It’s been more than a week since the Las Vegas attack. Locals and regular visitors have been on an emotional roller coaster. Some days are better than others.
I’m certainly in that camp. I’ve been working on trying to get life back to normal. I took several days off from writing because I was uninspired. It was hard to be motivated to do much of anything last week.
What my wife and I did to try to get life back to normal
The first thing I did on the road to recovery was going back to where I was when I found out the news. That was Plaza in downtown Las Vegas. I arrived on Tuesday night at about the same time I left on Sunday night. I wanted to have a normal night. I wanted to leave on my terms.
Several Plaza employees came up to me to talk about the attack. I was told that I just missed the SWAT securing the property. The theory was that they were protecting the bus station.
My night ended uneventfully. I went home around 3am. I got a good night’s sleep. Wednesday was the day before my 15th anniversary. My wife and I weren’t up for celebrating it. We had a quiet dinner at Salvatore’s at Suncoast and did nothing on our anniversary.
My wife and I decided to get out of town for the weekend. We went to Laughlin. I had a comp from Tropicana there. It included $50 in free play, $30 in meals and a free hotel room.
I’ve been getting those mailers for 18 months since I had a big handle on video Ultimate Texas Hold’em. They no longer had that game or even the live version. We couldn’t find anything playable so we didn’t gamble beyond clearing the free play.
We went to a comedy show featuring one of our favorite headliners, Adam Hunter. He was great, as was the host Jonathan Gregory. Tickets to the show were only $15. Drinks were $6 or $7. It was a good deal based on Las Vegas pricing. We definitely needed a good laugh.
We ended up going to a lounge at Tropicana afterwards. There was a live band. It was nothing exciting, but all we wanted was a relaxing night.
Visiting Mandalay Bay
I decided that it was time to visit the Strip. I did that on Tuesday of this week. I drove north to New York New York from the Beltway. There are two memorials along the way. One is at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. The other is in the median at the traffic signal in front of Luxor. There are billboards along the way saying things like “Vegas Brave” and “Vegas Strong.”
I played a little bit at New York New York before driving back south to Mandalay Bay. I played some Ultimate X Bonus Streak and did some research about an article I’m writing about the shooter’s gambling. That will be out in the next day or so.
Get out of town, get some exercise, hang out with friends, get a pet, do something
It’s important to not sit around the house thinking about the Las Vegas attack. Take a road trip. It doesn’t have to be long. There are some small towns up US 95 or ghost towns if that’s your thing. This is a good time of the year to go to Death Valley. Laughlin is a quiet casino town that’s only an hour or so south of Las Vegas.
Get some exercise. Take a walk around the park. Walk the dog more often. Take a bike ride. Go out with friends to the bar or to Red Rock Canyon. Don’t have a pet? Adopt one from the animal foundation or go to a dog park. Who knows who you’ll meet. Sitting around the house isn’t the answer.
Several people have taken me up on my offer to exchange emails about what’s going on in their mind about the incident. This invitation is open to anyone and I promise that it is anonymous. My email is [email protected].
