendant. Suddenly, Marty came to life and started to spin and BAM landed on 2500 credit win. Thats 50 bucks folks, SWEET!.. I spun a few more times, and then it went down again so there I sat.. Finally the attendant showed up and reset the machine which took a while. When Marty came back to life it was beautiful and he quickly took me to the bonus round where no matter how hard I tried to pick what I wanted, the screen was misaligned and it just picked what it wanted and it was all good. An unreal bonus of 9800 credits and my balance was at 188 bucks. 20 to 188 HELL YA! so while I waited for my drink I took it down to 166 and cashed out very happy.

I had Angy's suite bathrobe in my possession (somehow ended up with it Thursday night ) and Snert wanted to pick up some booze to have at his suite for a get together that night so we went up to Angy's suite and hung out for a bit with her, Sin, Drea and Sandra. Sandra was about to head to the airport so we said good bye and it was time to head DT to get ready for Saturday night. I was in desperate need of a nap so I hit the sheets for a couple hours and missed dinner but I was in no shape to go anywhere. Around 7:30 I got up, cleaned up and hoofed it over to Plaza to grab a burger and fries and the wind was ridiculous. I don't know what speed it was at, but while crossing main street, I was sideways a few times. I knocked on Snerts door around 8:30 and Snert, Sin, Angy, Marty and Scott, Drea and I sat quietly watching football and drinking the new T2V drink, Sin Juice. Sin juice is the substitute sticky juice when all you have is Cherry vodka instead of Mandarin. I thought it was pretty good and had a few. We sat nervously watching the windows bow in and out wondering who would get sucked out first if they blew and luckily no such scenario came true. Becky and john showed up a little later as did Lynnie, and we just hung out enjoying the tasty treats Sin and Marty provided from dinner at the Grotto. Thanks for that too! the Cheesecake was devine!

Soon it was time to gamble and attempt to drink. We got ourselves at 10 dollar BJ table downstairs in VC and played a couple hours. I still don't have a good idea of what to do so with the help from the table, I was up and down but really enjoying it. Finally, I cut the cards and got the mojo going and was dealt back to back to back SIZZLA's and loved it when Sin would do " We're going to Sizzlaaaaaaaa " The vibe wasn't there and the gang felt doom was looming we we split from the VC and headed to Binions for some poker. Angy, Drea and Scott decided to head to the strip for some fruity drinks and relax in a lounge so poker was Sin, Marty Snert and I. We were split up amongst a group of couples in town for a convention and to Snerts left was a nice juicy, plump poker noob with his sunglasses on, slick clothes and a bottle of oxygen like he just stepped out of his parents basement after watching the WSOP for 30 days straight. He quickly became the target when he announced that he always has to raise with an Ace. Early on, Sin needed to rub it in one time and played an A Q all the way to the river just to show and it was funny but I don't remember if she actually won or not:Þ A hand came up when I donk called a raise with 56 off just for kicks. It was a 2/4 game after all, and flopped an open ended straight draw. I bet, he raised I called. Turn came 4 filling my straight and I bet again, he raised, someone else folded and I re raised and he called. A queen on the river with no flush and I know I'm good so I bet, he raised, I called and he turned over AK.. Nodda, nothing. His buddy started to get into about what a moron he was and in a slight hillbilly voice " You didn't think she'd have a 6?" and we all busted out in laughter. He said, I had AK, I had to push her off and I said, thank you for playing like that, it was very kind of you and then Sin took over and really started laying into him. It was a fun, comical and profitable game. Marty on the other hand couldn't catch cards to save his life and if he did, he ran them into me and I took most of his stack. I said I'm gonna have to buy breakfast after my river'd wheel took down his two pair and then the next hand my ace high flush crushed him, I said looks like I'm buying dinner now as I turned over my cards. Someone's gotta do it, but I wish it was one of the other punks at the table. We left the poker game and headed to Binions for more [STRIKE]toast[/STRIKE]breakfast and Snert wanted to pick up the tab, I was more than happy to do it, but he insisted so thank you Snert! The toast was great, good company too. As we headed back to VC, Sin and I decided some penny slots and hot chocolate and baileys would help make us sleepy so we sat down and chatted at a WOF penny machine and drank our warm cups of goodness and it was a great time. We soon realised it was just past 5:00am so we called it a night.


Sunday morning, and it's check out day. I packed up, cleaned up and checked out. I called Sin, but her phone died mid sentence and all I caught was shopping at... So, I headed to ABC and Walgreens to pick up a few things hoping to bump into her but I didn't. Then I headed back to VC and found Marty and Sin and we split up after that. Sin headed back to the strip, Marty and I headed to Carson street cafe for some food my treat. I felt bad for beating him the night before at poker but lunch didn't quite add up to that so I owe ya some drinks Marty and like a dumbass, sat there the whole time with no clue it was your birthday. After lunch, we hit the plaza with Scott for some slots. I got no love anywhere like always on my last day and soon it was time to say goodbye. Scott headed upstairs for some football and Marty and I headed to plaza to get cabs and he headed to the airport while I headed to Mirage. It's sad to say goodbye to everyone but you know it wont be the last time so thats cool.

I dropped my bag off with the Mirage guys and headed over to TI for some me and magical Marty time. I have one complaint about TI, the cocktail serice SUCKS ASS! I waited over an hour for a drink. Marty didn't do so well either and took most of my money. Feeling bitter, I took the tram to Mirage and hit random penny machines to kill some time. Sin called around 5:30 and I met up with her and Angy in the suite and just relaxed for an hour before I had to head to the airport. We said our goodbyes and as they were heading out to CC I was kind of jealous, but also beat so going home felt right. My flight got delayed about 40 mins and I was stuck in the very last row with 2 grannies and I aint talkin about GILFS, but the real deal. Blue hair, polyester pants and velcro sandals. It was their job to narrate the entire flight home and I tried desperately to sleep but I couldn't. I got in the door just after 3:00 and hit the sheets thinking, damn what a great trip! Short and sweet just how it should be.

It was so great to see everyone and surprise them. I had a great time and I actually played BJ for the first time! I hope to make it to MM5. Thanks again everyone for a great trip!


Sticky

 

I knew it all along... well.. OK, I was hoping you were pulling a fast one.

Great hanging with you again sticky, even if I get no love from the penny machines. Next time girl

 

Aww Sticky!! I love you! Next time we will hang out for much much longer!

 

awesome trip report!! what a blast! wheres the pics??? i dont think i can risk missing next years!!

 

Excellent report! Nuthin like a wink and a nod for a seat on standby!

 

great read.

 

Great report Sticky, glad the surprise worked out so well.

 

awesome report

 

Nice slow-play on the NSF lead-up, Sticky. Looks like you rocked, as usual.

 

Awesome report Sticky! I LOVE that you surprised us! I cannot WAIT to do it again in March! I needs me a dance partner!:banana:

 

Sticky it was soooo tremendous to see you there! Thanks for the fun times and the dance floor was the best! We seem to be able to hang a little more and more each time I see you out there!

 

I think I broke my chair at the blackjack table at the Plaza when I saw you and jumped up so high it crashed to the floor! Awesome seeing you again, although it always seems it's just for an hour or two, it's terrific!!

 

Thanks so much for writing that. It was very entertaining! That would have been very fun surprising all your friends like that! Probably as much for for you as for them

 

I'm not bitter. Not really.

 

:evillaugh That was so fun!! Don't know how you kept that secret but I'm so glad you could make it out. Had a blast with you as usual, can't wait to do it again. :banana:

 

Was great to see you again... And thanks for all the laughs.

"I draw the line at floor toast!" has had me giggling for days...

Mikey

 

STICKY!!! It was so great to see you! I'll forgive you for lying to us, I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away from us!! Glad you came girl, I had a good time with you

 

Sticky, it was so great meeting you. Good to have someone to sing the Greece song with. I gotta get in on this toast thing next time!!

 

Sounds like you had an awsome time; and, sneaking into NSF and suprising everyone will become a classic.

 

It's really great that you got to go and surprise everyone! That's great. Thanks for the report!