LV: Craps

My Vegas Baby trip is coming to an end. Had a WONDERFUL dinner tonight at Hugo's Cellar in the Four Queens casino. Very classy and old school: low ceilings, brick-lined walls, a TON of waiters and busboys (all male, I might add). I had the duck flambeed table side. Each dinner includes a salad with numerous custom-made made-at-table side accompaniments, a lemon sorbet between courses (to cleanse the palate, of course) and a selection of special small deserts: black figs, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and something I can't remember. Had a wonderful Napa Valley Cab from Meyer Vineyards which I know nothing about and must check out. Finished with a glass of port. Yes, life is GOOD.

Ah, Vegas. It's all about excess, as the duck flambeed table side shows. Here, anything is possible...and that means both good and bad, from bluffing and winning a pot with AK when the flop comes 10-rag-rag to getting shanked in the kidney from a local down to his last 50 cents. LV, in other words, is about not just being in some Eckhart Tolle-ish moment, but living in the moment, excess--however temporary---and all. I get ready to leave Vegas not with regret or despair or hope or fame or money but rather with gratitude....that for several days I was truly alive, playing poker, and enjoying wonderful meals, in moments one after another when anything truly was---is---possible.