fractured reality

So, this week past, I traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada for a Lawson user conference. As a fan of Vegas-in-film and legalized gambling, I generally had a good time.

Highlights:

- Food. We ate at two different Indian restaurants which were absolutely superb, and even when we clenched our fists and tried a hotel restaurant, they made soem delicious vegetarian fare for us.
- The hotel. We stayed at the Palazzo, which is the new hotel connected to the Venetian. You may have seen the hotel in its construction phase if you watched the beginning of Ocean’s Thirteen. The suite was ridiculously opulent, and had a nice view of the mountains.
- The casinos. I think that it’s too bad that mega-resorts are replacing the older, themed casinos. We walked through many casinos and still didn’t make it down to the Luxor, Excalibur, or out west to the Rio. All these buildings without windows or clocks, where people smoke and drink and throw away piles of money. Strange and terribly interesting.
- Weather. Although it was cool when we arrived, it was sunny and up into the 70s the rest of the trip. We sat by the pool and soaked up the sun, which was quite the change from March in Ohio.
- Entertainment. Although we didn’t actually take in any shows (they cost too much money and time for our paltry free-vacation budget) the company hosting the event had the Barenaked Ladies put on a private show for us, which was terrific. They were playful and energetic on stage, and a good time was had.
- I managed to play “RAVIOLIS” as a bingo in Scrabble.
- Free Drinks. This goes with the territory, but I did enjoy what they brought, which certainly didn’t seem watered down at all.

Not So Highlights:
- Pamphlets on the Strip. While mildly entertaining at first, I tired of people slapping pamphlets for hookers at me. Becca expressed disbelief at the fellows trying to hand her the flyers; I reminded her that SHE didn’t have a girl on her arm already, clearly she was in more need of them than I was.
- Smoking. I haven’t seen so many people smoking in public since before the ban in Columbus. Gah. I had a two shower per day habit while in Vegas, simply to keep the patina of smoke-funk off.
- Prices. Most bars I know of don’t charge you for water. In Vegas, we got charged over $3 for a glass of soda water with a twist of lime.
- Stupid injuries. I don’t know what I did, but my legs hurt the entire time I was there. Also, over the course of 2 days, I bit the royal hell out of my right lower lip on four separate occasions. Damnit.
- Opening night reception. The reception was at the Tao, which was pretty nice, but unfortunately, the event was supposed to be spreado ut across the entire pool deck. Due to unforeseen issues, we were confined to the Tao. Something like 4,000 people. It was utter insanity and they were ultimately unprepared for the contingency.
- The hotel’s wifi was not free. Even goddamn Best Western has free wifi nowadays.

Overall, a good time was had, the weather was nice, and I learned some stuff. Vegas was certainly an interesting place to visit, but (all together now) I wouldn’t want to live there.

E

While biding our 4-hour wait in the Las Vegas airport for our return flight, we played two games of Scrabble. Although I did not get photos of the final boards (as is my wont) I did want to make note of the play which undoubtedly won the first game for me, which was when “RA_IOLIS” fell into my tray and played magnificently with a V on the board.

E

Maybe 30 years ago, my maternal grandmother took nuclear iodine on the advice of her doctors, to help with her hyper thyroid gland. When they helped her with this decision, they advised that maybe 25 years down the down, she might have kidney problems. Almost 25 years to the day later, her kidneys pretty much up and gave out, and she was diagnosed with (I think) CKD. For the last few years she has been going to dialysis. My most recent memories of her were seeing her at my cousin Cory’s graduation party, and before that, helping her to move into her assisted living apartment.

This past week had been a particularly hard one for her, and due to her lack of cooperation, she was temporarily placed in a nursing home for 3 days, because she needed greater care. After this, my parents moved her back to her apartment.

Wednesday night, around 5 in the morning, she was evidently doing something in the kitchen when she fell and broke her hip. I do not know the exact details of the next expanse of time, but it resulted in her being flown to St. Vincent’s in Toledo, since Tiffin lacked the proper dialysis machines to maintain her and prep for surgery. By the time she arrived in Toledo, she was incoherent, dazed. She didn’t recognize anyone. Her dialysis was not going well either. Between then and today, the doctors advised my mother and father that her chances of surviving surgery were negligible, and even if she did, there was no guarantee she would ever recognize anyone again. I do not know what manner of brain scans could back this up. I have not been privvy to all of the details. But this afternoon, my father called me to let me know that they were deciding to take her off dialysis and let nature take its course, as it were.

And so it came to pass that Opal Faye Little, my mawmaw, went to sleep, slipped into a coma, and passed away on Leap Day, 2008, at 10:30 pm.

-E