I Thought This Weekend Was Supposed To Be Fun

This is Wes Louie again. Yes two posts in a row! We are saying good-bye to Jeff, Ruben, Katya, Hayley, Kara, Alain and the crew today. Although these people are some of my best friends, I couldn't be happier to see them go. Aside from a few fun experiences throughout the weekend, the weekend was full of misery. On the bright side, we did experience the MGM pool which was absolute madness and we finally dined at Carnevino. Although the pool and Carnevino were amazing, that still did not negate the misery which I encountered over these past few nights. I wish I could blame a prostitute for giving me a horrid STD, or an asian blackjack dealer for taking hundreds of dollars off me, or perhaps a disgusting stripper who forced cocaine upon me, but sadly none of that took place, all of my blame is able to be directed towards one person, and one person only. (side note Scott just made me breakfast in bed, no homo)

But who wants to be negative, lets stay positive for the time being. The Payton crew and the Alain's bachelor party crew gave Vegas quite a bit to be excited about. I saw Alain three straight nights, and can't say I ever hung out with him sober. Alain was drunk the entire weekend rambling off phrases such as "i'm too excited to sleep!" or "we're in Vegas baby!". He even attempted to get on stage at the comedy show we attended at Harrah's to tell a joke or two of us. Much to our disappointment, he never made it. The comedy show however was a great time because everyone from Seattle was able to make it out to enjoy the humor and good company.

The following morning Remmy (Ryan Martin) joined us in Vegas for his first time in the desert. We immediately made out way to MGM to join the Payton crew at the pool. At Vdara, we have a great pool, very exclusive, peaceful and elegant. The MGM scene however was a bit more, how do I say it, Cabo-esque. There were beautiful girls in bikinis everywhere you looked. They were Ronnie wanna-bes surrounding every beautiful girl you saw. And quite possibly the best thing I saw, were people buying $35 buckets of beers (6) pouring the beers over girls in the pool. Literally pouring money into the pool. It was like 500 people were on spring break and they all came to this pool to party. I even experienced my first flashing in Vegas thanks to the incredibly drunk girl who gave into the extreme encouragement from the gathering of bros who were poolside. We did however join the party, steal a few innertubes, and ride the river current for a lap or two. We also witnessed a couple girls try to start a dance party and oddly enough, it wasn't Hayley, Katya and Kara.

Staying positive, I'll move to the topic of the Carnevino meal. This was the highlight of the weekend for me not only because of the amazing food, but because of the fact that we had everyone together for a nice dinner of good company, great food, great service, and some wildly inappropriate conversation. I want to preface this meal description with Carnevino gave us the best service I have ever received. The restaurant is located in the Palazzo and if you ever have a chance to dine here, I strongly suggest you do not waste that opportunity. Our meal started with complimentary appetizers which were a lightly fried blend of cheeses. Followed by rosemary bread with our choice of spreads was incredible. The bread alone was delicious but when paired with the pork lard spread they offered, it was hands down the best bread/roll I've ever experienced. We also decided to split three of their pasta appetizers as more of a tasting due to the fact that we knew the portions would be small. We sampled black fettucine (crab, jalapenos, shallots), spago (spaghetti with lamb ragu), and ravioli di stracotto (duck livers and acero balsamico). All three dishes offered me flavors I had never experienced before. The black fettucine offered a rich flavor with a light after taste which I loved. However my personal favorite was the spago because of the surprisingly rich flavor. The highlight of the meal however was the bone-in ribeye. I'm sure some of you have heard me rave about this meal before but it couldn't hurt to reiterate just how much hype this steak has to it. Men's Health's food critic labeled this steak one of the best in the country if not the best. Carnevino has it's own dry aging facility 10 miles off the strip so the restaurant is caring for the meat they serve from the get go with no middle man. They server informs us that upon ordering this menu item, that it will take about 45 minutes to prepare. As most of you know, when I am hungry, I do not like to wait. Perhaps this is where you think my misery for the weekend will begin but you're wrong. This 45 minute wait for my bone-in ribeye was worth every second. The mouthwatering steak sprinkled with sea salt and drizzled with Carnevino's olive oil was even more beautiful than I had remembered. The medium rare thing of beauty placed in front of me brought my teammate near tears. The $65 steak must be ordered for two and with Jeff as my partner, I had hyped this steak up for the past 6 months. I had told him it would be the best steak he would ever had. I told him it was the best food hands down I have ever had. I told him it would blow his mind and change his view of steaks forever. Upon his first bite, the released a sigh of ecstasy that only a Carnevino steak can do. When I asked him if I had over hyped the steak, which i feared, he confirmed that all my statements were indeed accurate. With the wonderfully seasoned tender steak also came perfectly marbled fat. Jeff can tell you himself, the fat added amazing flavor to the meal. Kara even described it as "a taste of Heaven". With the amazing food, obviously great company, and wildly inappropriate conversation, it was a perfect way for Payton to say goodbye to Vegas. The wildly inappropriate conversation you may be curious about will be left to the imagination. Keep in mind it was Hayley, Kara, Katya, Wald, Scott, Remmy, Ruben and myself around a table for about 2.5 hours after being in Vegas for 3 days...oh the possibilities!

That concludes the enjoyable part of the weekend.

On to the misery that destroyed the weekend. As most of you are aware, there are 3 of us staying in the room and we have agreed to rotate sleeping arrangements. We have 2 people in the king and 1 person sleeping on the air mattress (adjacent to the bed) on any given night. However, for the past 3 nights, I haven't slept in either place once. For the past 3 nights, I haven't been able to return to my room until after 4am. As a result of such things, I was forced to do other things to entertain myself until I was able to go to sleep. Imagine paying a large chunk of change for a place to sleep and stay in the desert, and not being able to sleep there when you want. Sounds pretty awful right? Weeeeell I'm not quite finished. Because this gave me an extra couple hours a night to entertain myself, I found myself grinding the Aria 1/3 poker game. The quality of the average player is poor. So poor that they explain their logic outloud and attempt to spout off statistics to sound intelligent. In my haggard sleep deprived state, Im not able to exercise restraint and begin to combat all the statements made by these re-tards. To give you a better idea of how haggard I got on these bonus unwanted poker sessions, I believe it is Miley Cirus' song about the USA or something...I was so haggard from being around these bafoons, and losing to these bafoons mind you, I began to sing along. So picture this, here I am, 4 in the morning, I'm collapsed on a poker table, losing to people who I don't respect and am making fun of (but they're so dumb they don't realize I am), as I sing along to Miley Cirus. If that isn't misery I don't know what is. To add to the misery, by the time I am able to return to the room, I don't get to sleep in the bed or the air mattress, I am reduced to sleep on a queen size pull out bed with Scottie. I forgot to mention this but Scott did in fact share in all the misery I did because he wasn't able to return to the room either. So by the time we return to the room, we are forced to sleep in a queen size pull out bed where you can feel the individual springs beneath you. I have woken up the past 3 days in physical pain. Lucky for me this morning was only my back and jaw that hurt. Did I get punched in the face or run into something? No, that would make perfect sense though for my jaw hurting. But instead, the only answer I have for why my jaw hurts is because I slept on the damn sofa bed again! I am laying on the sofa bed as a write this and it angers me with every minute I continue to lay here. Aside from being sleep deprived, stuck at the poker game, and being haggard enough to sing that awful song in public, my misery continues into the morning where I woke up in pain.

I plan to stay away from alcohol for the rest of this trip unless it is to drink with Colin Perez or Jake Schweikl. Anything that happens with those 2 I am on board and will be pumped to create madness. However, with the weekend I just had, I don't want to drink anymore, I hate Vegas and I just want to sit on the magical couch.

Something I did miss, Jeff Ko put on a show at the Aria buffet. I managed to sneak in for free but for others it was $38. Jeff ate more crab than i knew a man could. Wald and myself, both Vegas buffet regs, declared Jeff's performance one of the most impressive we have ever seen. Props to my boy doing work and showing Vegas how Seattle rolls.

Until next time guys, remember, being a good wing man is one thing, biting the bullet is another, if you have to consistently bite bullets to be a good wing man, you may want to find yourself another wing to man