Trips Galore...California and Vegas...

Well the trip to California went well. Chris and I had a blast, and I think we learned a little about each other too. He learned that I am impatient, and I learned that he is horrible with directionsn and loves Jerky. Not too many fights between the two of us though. We saw some real cool sights. One being this hugs double rainbow. It was breathtaking. Also, I am not sure how many people have seen these, but we saw fields and fields of energy-generating windmills. It was awesome. A basic run-down of the trip follows:

• Chris comes into town on Tuesday, February 15, 2005. We hung out and went to dinner with some of my friends.
• On Wednesday I went to work and got out a little early. We ended up leaving Indianapolis at 3:30pm.
• We then procede to drive straight to Houston. Arriving there at approximately 8:30am.
• After a few hours of finding his house and driving to his mom's friends house we finally get there at 11am or so. Take a 2 hour nap and are back on the road by 4pm or so.
• We get to San Antonio right at 6pm. We then hung out with Chuck, Ranae, Chuckie and Jimmy. We had a good 'ol time and had "my favorite food" for dinner. (Pizza...inside joke)
• Woke up at 6:30ish and had some coffe and I think we were on the road by 7:30 or so. Heading to Tucson.
• Wow...there is absolutely nothing between San Antonio and Tucson...nothing...jsut one long ass, boring 13 hour drive. We ended up getting into Tucson at probably 8:30?? I can't remeber for sure. Grandma had dinner for us and we relaxed for a little bit with her and Jon. Then we went out to Morgan's house and hung out with him and Wyatt and a few other people. It was a good time.
• In the morning we woke up and had some great pancakes and headed for LA. Not sure what time we left but it took about 7 hours and we got to LA around 8ish.
• We then met up with a high school buddy of mine, Clarence Bucaro, and had dinner with him and his ex-girlfriend Catherine. It was a nice little Indian restaurant we were at.
• Finally we made to Gary's house, Chris' manager. Very nice home in Van Nuys. We got Chris moved in and then hit the sack.
• Sunday we woke up and Gary made us breakfast, then Chris took me to the ariport and that was the trip.

My next trip was the very next weekend, Las Vegas. Just a four person trip, but we had a great time. Jeter, Means, Sormalis, and me. Of course here is a brief synapsis of the trip:

• We all met at my apartment and headed for the airport at right around 5pm. We had a little meal there and that was about it. Boarded the plane and took off for Vegas at about 7pm.
• Jeter and I were sitting together but we were next to an old woman and I was in the middle. But it worked out great becasue she moved and we had three seats to ourselves.
• We watched Dragonfly and it made the time go by quick. We also had fun doing some crosswords. But before we knew it we were landing in Vegas. Local time was about 8pm or so. We had to then wait for Sermy's bag. But that didn't take too long. Then it was time to get a cab to The Flamingo. We won the jackpot on Taxi Drivers. This guy was hilarious. He was talking about drugs, hookers, guns, knives, it was crazy. He had some pretty funny stories too.
• We got to the hotel and were amazed by the sight of the Strip. We then got checked in and set-up in our room and then it was gambling time. I spent the whole weekend, minus 40 bucks, at the craps table. Let me tell you, that was the best idea I ever had.
• In the first few hours I was already up 150 or so. Nice :) But by the end of the night I was down $200. So luck comes and goes. We ended up gambling most of the night and finished it off with a nice stop at Burger King.
• Next day we decided to go grab some grub. We ended up picking this place right next door to us. The Barury Inn or something? So while we waited for our name to be called We decided to gamble for a little and I think we all made enough to pay for breakfast atleast, so that was nice.
• We then decided to gamble a little bit more and we ended up splitting into two groups. Jeter and me, and Sormalis and Means. They went ahead and were just exploring different casinos. We did the same but were gambling when they left. So after awhile we felt the need to drink. We bought a six pack and popped a squat in front New York, New York. We then made up a nice little people watching drinking game. Any hot girl we saw we would take a drink. I then added that any girl wearing a red shirt, no matter what she looked like, we would have to drink two. So needless to say we finished our 6-pack real quick. So we went and got another one and kept playing. We finally met back up with Means and Sermy and then we got an 18 pack and played some more. It was real nice out excpet for about 30 minute span where it sprinkled. So after that was all gone we went back to the hotel for showers and rest.
• We decided to go to the Ghost Bar, and by decided, I mean that Sermalis made us. Lol, no I am just kidding. He really wanted to go and Jeter didn't, so we argued about it for a while and we decided to go. Good thing b/c we had a real good time there. And of course afterwards we gambled there at the Palms and that is where I made my small fortune. by small fortune I mean like $300. Hey...I said small right? But hey it paid for the trip. Jeter went home early that night b/c he was out of money and had a headache. But me and Means were over there rollin away. We were on this crazy hot streak of rolls for like 45 miutes between the two of us. Menas went form 1 dollar to 150 and I went from 100 to 600. It was great.
• We then took a cab and Means rightfully pissed of this chick we met earlier by calling her out. She claimed she was single and it turns out she was married...ouch. So of course it wouldn't be a complete night without Burger King, so I treated aeveryone to a nice sandwich.
• Me and Means then went upstairs to wake up Jeter and Sermy went and won some more craps with my newly found strategy.
• In the morning we didn't do much. Walked around for awhile looking for a place top eat, until eventually we decided on Burger King, where I treated us to a nice little breakfast.
• After that we just headed to the airport and flew home.

As to the band that I was possibly going to sing in. Well, it fell through. They picked someone else. I can only imagine that this other peron was picked due to their extensive song writing. I was surprised and disappointed, but hey, there's always more opportunites. I will keep playing at Howl At The Moon, and we'll see where that goes.

Well, I feel like i have typed enough for one day.

Later,

TommyJohn