Vegas

So I’m in Las Vegas right now, pretending to be a salesperson for our Point of Sale software at Pizza Expo in the Las Vegas Convention Center.  (Mostly I’m making sure that the technology in our booth is working, and answering the more technical questions about our software.)  It has been a little while since I was here except to drive through on my way to somewhere else, so there were a few things I had forgotten (or more likely, mentally blocked) about the Las Vegas experience.

• I hate the smell of cigarette smoke.  It fills every casino, hotel room, and even the out-of-doors up and down The Strip. 
• There is too much flesh showing, no matter where you look.
• Sex-related businesses are way too prevalent.
• You never get enough sleep when staying in Vegas.
• The idea of business conventions is more exciting than actually attending one.
• Since it’s normally so hot here, casinos like to make their own “outside” by making walkways look like streets, and by painting the ceiling to look like the sky.  We went to a restaurant tonight and they asked us if we wanted to eat inside or outside… and by outside, they really meant next to the indoor hallway, not actually outside.
• The Strip should be renamed to “Way too much excess of everything.”
• I’ve heard way too much of the Key of C Major (the music played by slot and other gaming machines is in the key of C to avoid unharmonious musical nightmares).
• Casinos are designed to intentionally make you get lost and walk in circles.
• Affordable hotel rooms are disgusting.
• No matter why you come to Vegas, you always leave with sore feet.  If you come as a tourist, it’s from walking.  If you come to a convention, it’s from standing.

On the up side, it looks like we might come away with some good, interested candidates for customers.  And the weather has been atypically cool, so we don’t bake every time we walk outside.  I actually needed a jacket today.