My birthday is in October. This past October, my son Matt and his wife Melissa gave me two tickets to see Nate Bargatze in Las Vegas at the end of January. Their thought was that I would go with my other son, Brett, who lives in Vegas. But he is on a trip to Jamaica with his husband, Brendon. They offered to let me stay at their beautiful home while they are gone. My friend, Linda, agreed to come with me to Vegas for this adventure. It takes about 3 1/2 hours to get to Vegas from my home. Our first stop was at Eddie World, located in the middle of nowhere and visible from a mile away by it large ice cream dish.
We made a pit stop. This is the sign inside every stall of the bathroom.
It felt like a mandate to peruse the aisles and aisles of candy. I got some Jedidiah Jerky. I'm not a huge jerky fan but if you ever drive by Eddie World it is worth a stop. You will be shocked by the price but it truly is worth it. Loaded up with snacks we got back on the road.
We stopped in Baker for lunch. I had never been to the Mad Greek, which is the strangest fast food restaurant to find in the desert....actually anywhere.
On the ride Linda introduced me to the Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Forte and Seth Hayes. We heard them interview James McAvoy. It was fascinating as they talked about what it takes to act and what kind of actors they admire. It had a bit of a "bro" vibe as they talked about their addiction to gaming. When it was done I told Linda I had always intended to listen to the Handsome podcast with Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin. We picked the episode that it mentioned Melissa Etheridge. It was not what we expected. They chatted with each other, did Taro cards, reminisced about driving motorcycles, etc. We kept wondering when they were going to bring on their guest, Melissa Etheridge. Towards the end of the podcast they played a recording of a question Etheridge had sent them: "To what song do you like to get it on?" That is when it took a turn! I learned more about Mae Martin than I was prepared to learn. Tig Notaro and Melissa Etheridge agree. Best get it on music is by Sade.
We arrived at my son's home in the middle of the afternoon. We got settled. I had asked Linda to teach me how to gamble. I grew up with parents who thought even returning the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes was gambling because it cost you a stamp. Linda taught me Blackjack, Texas Hold'em, traditional Poker and Three Card Poker. She also explained Roulette. I am far from confident enough to play any of them but she assured me that I can play some of those games at a machine rather than at a table.
We had a reservation for dinner at Spring by China MaMa. When I made the reservation I was surprised that they were almost fully booked on a Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. I had forgotten that I was trying to get a reservation at a Chinese restaurant on Lunar New Year. I'm just a fan of China Mama. We were given four menus to peruse, one in Chinese in celebration of the New Year. We ordered their signature fried prawns and an eggplant dish. Both were outstanding.
We headed over to Wynn to park and find our way to the Encore Theater for Nate Bargatze. The Wynn is one of the most expensive/nicest casino/resorts on the strip. You can easily pay around $2000 a night to stay in a suite at the Wynn. It was quite a walk from the parking garage to the theater but walking through a casino on the Vegas Strip is always fascinating. We had time to kill so Linda demonstrated how to play her favorite slot machine. She was ahead when it was time to head into the show.
The show began with three comedians: Dustin Nickerson, Graham Kay and Nick Thune. Nick Thune looks quite a bit like the Caucasian image of Jesus. He game out dressed in white, carrying a guitar and started by saying, "I bet I look familiar from your prayers." (A Nate Bargatze crowd is 99.9% white, by the way.) Then Nate Bargatze came out and did a solid hour of stand up. He was great. It is obvious he is trying out some new material. He did a bit about he and his wife in couple's therapy. At one point he had to stop and get out his phone and make sure he remembered it all. He ended by reading a text chain between his parents, his siblings and himself. It was quite entertaining and outrageous. I left wondering if it was really a text chain from his family. If so, it would be interesting to sit at their Thanksgiving table. We laughed a lot and were very grateful to be gifted this evening.
We headed back to the slots only to both lose money. Don't worry. Neither of us are big gamblers. We wound our way back to the car and back to Brett and Brendon's home. We went straight to bed.
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