Vegas is different viewed from the Strip

Since the Saturn was in Minnesota and I would have had no easy way to make my way from home to the partner meeting daily, my partners were kind enough to put me up at the Aria for the event. What a great resort the City Center is overall. The view from the room is to die for, and the mile walk to get anywhere provides great exercise!

I got in the day before the meeting and strolled as much of the strip as I could, taking in the kinds of touristy things you never do as a resident. I had a nice buffet breakfast in the shadow of the new High Roller observation wheel. I marveled at how much the skyline of the Strip had changed over the last 5 years – in many ways, I didn’t recognize my own city, it was so beautiful and yet cosmopolitan.

However, then I would come across things that would bring me back to reality and remind me that I was back in the city where what happens here, stays here!

The part of my visit that was not wrapped up in the Partner Meeting seemed to turn into a series of “Seconds” for me. When we were college age, my brother and I visited Vegas with our Mom and Grandmas. As we strolled the Strip back then in front of Bally’s (then it was the old MGM Grand), we were propositioned by a very attractive “working girl” – right in front of our Mom and Grandmas! Well, some 40 years later I finally managed to get propositioned by another very attractive “working girl” on the Las Vegas Strip, interestingly enough in front of Bally’s again – but this time it didn’t end up working so well for her!

On that same trip 40 years ago, I got my first ever royal flush on a video poker machine – again at Bally’s. My brother Jerry and I had been active late into the evening – it was like 4AM and we had a flight back home at 8AM – so we just decided we would snooze on the plane instead of heading back to the room. After a while the cash outflow seemed too much, so I just started putting one quarter into the machines, and of course, that is when I got the royal – I managed to win a whopping $62.50! When you hit a royal, the machine doesn’t pay, even a small amount like $62.50 – the machine just flashes and makes tremendous noise, and you have to be paid by the casino staff, which takes forever. Everyone who walked by congratulated me, then chided me when they saw I only had one quarter in the machine. Well 40 years made me a bit smarter. Now I can cross another thing off my bucket list – I finally have earned a Form 1099-G!

I did experience a couple of firsts as well. I completed my first 5K when most of the McGladrey Partner Meeting attendees raised $150,000 for Three Square, a local charity with the mission of eliminating hunger in the community. Not only did I do my first 5K (I will admit, I walked rather than ran), but I learned how to switch the camera on my phone so I could do a selfie!

But then, being technology challenged as my age of 62 brings on, I thought I had switched my phone back to its regular camera lens. Later I learned that I had a bunch of accidental selfies on my phone instead.

The Partner Meeting was spectacular. I got to network with dozens of folk that I worked with for over 34 years. McGladrey is celebrating its 90^th anniversary this year, so there were a lot of high profile things going on. Celebrating was the theme, and I did as much as I could manage.

On my way back I was reminded again how much of a technology dinosaur I am. This is the Delta waiting lounge in the Minneapolis airport. The entire waiting area is equipped with IPad’s – as you await your flight, you can surf the web, get e:mail, whatever you want. But, you can also order food and beverages, and someone from the nearby restaurants and bars will deliver them. If only I could figure out how to make it work!

Talk to you soon!