8/24-8/27 Hangin with the crowds, Gambling in the casino, The Party in AC

Friday at work I left early, I got in a little early, no lunch, and said bye to everyone and headed out just before 2pm. Russ drove me across the street where I headed into the mall to pick up lunch from BK (the Stacker) and then we headed over to the highway and jumped onto the Garden State Parkway. The ride was smooth except for when the road merged, express and local, and then three lanes to two lanes. Eventually we made it down to Atlantic City, pulled onto the local highways and made our way to The Borgata. The newest CD (Ride and G-Groove) was a successful listen and we pulled into the valet at the hotel with no drama. After a short wait (and a quick bathroom visit) we were checked in and IDd before heading to the elevator upstairs. The room was nice and the bathroom was spacious with the glass door shower and separate room for the toilet. The window had a great view of the strip on the boardwalk and there was plenty of space to spread out in the room. After a brief rest and watch of Judge Judy we changed to go to the gym and then worked out. The gym was good, with plenty of machines and was nice and quiet. The music was blasting from the speakers but I ignored it with my ipod. After doing the aerobic workout on the treadmill and the elliptical machine we headed back up to the room. Freshly showered I was ready to go downstairs and check out the casino. The low ceiling and sheer size of the room reminded me of my visits to Bellagio and the Wynn in Vegas. I was impressed with the number of slot machines and friendly crowds around the tables. The wide range of tourists I had seen in Vegas was not in evidence. No crowds of people just passing through. These people all seemed to be here to gamble and a few of their supporters. I promptly lost money in video poker and slot machines but made some back when I put 5 dollars in a slot machine and cashed out $27. Russ had his fun at the Blackjack table and at Caribbean Stud Poker. When he came over to watch me play video poker he promptly won $56 dollars. After leaving the gambling to go to dinner we had an OK dinner at Specchio, nothing to write home about but were satisfied to go out and spend the rest of our evening at Borgata.

Russ headed back to the tables and I headed over to Mur.Mur. I was not used to waiting on line but before I could give up and try the people at Mixx the line moved and I moved closer and then got inside. The place was small but the bartender staff was nice and the music was a good fast moving mix of hip-hop and Pop Rock. I stayed when the music was good and when it took a turn for the worse I headed out and gave a status check to Russ. With my hand stamped I was able to head right back downstairs and dance again. I saw Dave Chapelle hanging out in the DJ booth but after he took a picture with the guy doing the lights. The crowd started to notice he was there and so he headed for the elevator at the back of the club. I headed out to tell Russ and then came back inside one last time to dance before finally heading back up to the room at 3am.

Saturday we woke up and went downstairs to have breakfast at Metro. They were no longer serving breakfast but I was able to use the all day menu and order an omelet and still get some bacon. (I guess the bacon they would use for burgers). After the breakfast we headed down to the jitney and rode over to strip before getting off near Bally's before heading over to the Outlet Mall. We passed through different places but did not really find too much to be happy over. Place after place had prices that were pretty much like no sale department store prices. Finally after turning into the Ecko Outlet store I was pleasantly surprised to see prices that were reasonable ($15 dollars a shirt) for both graphic Tees and short sleeved shirts for work. After picking up some new stuff to wear I caught up with Russ who was able to find a new scent in the Calvin Klein store. I might have bought a $20 shirt there too but was happy with what I had already picked up. After shopping we walked back down to the strip and headed into Ceasar's. After finding the men's room and then picking up something to drink we stopped for a moment outside and looked at the ocean and the beach. Plenty of day trippers and tourists were out and about but we had already fed the shopping bug and so were ready to return to the hotel. Instead of dealing with the hot and stuffy jitney (no A/C?) we jumped into a taxi and headed back in comfort.

After we were back at the hotel we did some more gambling but after a while the stickiness just got to me and I headed up to the room and showered before returning to the casino. I watched Russ gamble some more before he too headed up to the room and cleaned up and I changed clothes to get ready to dinner. Tonight the reservations were for Old Homestead, but we found out after arrival that we should have actually arrived early for our reservation as we had to wait 15 minutes before they were ready to seat us, despite the reservation. After the short wait we headed upstairs to the table and sat down to get our appetizers (I had the steak house salad) and wait some more for the main course (a great filet steak that was cooked just right). Even though we had tickets to see Dave Chapelle and the place opened up at 9:30 there was still plenty of time as we headed to the Event floor for the main event. The place was still filling up and the real show did not start until after 10:45.

The pre-show visuals (James Bond type dancing shadows over moving backgrounds shown on the giant video screens around the room). When it was finally time for the show everyone sat back and really enjoyed the first comedian, the opening act Joe DeRosa was very funny. His bit about gay people having so much fun and then his bit about widespread (sarcastic) prejudice against Egyptians was hilarious. Near the end of his act we also enjoyed his bit about bad sex partners (inappropriate talking and bad faces). When he left the stage to introduce Dave Chapelle the whole audience stood up and applauded Dave's entrance. He started off with a little bit about Leaving the Show on Comedy Central which for him was a good thing. He didn't want to dwell on it however and moved on to funnier topics such as living in Ohio (guns and learning about bullets) and his wife (she is from the Philippines, and his kid ends up Puerto Rican) and said he was glad he no longer lived in the city (getting into fights over a slice of pizza). He ended the show on a more serious note but only because of the urging from the audience to continue his story. He told us about the book PIMP that was written many years ago but explains in a high level overview not just about pimping but the underpinnings of Capitalism. He told us how a pimp actually views his girls as money makers and sizes up all females this way. Taking this into a larger perspective people who run corporations view their employees this same way. I really got what he was saying and took the message to heart. Later on I explained it to Russ. We stayed till the end of the show and watched Mos Def perform his Katrina song before heading back downstairs to get to the casino once again. It was after 1am by the time I was heading over to the club once again.

The line was even longer and the people even more restless but since I was expecting it the line finally moved and I was inside the club ($20 dollars later) once again. The place was even more hectic than the night before but I made my way through to the dance floor and had fun once again. The music had been better the night before but that was just because I was new to what to expect the first time but just settled into the groove the second night. No surprises just fun. I did however have to head back upstairs to get my camera because Dave Chappelle showed up again but I ended up not taking any pictures when I got back. I just was able to meet him in person talk a moment and shake his hand, and wish him a good night. I talked to my bartender and she told me that he was very nice to her also when he had talked to her. When the music changed to something you just could not dance to around 4am I headed back upstairs to the room and turned in for some rest.

Woke up the next morning around 10:30am and got cleaned up and then got all of my stuff ready to head out. I got the car from the valet while Russ checked out and then we were all piled in and ready to head back to NYC. The traffic was good until we got closer to the turn off from the Garden State. The pile of cars made no sense but after we turned off onto 440 and headed for the Outerbridge crossing. Of course there was traffic crossing Staten Island but once were were over the hill and heading past Clove Road it was smoother sailing all the way into BK. Of course expecting nothing in Brooklyn there was crazy construction on the Gowanus so we got off the highway at 25th street and headed up 4th Avenue. After picking up brunch at the bagel place we brought our stuff upstairs and then I settled down for an afternoon of TV and rest while Russ headed up to Westchester to hang with Zach. The afternoon was slow and easy and I fell asleep watching TV before waking up to clean some before I cooked the remainder of the Eggplant Parmigiana for dinner. It was very good. Russ came back and we watched Sunday night sports and HD programming some but Russ was tired and headed to bed early. I stayed up a while myself but went to bed around 1am. The weekend was over but the fun remains.

I look forward to heading to AC again with an even larger group of guys and having more fun away from the city. It was not too divorced from the crowds I'm used to and the people weren't out of control like NY tourists (great security) and staff was nice. But now we look forward to fun in the city. Let's go long weekend .