Current Location: Redwood City, CA
Current Weather:68F, In Vegas…94F
Current Reads: PokerNews.com, Tao of Poker, Jay Greenspan’s WSOP reports, and GavinLIVE
What I’m listening to: Phil Gordon’s Podcasts
Movies this week: Star Wars
Days in Vegas since the move: 62
Days since the World Series of Poker started: 14
Number of poker players I know that won more than $1 million in the last month: 1
Repetoire of casino games I now know how to play: Craps, Hold’em Poker, Pai Gow, Baccarat, Let it Ride, and the dreaded BlackJack.
Funnest game besides craps: Pai Gow
Days since I’ve played Pai Gow: Possibly since my birthday weekend
Cheapest price of unleaded gas I’ve found: $2.17
Number of restaurants I’ve been to in the last week: 4 that I can remember.
Number of times I was hit on in the last three days: 3
Weirdest of the three: You decide…
- Losing poker player crossing my path at the WSOP, saying I look familiar, then checking my ring finger and telling me women without wedding rings are trouble….returning to his game…then leaving his seat to come tell me that if I’m not beating them off with a stick I really need to give nice guys like him a chance.”
- Blonde girl excitedly yelling at me from her SUV in traffic…telling me to roll down the window of my 15 yr old Volvo clunker, and asking me if I were single. Wasn’t sure if it was for her or for her drunk brother in the car
- Poker writer sniffing my shoulder but pretending not to
Number times I’ve started to wear my fake engagement ring but didn’t because I was too embarrassed at how big and fake it is: 3
Thoughts that I really need to start taking notes for the Vegas memoir: 2/day
Biggest worry from last month about new memoir: I need to have sex in order for it to be a good book
Biggest worry about memoir now: What the hell is going to be about if I’m not fooling around with a variety of players and haven’t mastered reporting on poker hands
2nd biggest worry about new memoir:I’ll have a great Summer and won’t take the time to write it up
Thing that is bothering me the most that has nothing to do with the memoir: I haven’t started podcasting at the WSOP
Thing that’s bothering me even more than that now that I think about it: Not keeping in better contact with some of my best friends from college and high school
Number of projects I’m currently working on: 6-7
Number of really cool projects potentially out there for me if I weren’t so busy already: 1
Number of times I’ve seen a psychic at the Palms since moving to Vegas: 1
Credibility I gave that psychic: 0
Number of visitors I’ll see this week: 4
Number of friends that have come to town that I’ve missed seeing: 3
Requests I’ve received to jump out of a cake at a bachelor party 1
Thing I’m most looking forward to this week: Area 51s Minor League Baseball Game on Monday night
2nd best thing I’m looking forward to this week: Watching my Canadian poker player friends have their crack at the World Series of Poker!
Number of Canadian poker players I’ve met in the past year: 7
Latest I’ve ever stayed out and came home: 5 a.m.
Oh yeah, writing…Number of Magazines I had an article in this month: 1 (June issue of Audrey)
Number of Magazine dept pieces I have coming out in September: 1 (Playboy)
Number of magazine pitches I sent out this week: 1
Number of pitches I’m working on right now and figuring out where to send them to: 2
Number of poker magazines I’m trying to write for: 2
Number of poker websites asking me to write for them: 1
Number of poker website directors wondering why I’m not trying to write for them: 1
Number of magazines already lined up to do an interview of me for Thong: 1
Last Trip: Australia
Next Trip: Paris
What are you up to?
Oh wait, I played Pai Gow at the Mirage on Tuesday, I think. Scratch that about not in three weeks…wasn’t a big deal though, only won $10.
Current location: Minneapolis, MN
Current weather: 85 and sunny
Current reads: Back issues of all the travel magazines my articles have appeared in while I was on the road. And nine months of Rolling Stones.
What I’m listening to: Minneapolis’ new public radio station 89.3 The Current.
Movies this week: “Batman Begins”
Days since returning to Minneapolis: six
Pounds gained since returning home: zero
Pounds lost during intense travel during Asia’s hot season: 15, maybe more
Pounds lost after I became worried I was getting too thin: four
Number of people who think I picked up a tape worm: 13
Number of times I was told I look like David Beckham during five months in Asia: 187
Number of times I have been told that I look like David Beckham since I returned to the US: 0
Number of people who laughed uncontrollably, sometime choking and ejecting liquids out of their noses when told that Asian’s think I look like David Beckham: seven
Number of times that I almost swerved into the left lane while driving because I couldn’t remember what side we drive on here in the US: one
Number of other instances of reverse culture shock that have nearly gotten me in legal trouble or killed: two
Number of days until I fly back to Europe to start editing, drink cheap wine and continue to ignore that travel writing pays diddly: 27
Number of people in the past week who said they wish they had my life: five
Number of women that I impressed by whipping out my wallet and producing leftover money from Thailand, Hong Kong and Myanmar while trying to piece together $4.50 to buy myself a cider: three
Number of those women who departed when I had to borrow 50 cents to pay for my cider: three
Duration of last trip: eight months
Countries visited: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Hong Kong, Japan.
Number of weeks I chopped off my itinerary because of exhaustion, troubling weight loss and travel apathy: five
Countries I missed due to going home early: Vietnam and Cambodia
Duration of next trip: significantly shorter
Countries to visit: a reasonable tour through Eastern Europe, in several stages if necessary.
Trip will commence: No plan. Possibly spring 2006.
Next
Leif! GREAT to hear from you! Loved these stats. Welcome home, though it’s not quite anymore…is it?
Keep writing and stay in touch.
Okay, I’m a little late with these, but since I recently returned from a quick trip to Vegas, I thought I’d share my own Vegas stats:
Current location: Baltimore, MD
Current Weather: Cool, in the 60’s
Current Reads: tons of email & Bloglines posts, May and June Budget Travel mags
What I’m listening to: Missy Higgins
Movies this week: Be Cool and Hitch
Times I’ve been to Vegas: 2 (First: July 4th weekend, 2003; Second: June 9-13, 2005)
Where I stayed in 2003: MGM Grand
Where I stayed in 2005: THEhotel at Mandalay Bay (they wax the floor with vanilla, I swear)
Where we ate: outdoor cafe at The Beach/Wave Pool at Mandalay Bay, Fiamma (MGM), JJ’s Boulangerie (Paris)
Best meal: 4 am breakfast at the Raffles Cafe (could have been anywhere, watching friends gamble made me very hungry)
First drink: Amstel Light at JFK before departing for Vegas
Earliest drink: Strawberry daquiri at the Beach at Mandalay Bay on Friday morning around 10 am
Best drink: the mojitos at Parasol Up/Parasol Down bar in the Wynn (they have lavender and strawberry, so good)
Where we partied: Voodoo Lounge at the top of the Rio (the view was worth the $20 cover), and the piano bar in the NY NY (where I was happy to make sure the piano players called up and embarassed my bachelorette friend who we were celebrating on the trip)
Number of spa treatments: two (25 minute massage and 30 min eucylyptus body wrap at Spa Mandalay)
Number of casinos I visited: 14 (We walked the strip on Sunday after checking out of our hotel, with 10 hours left till our red eye flight back to the east coast)
Number of casinos I gambled in: two
Money I lost gambling: $44.00 (including a $3 long shot bet on the Belmont Stakes race)
Money I won gambling: $16.00
What I played: Roulette and Wheel of Fortune slot machine (just once, I really don’t like the slots)
What I wished I had played: Blackjack
What I need to learn how to play: POKER!!! and Craps
How much more money I would have gambled if I had had more cash to play with: $121.00 (my birthday money, in checks from the fam, which I – foolishly? – did not cash)
Number of days I sat baking in the sun at the Mandalay Bay Beach wave pool: two
Examples of the words I saw pasted to bikini asses at the Beach wave pool: Abercrombie, Juicy, South Beach
Number of Vegas brides I saw: at least ten
Number of hot men I saw in Vegas: too many to remember
Number of hot men I met and actually spoke with in Vegas: none (I chatted with some cuties, but no genuine HOTTIES)
Number of foreign men I talked to: 2 Canadians from Toronto and a bucketload of Brits, including Simon from Leeds
Number of foreign men I met last time I was in Vegas: 2 Australians
Number of foreign men I met in Vegas that could potentially become my boyfriend after this trip: none
Number of foreign men that I met in Vegas that did become my boyfriend after my last trip: one
Number of men, foreign or not, that are currently my boyfriend in Vegas or elsewhere: none
What time I landed in Vegas: 12:30 something AM on the 9th (did not sleep on the plane, too excited)
What time I left Vegas: 12:30 something AM on the 13th (took a Tylenol PM and slept like a baby)
Best thing about flying Delta Song: the fun trivia game you can play against other passengers during the flight
Best Vegas trivia I learned from a local cabbie: The Venetian is the only hotel on the Strip with a street address displayed out front of the hotel — #3355 Las Vegas Boulevard
Number of times I got to watch some WSOP: none
Number of times I got to see Jen: none 🙁
Next trip: San Diego in August (maybe a stop over in Vegas will be required?!)
Not quite home anymore? Sister you don’t even want to know. Reverse culture shock is kicking my ass. Worse than last time. I’m self-medicating with food, sleep, juggling and “The Simpsons.” When I get settled later this summer I’m gonna finally teach myself the business end of this travel writing whats-its in the hopes of getting paid. I’ll be a fixture here. You have been warned.