Antonio Lopez
Professor Rogers
English 1A
18 September 2012

Viva Las Vegas!

“Vegas baby, Vegas!” was the first thing that burst into my mind after watching “Swingers” an old Hollywood movie. My 22nd birthday was just around the corner, and all I wanted was to go to Las Vegas, just like the actors in the movie. My plan was to convince my brother and buddy Ross to go with me, so later that afternoon I was sitting inside my car listening to music, waiting for my brother to arrive from work to share my brilliant idea to him. Just after my brother arrived home, the first thing I discussed with him was the idea of going to Las Vegas for my birthday. The reaction on his face said it all; he had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen in my entire life; it reminded me of the Joker from Batman. After talking about the trip, my brother didn’t even think twice about it, he immediately said “I’m so down Bro!”

         “Great buddy, we leave in two weeks!” “One thing we have to remember is, Las Vegas sure is the place to party it up, but don’t be discourage by the drama that comes along with that popular city”

Later that afternoon, I met my buddy Ross at a local bar in town. We ordered a few beers, and began talking about the trip. Ross didn’t get as excited as my brother did, he said that he was low on money and that work was going to get in the way of the trip. For the next few minutes Ross and I began looking at possible solutions for him to come with us; this was the ultimate chance to make our dream come true (Visit Las Vegas). My mind started racing a thousand miles per hour trying to come up with a solution for Ross to go with us. After a while, the light bulb above my head lit up, I offered to pay for all of Ross’s hotel expenses. The only thing Ross had to do was figure out how to get the days off from work.  Consequently, Ross agreed with the offer and immediately began making arrangements to get the days off of work.

The next 24 hours were busy for me, researching looking for the best offer for hotels in Las Vegas. I other words, I wasn’t looking forward to spend my birthday vacation on a cheap hotel, with prostitutes, drug activity, and transients; on the contrary, I was looking for the best hotel and casino in Las Vegas. After comparing prices between Caesars Palace and the Bellagio, I ended up booking a room in one of the most expensive casino in Las Vegas, The Bellagio. Finally the day arrived, Ross, my brother, and I were ready and nothing was going to stop us. We threw our bags in the trunk of my brother’s 2002 Black Mustang GT, hopped in like maniacs, and hit the open road. The sound of the roaring exhaust and the vibrations didn’t bother me at all; I had my mind set in Las Vegas.

The trip was exhausting but worth it, we spent about nine hours on the road. The only thing I remember was looking at mountains, deserts and the never ending road. We managed to make the trip as fun as possible by sharing stories from our childhood and cracking jokes. However that didn’t last long, I decided to take a nap, hoping that when I opened my eyes I was in “Sin City”.

After waking up, it was a brand new day, it was actually my birthday. My brother and Ross congratulated me and told me that we were only a few minutes away. “Vegas baby, Vegas!” I repeated twice in a whispering voice. I was stoked that we were fairly closed to our destination. There it was “Las Vegas”, just like I had pictured it in my head, Casinos everywhere, nice expensive cars, and nice weather. When we arrived to the hotel, I began looking everywhere around me, The Bellagio’s fountains, taxis, and heavy traffic. The view inside our room was amazing; staring at the big casinos in front of the window was unbelievable. Once we got settled in, I opened a bottle of Corona, my excitement went beyond anything. After enjoying that cold Corona, my brother and I decided to count how much money we had, the last thing we wanted was going over our budget. Ross decided that he was going to sleep; my brother and I decided to go down stairs and gamble. Once we spotted the blackjack tables, we sat down and cashed in with one hundred dollars. Betting twenty five dollars a hand began adding up, in a few minutes I was up two hundred dollars, the smell of money was in the air. I looked over at my brother and winked at him, letting him know that everything was going to be just fine! After a few hours of gambling, we decided to go back to the room to catch some sleep and be ready for the big night ahead of us.

Later that night, the three of us decided to start drinking, and exploring the different casinos on the strip. Las Vegas was amazing, the casinos were full of bright blinking lights, there were people everywhere walking holding their alcoholic beverages and being super loud. One of the things that caught my attention was noticing different nationalities of people walking from one casino to another. There were different people performing outside in the street; Pirate shows and even someone with a “Sponge Bob” costume jumping around like crazy. Across the street, there were cops arresting some idiot that couldn’t handle the alcohol.

As the night grew long, Ross began drinking heavily and commenced getting loud and rude with people walking down the strip. Ross’s behavior killed the good buzz I had built up throughout the night. My brother kept asking me to do something to calm him down; I explained to my brother that his behavior was unusual and out of character. I was confused, the behavior that Ross began adopting wasn’t normal. After noticing that Ross wasn’t going to calm down, I tried talking him down to stop drinking for a few hours; Ross looked at me and with a serious look on his face he told me to “Fuck off!”

What a twist to my birthday night, the way Ross was behaving was nuts. As I tried to ignore Ross, I asked my brother if he wanted to get something to eat, hoping Ross sobered up. Finally we came across a Denny’s; we decided to go inside to grab something to eat. Ross started picking a fight with two guys that were waiting to get seated. The trip went from being a nice birthday vacation to being a “daddy day care”. I knew I had to do something to calm the situation down; I ended up taking Ross outside and began yelling at him. “You need to calm down dude; you’re making an ass out of yourself and your killing the trip for all of us.” “Tony I just want to let you know that you’re a douche bag!” he shouted with a furious voice.

I was so confused, I didn’t know if I was listening correctly, or if the alcohol inside my brain was messing with me. As I turned around to flag my brother down, Ross threw a left hook and hit me right below my right eye; I hit the grown and blacked out for a quick second. When I got up, I stumbled and, he managed to hit me again right in my rib cage. Instantly after the two quick blows, I was able to regain self-control and defend myself. He then charged at me like a mad bull with smoke coming out of his nose, that wasn’t Ross that was a complete psycho. People began shouting and screaming “Stop Fighting” Ross was on top of me trying to hit me, again and again. I managed to block almost all the hits he delivered, at that point I commenced looking for my brother, but he was nowhere to be seen.

A group of guys who happened to be passing by witnessed the fight and jumped in to help me, but it only made it worse, what started as a two man fight now became a rumble? Three guys started punching the living hell out of Ross, the next thing I see is my brother running towards the guys, charging at them as if they were gazelles and he was a frantic lion. It was three vs. three, there was no way in hell I was going to let Ross and my brother get they’re asses kicked, I quickly jumped in to defend my Brother and my “so call” friend. The fight lasted a few minutes, due to police interrupting. All I heard in the background was “Stop Fighting, Get on the ground or you’re going to get tased”

In a matter of seconds we were all cuffed and thrown inside the patrol cars, I didn’t know whether to be angry or sad, I knew I was on deep shit. After the officers got done investigating, they released me. They said they didn’t have anything to charge me with. The officer that arrested me, pulled me to the side after releasing the cuffs and told me “Your friend is under the influence of a powerful psychedelic drug”

There was nothing else to do; I was going to spend the rest of the night figuring out how to get my brother out of jail. It took my brother a few hours to call me; he was ready to get picked up at Clark County Jail. After picking my brother up, we headed back to the hotel and slept for the night. The next morning my brother woke me up and said, “there’s no way I am going to let that shit head kill your birthday trip” By the end of the day I ended up tripling the money that I brought along to spend. As for Ross well, he stayed in jail for a few more days, my brother and I headed back home without him. A few weeks after my amazing birthday experience, Ross called to apologize; I told him that everything was cool, and there were no hard feelings. Las Vegas was certainly the ultimate birthday experience, even after the incidents that happened that night. I guess the old saying “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas!” is true. I never mentioned the incident to any of my family members, but one thing that I learned from my trip to Las Vegas; plan your vacation wisely, because it takes one person to ruin everything.