Back in Seattle from what has become my semiannual trip to Vegas. I took the day off to ease the transition out of the hyperarticulated Vegas reality, and it’s proving to be a wise decision. Context switches of this magnitude need to be taken slowly.

I went with the same group of old college friends from my February trip. We’re pretty geographically distributed now, so answering the casual “So, where are you guys from” question is a little bit complex. The full answer is “Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Madison, Wisconsin” but that usually gets condensed down into a simple “all over”. Given the routes that we’ve all taken since school, we don’t really get to see each other very much – Vegas provides the perfect excuse to get back together again. Seeing all of them again is a good reminder that although we live in different places now, the important stuff doesn’t really change.

Thanks to my friend Meghan, who has what can only be described as “the hook up”, we stayed at Paris this time instead of Bally’s. It’s a great hotel – the rooms are nice, the atmosphere is great, and the staff is wonderful – but the best thing about Paris is the location. It’s right in the middle of the strip, so it’s a great “home base” for various excursions throughout the weekend.

Friday night we had tickets to the new show at Paris, We Will Rock You. This show is what happens when you take Queen’s greatest hits, wrap a loosely constructed quasi-futuristic plotline around it and turn it into a Broadway show – very much Queen’s answer to Abba’s Mamma Mia. I was a little skeptical when Mike suggested this one, but it turned out to be really good! You can’t argue with music, and the show had a great blend of humorous dialogue and fantastic production value that made it a really solid show. If you like Queen’s music, you can’t go wrong with this show.

Of course, we spent some time at the tables too – overall, I did OK. For me, when it comes to Vegas gambling, it’s not so much about actual wins or losses as it is about tracking to plan. I played all weekend and managed to come in under budget, so that’s a win in my book. One minor highlight: I introduced a couple of my friend to craps at the Mirage, and we all managed to walk away from that table up about 200 bucks a piece. Not bad for their first roll! Blackjack, though, was less kind to me – Rhonda, the pagan goddess of Dealing Me 13 On Every Freaking Hand, was looking in my direction most of time and the results were not so good. But it was all in good fun – no harm, no foul.

In short, good times were had by all.